Imagine my suprise this weekend when I get to work and find out that new policy is that the RN's will make toast for the pt trays!!!!
Yes, that's right, dietary will only send bread up and we are expected to toast it in the toasters provided to the unit. So now, I have to pick up the tray when it is dropped at the desk, take it to the pts room, take the bread all the way back to the convienetly located toaster (NOT) and bring it back.
I work in AICU, anyone think I really have the time for this malarkey??? I was really frustrated over this one and I told the charge nurse they better get some techs up here if this is what they expect. I can only hear the complaints now..."The nurse didnt make my toast right!"
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i'm thinking that burning the toast a few times and setting off the fire alarms might "cure" admin of this bs. it will only take one nurse trying to toast and find they get busy with a code or other urgent matter to "forget" the toast is on.
how much do they pay these people to make up this hairbrained ideas?
that worked for me. after twice daily fire alarms due to burned toast, administration gave up on that bright idea. we were still, however, expected to microwave the meal trays prior to passing them to our patients. one morning 15 patients had boiled eggs, and in the interest of saving time, the na and i put them all in the microwave to nuke them at once. (you can see where this is going, right?) the resulting explosion tore the door off the microwave, set off the fire alarms and frightened our patients (not to mention me) half to death. we never did get a new microwave. darn!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
how long do any of the stupid easy things they add to our list take? multiply them by how many patients, along with all the other "little things" they ask us to do, and it adds up fast.
and it's the attitude of, "why do we think we're too good" that is constantly kicking us in the butt. i'm not too good to do anything. i'm too busy doing my job to do tasks that quite frankly should be someone else's job.
i'm too busy to be the housekeeper and security and dietary and social work and lab and respiratory therapy and everyone else that doesn't want to do their job themselves.
why is the dietary department too good to do mundane things that only take a minute like making toast? why can't housekeeping make the toast? you know, after am labs, the phlebotomists really aren't too busy. why not have the laboratory staff come make toast. really, how often are they reading x-rays? perhaps the radiologists should go make some jello. it doesn't take long and why would they think they're "too good" to make jello?
i'm sure some patient who is connected to administration somehow complained about cold toast. cold toast is poor customer service, so let's have the nurses fix that.
if you're bound and determined to provide that level of customer service, hire someone to do the customer service aspect while the nurses tend to nursing!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
sure, just about anything we do that isn't skilled nursing seems erroneous and irritating. i'm not saying it doesn't. my question i suppose is that if you are working in icu aren't you responsible for the care of 1 or 2 patients at a time... and if so... does making toast for the 1 or 2 people under your care really take so long that you can't be bothered? most ridiculously busy days that i have worked in icu have still left me with time to burn. is your nursing-patient ratio higher in your hospital?
i see the point that it's another thing pawned off on nursing that shouldn't be. i just don't get the time constraint especially when several people in icu are more than likely not eating.
i question the acuity of the patients in the icu where you worked. even though i have "only 1 or 2 patients," acuity is such that i have no time for toasting, even for the few patients who do eat.
an old preceptor of mine told me that if you routinely have time to burn in the icu, you must be missing something.
We HAVE a pizza oven - it keeps setting off the smoke alarms! Would trade it for a toaster. We could then get that banned immediately also - someone needs to take lessons from us:yeah:
Administrative types spend a lot of time on the phone. I propose that they all use Bluetooth so they will be hands free and they come up to make the toast.
Administrative types spend a lot of time on the phone. I propose that they all use Bluetooth so they will be hands free and they come up to make the toast.
Sheesh!
Careful. We will be getting the Bluetooth so we can be hands free to make the toast!
This thread got me thinking of the time I went to a farewell party years ago for a nurse, and there was a 90+ something lady there who'd been a nurse in WW1 (she'd been born in 1800 something). She told me they used to work 16 hour (or more) split shifts, put straw on the floor (to soak up all the blood), you had to fit in lectures on nightshift during ur sleep time, had to wash all the windows and floors, had to roll bandages, make the dinners, work out diabetic meals, serve all the hot and cold drinks, etc. Apparently nurses did everything then. I can't remember everything she said but I wish I'd written it down to put in a book. I think we do have stresses too, but of a different sort.
I'm glad I wasn't a nurse way back then!
Well, I'm pretty old, but not quite THAT old ... but even when I graduated from nursing school, there were no ICUs, no monitors, none of the sophisticated equipment we have now. There were very few patients with IVs because there were no IV catheters. Patients who needed IVs got metal needles... Meds came in bottles, not in little unit dose packs... and on and on... so you're right. The stresses ARE different now, but the medical care is also VERY different now!
And OMG... this whole thread has had me laughing almost non-stop! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!
Unbelievable... But nothing should surprise me anymore.
A bit off topic but along the same lines - I recently interviewed for an ED position. Along with being told that you are not 'allowed' to call in sick, (you have to find your own replacement), I was told that when the paramedics bring patients in, the nurse is to go to the break room and bring the paramedics drinks and snacks. (Gotta keep them happy so they keep steering their ambulance towards this hospital). I got the job, but I didn't take it.
You are kidding me!
Nope. I'm sure he/she is NOT kidding. I'm thinking he applied for the same ED position I applied for 2 years ago. Same stipulations, PLUS we had to wear white uniforms (no scrubs) and nursing caps... in 2008.... in the ED of a very busy county hospital!!
Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.
You work ICU and there are patients well enough to eat toast, nevermind other foods? I can't think of more than one ICU patient ever that's been able to consume more than clear fluids.
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
that worked for me. after twice daily fire alarms due to burned toast, administration gave up on that bright idea. we were still, however, expected to microwave the meal trays prior to passing them to our patients. one morning 15 patients had boiled eggs, and in the interest of saving time, the na and i put them all in the microwave to nuke them at once. (you can see where this is going, right?) the resulting explosion tore the door off the microwave, set off the fire alarms and frightened our patients (not to mention me) half to death. we never did get a new microwave. darn!