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.
State surveyors came into my old nursing home and told us that it was a HIPAA violation to have colored stickers to indicate code status on the residents' charts. (Even though they were out of sight unless you came behind the nurses' station.) Their solution was to have bracelets for the residents to wear that said FULL CODE or DNR on them. Because that's not a HIPAA violation.
When I said something about it not making sense, I was told to stop saying that by the DON because she "didn't want anyone getting ideas and we'd have to change things again."
PepperTheCat- That seriously was the best thread ever. I cannot stop laughing. I used to joke about the exact same thing.....thirty years ago. Amazing. LOL
The nurses can do all kinds of invasive procedures, but nursing staff are not allowed to cut toenails. Seriously. (I think maybe this rule was started by nurses who didn't want to cut gross, yellow, curling toenails...)
We aren't allowed to keep pt stickers in the room (HIPAA violation), yet every IV bag we hang has to have a pt sticker on it; the hourly rounding sheets have pt stickers on them; plus, if you're visiting the pt, isn't it likely that you know their name, and if you don't know their DOB/DOA, that you could find that out very easily?? *grumble*
And with the number of total-care, bedbound pts, why is it that we are barely able to scrounge up ONE pillow for the pt's head, forget about ever finding any extras for arms or legs!! Forces one to become very creative when it comes to pressure ulcer prevention!
is it because the lpn cannot differentiate between ketchup and blood? maybe ketchup was transfused by an lpn at one time?
not just lpns. just last week we had a student transfuse kethcup when we weren't looking. i feel bad for her, they kicked her out of the program. after all, it was only her tenth mistake (that day.) and really, who can blame her for being confused? we do keep the blood bank only two floors away from the cafeteria.
I worked at an ALF that decided that nurses weren't capable of using fire extinguishers. If there was a fire, regardless of size, we were supposed to make sure the residents were safe, then call 911 and wait for the fire department.
I worked at an ALF that decided that nurses weren't capable of using fire extinguishers. If there was a fire, regardless of size, we were supposed to make sure the residents were safe, then call 911 and wait for the fire department.
I worked at a hospital with the same policy, and another that required proof of competency.
Anyway - viagara is a very common drug used for patients with pulmonary hypertension, these patients are also unfortunately rampant in NICU's, PICU's and peds cardiac ICU's. (at least at my hospital since we have a large pulmonary hypertension program...and yes, it has the same side effect on little boys as it does on old men, poor kids )
And this is why I love AN - the things I learn that I never knew an inkling of before, and so often in unexpected places!
At my hospital we have to do "witness stickers" for all IV and PO narcs, electrolyte supplements, digoxin and some other random meds. Vecuroneium however doesn't even need a second nurse to eyeball it...I guess they assume you really know what your doing when you're giving it and that you're giving it to an appropriate patient.
I can administer insulin and narcotics, including making up infusions of either, without anyone checking. Every year I sit and pass a medication competency test that includes calculating pressor rates (although I work on a general ward and haven't made up a bag of dopamine in maybe a decade). I can calculate in my head to the minute how much longer an infusion has left to go.
And though I work on a neuro/stroke unit, I am not allowed to thicken patient drinks, because I might screw up the directions and provide a patient with the wrong consistency fluid!
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DizzyLizzyNurse
1,024 Posts
State surveyors came into my old nursing home and told us that it was a HIPAA violation to have colored stickers to indicate code status on the residents' charts. (Even though they were out of sight unless you came behind the nurses' station.) Their solution was to have bracelets for the residents to wear that said FULL CODE or DNR on them. Because that's not a HIPAA violation.
When I said something about it not making sense, I was told to stop saying that by the DON because she "didn't want anyone getting ideas and we'd have to change things again."
Whatever lol.