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!"
Place it near the smoke detector then turn it on high, get involved with urgent direct patient care..... Of course this may cause some repercussion especially if the alarm is direct linked to the local fire dept. On second thought not such a good idea in reality but one can dream.....
Seriously though, this is a complete waste of professional resources and highly expensive. Try costing out your time to make and deliver well prepared toast and post that cost around your facility....
Clearly, nursing *needs* to make toast in the AM because the OTHER things to be done during that time frame-accuchecks, actually assessing patients, drawing any labs that are still needed, and maybe even doing some stat treatments-just aren't as important!
In all seriousness we bedside nurses have too many patients with ever increasing levels of acuity. 70% of the time I have a pt who is detoxing , NPO or high risk for aspiration. Last thing I need is one of my alcoholics on tele to sneak off and make toast for the roomate/pt that had just had a stoke & has a hx of DM. I wouldn't mind chasing them down if I wasn't already 10 rooms away attempting to stop the families of my NPO folks from feeding them.
Uhm, don't even go near the toast issue. Verry sore point on some our hospital's wards.
If I've got time, sure I'll stick some bread in a toaster but where's the NA and service aides while I'm trying to make toast. Usually on their break with toast...
However, I don't know if dietary would have the time to do this either because they like to short staff in that department too. When I worked dietary, we were so short staffed that when I worked I was the only person available to pass trays throughout the entire hospital. As in, I went into every patient room and put every tray on every patients bed side table (many times having to clear there tables to do this). In addition to passing trays in the hospital by myself, I also had to push two stainless steal meal carts down a ramp underground that went to the extended care facility (a whole different building) and I had to pass the trays out to the residents there. I also had to set up fancy tables for all the mothers and fathers who had babies that day (table cloth, putting ice into glasses, pouring drinks). ALL OF THIS HAD TO BE DONE IN UNDER A HOUR AND A HALF. I would not have had time to toast, toast.
Maybe they are trying to push this on the nursing staff because they don't have enough dietary staff? They need to hire more dietary people and stop pushing this onto the nursing staff. However, the problem with adequate staffing in dietary, as I was told, was:
1. They couldn't find enough people who were willing to work in the conditions
2. The people who were willing to work in the dietary conditions couldn't pass the drug test
We were especially short staffed because two of the employees got in a fist fight in the kitchen and when the manager tried to break it up, he got punched too. They were fired on the spot.
Dietary at that hospital was really tough and stressful! YIKES.
But put it the other way around.. Nursing is short staffed too. We don't have dietary staff feeding patients.
Specializes in Oncology; med/surg; geriatric; OB; CM.
Our kitchen on our floor is smaller than my bathroom at home! I can see us all in there fighting to make toast! What a joke.....what can management come up with next? Oops--don't answer that....
I would absolutely refuse to do this. There is a catering department and it is insulting to expect nursing staff to have to make toast. For starters, the ward environment is hardly appropriate as a food preparation area. You give in on this one and what will it be next week?
I'd very discreetly 'lose' the toaster.
They'd have us sending the dishes back down cleaned.
I've compiled a list of what to do to the toaster if our facilities ever gets this idea.
1. Drop the toaster.
2. Cut the power cord.
3. Hide it in the medroom.
4. Give the housekeeping guy $20 and tell him to make it disappear permanently.
Quite. Toast is clearly a serious hazard in the healthcare environment.
I think national guidelines governing sharpness of crust, crumb choking potential and butter dripping co-ordinates outlining the exact slipping risk should be published ASAP.
Joint Commission will have 2012 Safety Goals regarding toast. We'll need tok make sure that toast is never ever stacked within 18 inches of the ceiling, that the toaster is not stored in front of an emergency exit. Are id bands being checked before administering the toast? Is the toast properly labelled? I think we're going to need to institute a new colored armband system to make sure we don't accidently administer toast to a gluten intolerant patient.
Hey, ask your management to place a priority number on making toast. Is it
more important than accuchecks, administering meds, charting, hourly rounding,
pt comfort, pt safety, family concerns?
Then ask what you can skip doing to make toast instead. Can a monitor be placed
in the toaster area so you can see if any of your pt's develop hypo/hypertension, arrythmias, and resp. problems while you are tied up at the toaster? If you can't
have a monitor, who is supposed to be watching your pt's while you are busy toasting
bread and putting the appropriate toppings on?
Is toasting bread more important than safety? Geez, I would just love to ask these
OC_An Khe
1,018 Posts
Place it near the smoke detector then turn it on high, get involved with urgent direct patient care..... Of course this may cause some repercussion especially if the alarm is direct linked to the local fire dept. On second thought not such a good idea in reality but one can dream.....
Seriously though, this is a complete waste of professional resources and highly expensive. Try costing out your time to make and deliver well prepared toast and post that cost around your facility....