I work a combination of day and evening 8 hour shifts. I worked an evening 3-11 shift last night with a night nurse who is a straight-up bully. For those kindly reading all my posts, she is the same nurse who nearly got me fired for handing injections to her to give to a psychotic scared unwilling patient. She told me in a very authoritative way last night before med pass that I need to speed up my pass. This is extremely offensive to me because I'm the med nurse and this is my only little domain of autonomy. I go over the meds very carefully and especially the new ones. I ask about effectiveness. I ask about their day. We sometimes go over what they are going to talk to the doctor about. If they discharge the following morning, this will be my last exchange with them! Also, nearly every patient gets a good deal of meds and wants additional PRNs so that adds to the time.
It usually takes me no more than an hour and a half to pass the night meds plus PRNs to 15 patients. This includes the patients that don't come to the desk and I have to hunt down (usually about 5). Is this really that slow? Is med nurse supposed to be a nursebot pill dispenser? and maybe it is selfish, but I derive some personal enjoyment and job satisfaction from this pass. Is that so wrong? and I get everything done!! I leave work on time with everything done! and I even help the night nurse with charting! This nurse has alluded to wanting me to speed up so I have the time to do even more of her charting! She probably also doesn't like to hear me talk and sometimes makes faces and will interrupt me to correct me in front of the patient or to tell me what she wants the patient to have. Night med pass is done right beside where the night nurse is sitting. During the morning, there is a med room (box) and I am alone.
I told the nurse "ok" and walked away to do something else because I was so angry that I was about to say something that would get me fired. Hell..I am on such thin ice here that she might even get me fired for appearing like I might have been angry. NP school in the fall or bust.. I can't take much more of this.
I've been thinking about the OP's style awhile and think that you might irk the boss or those you work with if you're slow in med-passing, BUT you're caring for the patients in a very very therapeutic was, and I applaud her! Way to go, inthesky!
I agree and that is also how I do my med passes but it is very important that the time frames are observed and her other duties are getting done. If patients are getting meds in a timely fashion and other tasks aren't getting over- looked I can't imagine why her coworkers would have the nerve to say something negative.
Last week the patients really wanted to watch American Idol.. one of the fastest passes I've ever done. =P As med nurse, I have very little contact with patients outside of meds so I make it count =P.
Re: slow med pass? am I really being unreasonable? It does seem slow to me but I'd rather you be slow and right then fast and make med errors.
I used to work on a very busy acute psych unit. We had a one hour (30 mins either side) window to work in. I did meds for 18 patients - and the med pass would take me between 30 - 45 minutes.
Just wondering.... how did u give out meds to 18 patients in 30 minutes??? That's really fast
If there was a game on TV we all wanted to watch I've knocked out a 20 pt pass in about 15 minutes.
The patients had to help out a lot - like shout out what they were on and I'd not have to keep checking the prescription charts. :icon_roll
Sometimes I'd even get the patients to run the meds to other patients save me getting out the pill room. :uhoh21:
When it was a good shift tho I'd have all the pills ready just after dinner so I could give them all out in one go by lining all the patients up - that took 20 mins to prepare and about 3 mins to give them all out.
You do need to pick up the pace. It isn't possible to learn the meds and assess the resident while doing the pass and be timely. The thing you must not sacrifice is patient safety but unfortunately, learning must be done outside of the window.
However. The bully's behavior is unprofessional and nasty, and not productive. Undermining you in front of patients is terrible.
Jules A, MSN
8,864 Posts
I agree and that is also how I do my med passes but it is very important that the time frames are observed and her other duties are getting done. If patients are getting meds in a timely fashion and other tasks aren't getting over- looked I can't imagine why her coworkers would have the nerve to say something negative.