What do you think?

[JDZ344]

Our hospital has now decided that we not allowed to discuss patient care in the hearing of another patient. Which is fine in most cases but it also means that we are now NOT ALLOWED to inform the RN of abnomral vitals, etc, in front of any patients! The way our unit is set out is that patients are in a room/area with 5 other patients. I am not going to wait until the nurse has finished her medication round in that area to ask her to step to a more private area so I can tell her that Mr. X's B/P is in his boots!

Who comes up with these policies anyway? I can totally see it not being necessary to shout across the area that "Hey Sally, Mr. H says he hasn't had a bowel movement for 4 days!". But approaching a nurse as she is with a patient to let her know about a CRITICAL vital sign? I have to pull her waaaay down the unit to a place where there are no patients? I don't think so!

[caliotter3]

Carry a small notebook with you at all times and write the info on it, tear the sheet out and silently hand it to the nurse.

[JDZ344]

Carry a small notebook with you at all times and write the info on it, tear the sheet out and silently hand it to the nurse.

So simple, why didn't I think of that! this sounds like a GREAT solution

[NM nurse to be]

That's totally what I do. Write it down and hand it to them. I started that when PT's were asking for meds and I'd pass the message along but the nurse would forget. So when the call bell rings again, now that person is mad they didn't get their drugs. We have a paper system, every shift gets a list of names/rooms and highlighted who needs vitals. If there is an abnormal one, I can just show them the clipboard. Writing saves me and helps the nurse Everyone wins!

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

And when you're righting down the info, use the pt's room number & bed number instead of putting their name. That way you'll protect their privacy even more :)