Sitter to escort patient during smoke breaks.

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Hi all. Just curious about opinions on this topic. A patient safety attendant being assigned to sit with a patient for the sole purpose of escorting them off the unit whenever they please to smoke in the parking lot. This patient has high blood pressure and is receiving IV medication to treat it, but pressures remain very high. The sitter is to walk with the patient, make sure they smoke safely, escort them back to the unit, and sit in the hallway outside their room until the next time they would like to go smoke. Curious on what people think about a sitter being used for this purpose!

9 minutes ago, pat said:

one question is the sitter a CNA or just a person hired to sit with the patient while she smokes

The sitter is a CNA who works on the unit that the patient was admitted as an inpatient to. The CNA was pulled from the floor and was assigned to be a PSA to that patient.

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Specializes in retired.

so this CNA is receiving the same pay as the other CNAs on unit yet she doesn't do the same work..what a bunch of bullAt least they should rotate the CNAs so they all have a chance to do ralyy nothing and get paid for it I wonder how this CNA feels and how do the others feel about seeing her sit and do nothing

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Specializes in retired.

the skilled facility I worked at had an area for the staff who smoked to go to sometimes a patient would join them it was far enough from the building as not to get smoke in

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1 hour ago, pat said:

so this CNA is receiving the same pay as the other CNAs on unit yet she doesn't do the same work..what a bunch of bullAt least they should rotate the CNAs so they all have a chance to do ralyy nothing and get paid for it I wonder how this CNA feels and how do the others feel about seeing her sit and do nothing

All cnas take turns acting as a PSA and floating to other units to do so. A list is kept of the dates everyone “sits” so whoever’s turn it is next, will be the one to act as the PSA. That way it is kept fair and no one is doing it more than others.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

This is such a waste and paternalistic medicine. If the pt is competent, he can make stupid decisions our job is not to force care on idiots. If he is not competent different story.

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Specializes in NICU/Mother-Baby/Peds/Mgmt.
20 hours ago, Hani said:

I would feel like such a jerk watching all my coworkers run around and not helping. Who is this person that can just sit there looking at the wall and ignore everyone else who needs their help? I mean they obviously know it isn't a 1:1 in reality. Someone needs to call the doc and correct that order- they are abusing the situation on a technicality due to the way the order was worded. Daaaaang ?

If you're a tech and a nurse or doctor tells you to do this what choice do you have? What if you go help with another patient, the smoker sneaks out and has a stroke? You'd be fired. The problem here is with the doctor who wrote the order, not the people following it.

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Specializes in NICU/Mother-Baby/Peds/Mgmt.
7 hours ago, pat said:

so this CNA is receiving the same pay as the other CNAs on unit yet she doesn't do the same work..what a bunch of bullAt least they should rotate the CNAs so they all have a chance to do ralyy nothing and get paid for it I wonder how this CNA feels and how do the others feel about seeing her sit and do nothing

As the OP (I think) said they rotate this duty. Plus, you seem to think that sitting down all day and chaperoning is a good thing! I've had to pull 1:1 duty (as a RN) for psych patients, on nights no less. It's horrible. There's not much that's more boring than sitting right outside a patient's room while they sleep, though having to do it during the day and talk to them would probably be worse. And I was "allowed" to sit outside the room and read a book, the techs had to sit inside and no book. Trust me, it's much better to be running your butt off, at least the shift doesn't feel like it's forever.

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Specializes in NICU.

After seeing a patient go ballistic,rip his iv out,swing the iv pole at everyone after requesting a smoke and the resident telling him,"you really should quit smoking"......your units solution is not so bad.

They are just trying to keep everyone safe and not have a patient wander off onto the roof or freeze outside.Neither of which would bode well for the hospital.

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