Yellow Sashes for Med Passes

[Testa Rosa, RN]

Management at my current hospital has reinstated having nurses wear yellow safety sashes” during med administration. It's being done to create a bubble of silence while we pass meds.

I was all for it the first go around. However, it's one of those things that sound good in theory yet is a total fail in practice. Nurses hate It. It creates more steps, nobody pays attention to what it signifies—especially the managers, pick up the line the line and take report now!”

Posters have been mounted and staff has been trained. But this does not preclude phones or speaker device ringing—oblivious that you have the sash of silence” on. Doctors and families still interrupt you. As they should be able to as It's the way of work life in the hospital.

These sashes are just one more detail piled on the mountain of details we navigate. Furthermore, it's one more thing we get taken to task for, You have meds in your hands, why are you not wearing your sash!?!?!” or ”Why do you still have your sash on when you're ot passing meds?” I am an intelligent, grown-assed nurse, not an errant child.

We focus on this donning and doffing of this worthless sash to comply to policy when we should be focusing in on safe med pass. We need to simplify nurse tasks around critical safety points--not increase tasks.

Does anyone know of any evidence based research supporting the wearing of sashes or vests while passing meds?

[amoLucia]

Sorry that I can't answer your concerns. But I would venture that any studies would be interesting reading.

Just to comment - where I last worked, our nurses wanted something similar (the 'DO NOT DISTURB the med nurse' sign for the med cart) for all the typical reasons. We were shot down by admin.

[Cowboyardee]

Is your hospital taking cues from a medical satire site?

Hospital Mandates Nurses Wear Yellow Safety Belts While Checking Out Pyxis Medications | GomerBlog

[Testa Rosa, RN]

OMG--that satire was too funny. Sounded exactly like the disgruntled nurses at our huddle.

[Fiona59]

Have heard of this being done in hospitals in the UK.

maybe check the UK forum?

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

I've heard of do not disturb signs etc. for the med nurse in LTC, but in a hospital? There isn't a formal med pass. That sounds like a behemoth pain in the butt to keep taking the sash on and off, and like you said other members of the team need to talk to us. They are busy too, and communication needs to be timely.

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

Wow ...dumbest thing I've heard in a long time!!

[imbatz, BSN, RN]

We have a taped off box surrounding the med cart at the nurses station. If a nurse is in the "box" we are not supposed to disturb her/him. Does it work in real life? No, not really.

[OCNRN63, RN]

"Nurses in white dresses with yellow satin sashes

These aren't a few of my favorite things..."

[MJB2010]

My hospital did this it was a complete fail. We did it for around 8 months, but even though we were not supposed to be interrupted they constantly interrupted us anyway. Then they started saying it was required to take phone calls, so everyone was given our phone numbers and it rang constantly. It literally was hated by all nurses one of the few things we all completely agreed on. Ours was red. Not one person found it helpful.

[RainMom]

We had lanyards that were supposed to be put on if passing meds. I never saw a single nurse use them. Some did find their way to hanging on the side of a couple of the WOWs but otherwise were completely ignored. We also have the (nasty, ripped, dirty) taped box at the pyxis for a quiet zone. Should be changed probably at least every couple days for infection control!

[irishicugal]

Have heard of this being done in hospitals in the UK.

maybe check the UK forum?

Yup, in ireland we have red aprons... BUT, it's slowly dying a death. It's more so the patients don't interrupt us rather than docs etc. There's posters up everywhere to educate the patients and families etc. I'd love to see some evidence based research as to whether it's any good or not.