my hospital has been requiring the lovely hourly rounding protocol for a few years now. i remember back when it was first introduced that mgmt tried to make it sound like a team effort, that any staff members would be involved to the extent of their scope of practice. umm, i am beginning to think no one but nurses and patient care techs have any actual scope.
in a lot of ways, i understand this. we nurses and our techs are of course more familiar with our pts and what is appropriate for them. however, it can get frustrating when we are in report and techs are busy with vitals and baths etc and dietary takes in a tray and barely sets it up so the pt can reach it. instead, they come out to get one of us to do this. for some pts, i understand the rationale behind dietary not being allowed to adjust bed settings, but it seems they could help at least a little. (perhaps with the a/o pt who just have trouble shifting around to reach their bed controls) also, the other day during report, a nurse had to go into a pt's room to adjust the thermostat because the pt was uncomfortable and apparently nurses and techs are the only ones allowed to do this, though housekeeping had been in the room.
yes there probably are reasons for it all being this way, but i cannot help but get a little cranky when mgmt acts like "we are all in this together" only to realize they mean, it is up to you floor nurses and the few techs you have to make it work.
Management loves to see us attacking each other (and I admit, that I do fall victim to that quite often). If we're fighting each other, we can't fight them. :)
wooh, BSN, RN
1 Article; 4,383 Posts
Management loves to see us attacking each other (and I admit, that I do fall victim to that quite often). If we're fighting each other, we can't fight them. :)