This Does Not Make Sense - But happens anyway!

[Pepper The Cat]

Time for a fun thread! Share you this does not make sense but happens anyway - at your hosptial.

I'll start. At my hospital, as an RN:

I can have full access to all kinds of drugs and narcotics, but I can't have access to the extra toilet paper. If a patient runs out for some reason, i have to track down housekeeping to get another roll. I can't be trusted to access extra toilet paper. (and trust me, I have NO desire to take home your one ply, sand paper toilet paper)

I also cannot have access to the paper-towel key. So if the paper towel dispenser jams ( as it often does) I again have to track down environmental services people to open it up and fix it. Because I can't be trusted with the key.

The enviromental services people are not expected to pick up extra heavy linen bags we have to make sure we don't overload the bags - yet - as a nurse, I am expected to move pts who weight 200, 300 lbs. Much more than an over-filled linen bag. Yes, we shouldn't overfill linen bags I support that, but how come no one supports me when I say that we should not be expected to move a 300 lb pt.

If anything is broken - its my job to either a) fix it or b) find someone to fix it. This includes: TVs, heating/cooling, beds, wheelchairs, toilets, sinks, computers, chairs,telephones, the cable TV, roommates snoring, and possibly the colour of the walls in the room.

[DixieRedHead, ASN, RN]

We are not allowed to put the empty propofol bottles/tubing in the sharps containers in the rooms bc people have "opened them up" to get to the propofol...instead we have to walk down to the dirty utility room at the end of the unit which anyone can access from the unlocked door to the outside hallway, and put them in large sharps containers which you can just flip open the lid and reach in...??

Also, prop is the only narcotic we don't have to count before removing it from the Pyxis...

Mayby this will change now that Michael Jackson is no longer a threat.

[agldragonRN]

the policy at my facility is an rn or a cna may pick up blood from blood bank, but an lpn may not. :smackingf yeah, i don't get it either.

is it because the lpn cannot differentiate between ketchup and blood? maybe ketchup was transfused by an lpn at one time?

[agldragonRN]

what about signing off each insulin syringes and counting it during shift change with narcotic count? but the main supply of syringes are in the med room where each nurse has access to.

yeah i am stupid enough to steal the syringes in my med cart and not the ones in med room which are untraceable.

[sweetnurse63, BSN, RN]

Two LVNs can't do shift-end narc counts, has to be at least one RN, and they have to start it. Because, you know, LVNs can't count, AND we're more likely to divert than a RN.

I don't get it, LPNs count narcs all the time at least in LTC. Most LTCs have more LPNs working there compared to RNs.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Here' some from the agency side of nursing:

I went to the same university and basically did the same course as the other RNs I work with. Same time with all my clinicals in a large, major teaching hospital - the largest in our state in fact.

The hospitals I work at give us a swipe card usually to access doors but not drug rooms. I have passed all my clinicals and exams each year re medications & all the hoo ha that surrounds it re safety/ethical/legal considerations. The last hospital I worked at didn't even give me keys. All the drug rooms have cameras in them. Last time I needed to access the drug room, I had to hunt down a RN with a card and wait for them to fin what they were doing, then check drugs with me. I couldn't also access the store room, so when the ECG ran out of paper, I couldn't get in there to get paper - had like 10 ECGs to do & other patients being admitted - the work was piling up.

I am also expected to do my online charting - but no-one has shown me how to use the online system (I think I've used it ages ago). And yes, I have asked for someone to quickly refresh my memory, however, the other nurses get p*ssed off & say they'll just do it.

But SURPRISE! when they need someone super urgently to fill in - and the ONE DAY you say 'no, I can't I have a birthday party to attend/am going out/am busy', you are labelled the 'bad worker' and are penalised with no shifts the rest of the week. Management think agency RNs don't know this & that we are stupid.

But they're sweet as pie when they don't have anyone else to call.

Who else would tolerate this kind of insane, childish behaviour in the work place?

Roll on end of my studies, paying my debt off, then I'm gone from nursing....

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

4got to add my last hospital shift: agency RNs couldn't access the drug room, so - get this - THEY LEFT THE DRUG ROOM DOOR OPEN FOR US! And yes, there were kids running around everywhere visiting grandpa with very little supervision.

The mind boggles.

[anniv91106]

I don't get it, LPNs count narcs all the time at least in LTC. Most LTCs have more LPNs working there compared to RNs.

That will change. It will be ADN's supervising med aides and CNA's as soon as it can be done without being too obvious.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I work between three icu's in a pediatric facility. I can override the pyxis to pull what I need in a pinch such as narcs if we're about to intubate and other emergency drugs. However I cannot override for a glycerin suppository - that must be ordered and verified by pharmacy

We can't override for a glycerin suppository, but we can override for a tylenol suppository. Luckily constipation often causes irritability that makes me think they need some tylenol. :)

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Also because of reported diversion of lasix we now have 2 nurses to count pyxsis daily??

Between the lasix, glycerin suppositories and the NICU sized doses of Viagra, this is a really crummy party somebody's trying to throw.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

Just don't lock up the cowbells!!!!

[DroogieRN]

That will change. It will be ADN's supervising med aides and CNA's as soon as it can be done without being too obvious.

Not sure of the problem here -- I am an ADN who supervises CNAs...

[punkydoodlesRN, BSN, RN]

I don't get it, LPNs count narcs all the time at least in LTC. Most LTCs have more LPNs working there compared to RNs.

My PRN job is a med-nurse at a psych unit, and I have sole access to my narc drawers, the entire shift. I count with another LVN coming on and coming off. But just 5 miles down the road at my FT job, nope. Can't do it. Makes no sense!!