Stopping patient care for another patient

[sAssy_NurSe]

Ok I have a question....Here's the scenario...i was in the middle of patient care with one patient who was requesting pain medication. It was time for her scheduled meds so I was doing the whole nine. Checking her vitals, re-positioning, etc. When I stepped out to grab something off my cart one of the techs on my other hall told me that a patient's family said that she wanted something for pain. I said I will come as soon as I finish. When I finish I went to my other cart to prepare her meds when her family came up the hall and stated she needed more water so I said I will get it. I got some water then finished pulling her meds and walked with the family down to her room. Administered her meds and made sure she was comfy before I headed back down the hall. 2 days later my DON calls me and asked me to explain what happened because the family said she waited 45 mins(bogus) and they wanted to move her to a new facility. Now was I wrong for not interrupting my current patient care to go to another? If I was then I will accept that for future reference. But I look at it as unfair to patients to put them on hold for another unless absolutely necessary. I took all of 10 mins at the most. I feel bad. Do you cut patient care short when someone requests something i.e. pain med, tx, water, snacks??

[marda]

In my opinion, you did right.....unless someone is having an emergency.....you were already in process of giving medication to first patient....just say you have 3 or 4 family members doing this...you would never finish med pass....I had a family member do this 1 time...I kept stopping to attend to things like reposition head, change pillow...turned 2 hour med pass into almost 3 hours....family member returned the next day...while she was there I gave all meds to that patient, breathing treatment, reposition, and anything else she asked...I then started my med pass...had not got to first patient before she coming out of room...I asked what she needed....pillow moved...I very politely told her that I had 29 other patients waiting for their medication and would get back to her as soon as possible....she literally stood at door and watched me do my whole med pass....in meantime, the tech that was on duty was literally in and out of room several times...I think it actually took her seeing me working on my feet and sitting charting to realize I meant no harm....after that she was still needy but made sure to get all needs met before i left room....of course this only lasted a week, while other family members were there....then she was in and out in 15 min...and seemed quite happy with care....

[SinikRN101]

I agree, you did the right thing. You cannot let patients, family, cna's etc. dictate what you are going to do when, if you had med's out that is on your license should anything happen as a result. Your DON will also be quick to lay the blame on you and your license. The family obviously knows how to threaten (ie, moving the patient to another facility herein costing money to your facility) which is what the DON would be upset about it as he/she answers to the money. You did the correct thing, I would only recommend that you identify your "needy" patients and pull and give their meds first, hopefully saving time during the rest of the med pass. Unless of course a true emergency arises which always take precedence.