*Vent* RN's make toast?!?!?!

[WickedRedRN]

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!"

Sorry, just had to get this one off my chest!

[mercedesbattista]

Wow, that's crazy but I can see my hospital doing sone crap like that!

[RNJill]

Is there a competency for proper, per-policy toaster use, including a computer based training? Has the toaster been cleared for use by bio-med? If not then I don't see how an RN can be qualified to make the toast.

Bad enough doing controls on glucose meters every day, now we'll have to add toaster controls! Will patients need an MD order for extra dark toast?

Okay, both of these quotes had me ROFL!! As for the toaster competency? I routinely burn mine as I make it while running around before work in the morning, so I might not pass. And if the patient is given an MD order to eat toast, I'm sure "just one more small" piece of charting will be added so we can document this oh-so-vital part of the care plan in their am assessment.

And what if the pt. prefers an English muffin? Sorry, couldn't resist...

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

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.

of course! you have time to burn the toast!!!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

of course! you have time to burn the toast!!!!

good one!

[PMFB-RN, RN]

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.

*** Sure, every once in a while. It's a 26 bed unit and every meal 1 or 2 trays are sent to the unit for patients that can eat. Sometimes we are just holding them waiting for them to be transfered out. The post CABGs get to eat full liquids the first day post-op for breakfast and if for some reason (like waiting for a bed in step down) they are still in the ICU at noon they will get a regular tray.

[AmandaTheNurse]

there was once a patient asked me to fix the TV screen.... i said to her, "u know im not a cable fixer right?" then i told her that i'd call the technitian to come & fix it and i just walked out the room

[bobertsmom]

I hear ya and sympathize totally! It's always "oh the nurses will do it, we can just have the nurses do it" At my clinic when the board chairman complained that the patient rooms were dirty and the window sills were dusty they directed the nurses to start cleaning the rooms at the end of the day, before housekeeping gets there! I just don't understand the thinking of those people who make these decisions. I went to school to be a nurse you idiot, not a janitor or a file clerk or a receptionist:uhoh3:

[imjillson]

WOW, you spend 4 yrs in college get a professional degree, a license and all that to make toast....PRICELESS.

I remember one time our unit had the nurses empty out the trash bins in the pts room because houskeeping had other duties. I try really hard to think of myself as a professional but when we are told to take on these duties it really makes me feel sad.

[SE_BSN_RN, BSN]

Great idea I'm with you, in fact lets get rid of dietary outright since they don't want to do what they are paid to do. We'll divide by having nurses & PCTs make toast. Lab techs make the jello since they know more about things that congeal than radiology. Radiology can grill steaks or chicken for lunch. They have cool equipment and the ability to nuke away any possible contamination. All rounding physicians who are not surgeons can cover dinner with the exception of GI, gastro & urology we all know where those hands have been. Surgeons of all kinds will be responsible for food prep and delivery because their hair is already covered. Ortho surgeons on mechanical soft & puree diets cuz slicing and dicing is how they roll. Cardiac can deliver food trays because they understand speed is essential. Neurologists can write menus and clarify all dietary orders via phone they enjoy analzying information. Nephrologists now assigned to drinks due to their ongoing obsession with I & Os.

LMAO that is GREAT!! Awesome idea!!

[Code_VSA]

I can imagine the interrogation now:

Lawyer: "Weren't you the primary care nurse that was responsible for this patient's life?"

Me: (gulp) "yes"

Lawyer: "And just WHAT is your defense as to why this patient did not survive his hospital stay?"

Me: "My manager told me I had to make toast."

This is hilarious, but sadly a ring of truth.

The busy ED where I work will sometimes have an admitted patient stay several days until a bed opens upstairs. We give breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the whole time the patient is on a stretcher with the lights on and the screaming, crying, moaning, cussing, bodily explosion sounds 24/7 are going on. Poor patients.

We have a toaster and a microwave. But I find them not on my priority list when a patient from Triage is brought CTAS 2 anaphylatic reaction.

We need stronger Unions for Nurses and more men in the profession.

[Streamline2010]

form a committee..include dietary, nursing, patient advocates, CEO, security and the fire marshall. Discuss ad nauseum the pros and cons of the current toasting protocol. Meet for an hours length at least three times and you may just make some headway. That is how we handle things here.

You forgot accidentally drop the fork or knife into the toaster, and swear you don't know who did it, but you're glad nobody was injured when the fire occurred.

To toast or not to toast, that is the question

Whether 'tis nobler on the ward to suffer

The knobs and levers of outrageous toasters

Or to take up arms against a sea of bread

And by opposing end it?

Somehow, the mere mention of "toast" brings to mind scenes from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I call dibs on Magenta. >;-)

There once was a nurse from Nantucket

Assigned to toast, toast by the bucket

She said: This re-gime-in,

I won't waste my time in.

And as for your toast, you can chuck it!

[shah]

I once worked in a rehab where the doctor wrote orders like, mix medications with ice cream shake. You could not believe it. The ice cream shakes were though made by dietary, we only had to go to the kitchen to get them. That took some ten precious minutes out of med pass time and put some extra miles on those knees, three times a day. The patient still refused to drink it every time. I don't understand why do these people even come to a hospital. Why don't they check into a resort hotel?