Supply shortages

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Sep 27, 2010

Do we work at the same place?

Personal wipes...I SWEAR we never have them, nor the lip balm stuff we use for patients on oxygen. I've also had to go to the other side of the hospital (I work in a 1000 bed facility) for a hat or a bed pan.

And please, please, PLEASE don't get me started on the linen issue!

Nurse_Hagatha · Sep 27, 2010

Pillows...I am forever hunting down stinkin' pillows! Housekeeping treats them like they are golden nuggets, and I am beginning to think they are! It just drives me nuts not to have the stuff I need. NUTS!

shiccy · Sep 27, 2010

We have linens delivered twice a day, but we were running into this issue constantly. We ended up contacting linen services and they improved but didn't eliminate the problem. OUR issue was when they were delivering the carts, some of them were only half full yet others were so chock full the linens were sometimes falling off or hard to get out. They literally were stuffing things into some and short changing others!

After the dept that is involved in delivering carts was involved, they were officially on notice. They ended up having to make special deliveries to our unit, and if they refused (they did once or twice) their director was called and magically an hour later we had a nice full linen cart again.

This above issue due to poor stocking is pure LAZINESS on the part of more than one person, but one of them is more likely your manager. Our unit has a set number of things the stock people are suppose to have filled every round. If we are constantly running out of things (take, for instance, we are a trach->vent unit. We need a large number of q-tips on a stick and by the time we got to night shift we had NONE), we let our manager know and she requests a higher par for the stocked item. The stupid thing is it's not like some of these things go bad. When's the last time you've seen a freaking q-tip that's expiration date is past due? What about wipes? Honestly, if you go up to your manager and she doesn't do anything about it or it doesn't improve, you need to bring it up on a weekly basis until it does. Either you'll tick her off and she'll actually do something about it, or she'll fix the issue the second time you bring it around. The problem with her NOT doing anything about it may be because she doesn't know this issue is still an issue. If she told someone and they informed her it'd be taken care of, in her eyes maybe it was fixed if nobody said something?

In the end after complaining about the q-tips about 5 times we finally got a sufficient supply. After complaining about the laundry (and before we got the dept heads involved) it took about 5 weeks to get resolved.

Finally, if you didn't realize, those periwipes are SUPER expensive, so use them sparingly, and if you don't have any, you will usually get a better 'clean' out of good 'ol soap and water. Not as idea or as quick, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Sep 27, 2010

I can honestly say we don't have this problem. I guess I'm lucky.

NaKcl, BSN, RN · Sep 27, 2010

Pillows...I am forever hunting down stinkin' pillows! Housekeeping treats them like they are golden nuggets, and I am beginning to thin they are...

LOL... if was funny the way you said :)

KB24 · Sep 27, 2010

We had this problem in clinicals for my CNA class and we had to hide supplies from other people because they would use it if they found it.

When I got hired as a CNA in the same company where I did my clinicals, but a different facility in the same company, the DON made it a point during orientation that we would never have this problem. We have plenty of supplies to do our job and we can always get more supplies downstairs, if we need to get more supplies.

I think people should complain to the DON or administrator if they're having problems at work because most of the times the supervisors don't care, are too busy, or forget to follow up on the problems.

fiveofpeep · Sep 27, 2010

yeah pillows are a hot commodity where I work. sometimes I will get a new admit and have no pillows so I have to make a pillow from blankets :/

JDZ344 · Sep 27, 2010

PILLOWS! We NEVER have any spare!

We're also always short of pyjamas, gowns, blankets... pretty much anything you need you are sure to not have!

Kiringat · Sep 27, 2010

We are usually out of the basics - gowns, tissues, wipes... etc. by 0200 Saturday. We've actually gotten in the habit of forming a team about that time to make a scrounge run to central supply and other floors for supplies.

What is really frustrating is when we run out of not so basics, like IV fluids, medications, flushes, and batteries for telemetry.

We've taken to keeping lists of things that run out and passing them both to our floor manager and the acute care manager. Been doing that for a while. Still run out of the exact same things at the exact same time.

I know they are trying to save money, but does making your staff run around (for I'm sure what adds up to hours) really make sense?

sunnycalifRN · Sep 27, 2010

I guess we all work at the same place!! It's just so frustrating . . . we're supposed to care for our patients but not given the supplies to work with. And, believe me we have complained over and over . . . our manager tells us that the central supply department has "issues" with their staff!! Yeah, duh!! Other units have actually had to create their own "secret stash" of supplies to tide them over during nights and weekends . . . we don't have a place to do this or we would too!!

meandragonbrett · Sep 27, 2010

It's absolutely pitiful that I have a secret stash of pressure bags, tape, pulse ox probes, transducers, sutures, and a-line introducers for us to use on weekends.