Patient Shrinking

Scenario 1: A patient comes in and is out of refills for his blood pressure medication. It is 8 PM on a Friday night. How would you handle this situation?

Gloria has a strong desire for independence and in health care this is fully supported and promoted. As carers we should support the resident/patient to help themselves as much as possible. Using verbal prompts I guided Gloria round to the toilet and then asked her if she required any help to remove her clothing, which she declined. I understand that everyone has the right to decline treatment or care of any kind. I stepped back slightly acknowledging her decision and allowed to her continue in the removal of her clothes. I placed by hand behind her back while she did this just to support her in case she became unsteady. Once Gloria was seated on the toilet I asked her if she would like some privacy to which she agreed. I placed the emergency pull cord in her hand and explained to use it if she needed any help or when she needed us to come back in. The supervising healthcare assistant and I stepped out of the room and closed the door over. Whilst Gloria was in the bathroom I used this as my opportunity to put on Gloves and an apron. Disposable latex gloves and aprons are essential personal protective equipment (PPE) and the use of them is regulated by the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 The Health and Safety executive state “The main requirement of the PPE at Work Regulations 1992 is that personal Protective equipment is to be supplied and used at work wherever there are risks to

As a critical care nurse the concern with medication shortages really hits home. In my current practice I have been asked by our hospital pharmacy to decrease the amount of Ativan given to a patient because the supply was low and they did not have any more to restock our omnicell. I am unsure the reason behind this particular shortage, but several other drugs we currently use are in low supply, most importantly epinephrine. Epinephrine is a life-saving medication, not only for supply on our code carts for cardiac arrest, but available in injection form for people with severe allergies. The shortage affects everyone, from oncology patients to cardiac patients. Recent policy changes have been made in order to correct the major shortages to help keep these life-saving drugs on the market and available to the people that need them.

In a survey carried out by the Nursing times, it was said that two thirds of Nurses believed that shortage of equipment compromises patient safety (Ford, 2010).

Julia, a registered nurse, has been run down all week making medication errors and recently one of her patient’s fell out of bed. Julia has eight patients assigned to her due to staffing shortage since the hospital decided to stop using LPNs. Julia is very overwhelmed and is unable to safely take care of her patients. Julia was required to report to her manager’s office the next morning due to her patient neglect and fall. The manager informed Julia the high nurse to patient ratio is not a problem as other floors and nurses are doing fine with it. Recently, I have seen this occur with in my own facility I work for. As of right now it is staffed with fifty percent locums or travel nurses, which leads to increased

One of the major functions of a nurse manager is managing a budget and allocating resources necessary to manage the unit or facility effectively. “Major steps in the budgeting process include gathering information and planning, developing unit budgets, developing cash budgets, negotiating and revising, and using feedback to control budget results and improve future plans”(Yoder-Wise, 2012, p. 244). The nurse manager must be able to accommodate variances and acclimate the budget in both the projections and up-to-date expenditures. Proficiency in managing a unit level budget is essential for both a favorable variance and optimal patient outcomes. Budgeting entails reviewing revenues and expenses, staffing costs, supplies, and capital equipment costs (Contino, 2001). This case study examines personnel, overtime (OT), supplies, travel, equipment, and staff education and the manner in which management can address these factors.

Medication must be stored in a secure locked cupboard or area as this is part of the role of a Support Practitioner. It is my duty to ensure that the risks to the health of others are properly controlled.

The storage of medicines is usually a matter for service users and their families however special procedures may need to be exercised in some cases to protect a vulnerable service user. Where it is inappropriate for the service user to have access this will identified in the care plan and medication must be kept in a safe place which is known and accessible to relative, care/support workers, health professionals and domiciliary care staff.

The Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 forbids the mixing of different types of hazardous waste (medication, needles and gloves), and the mixing of hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste in health care settings. This means that health care settings will need at least two containers, one for ‘hazardous waste and one for ‘Non-hazardous. It’s classed an offence if health care settings don’t follow the rules when getting rid of hazardous waste. This regulation also states that when people don’t need their medication they should be returning it them the pharmacy instead of disposing them in the bin.

During this past year I feel that I am more aware of cost saving techniques and this has become one of my strengths. While at MIA5 I was tasked with ordering all Safety/Amcare supplies. During the previous year I had the approach of look into the cabinets and it if looked low then order it. I then came up with an inventory supply list that I checked on a monthly basis, I used this to prevent myself from ordering supplies that weren't needed. This also allowed me to account for where we were spending most of the budget. I also compared Moore Medical brand medications against the other brands listed on the website. I found the lowest cost and made note of the reorder code in order to continuously order the lowest cost medication, saving the site and company

At this time, the surgeon inspects the wound and the team conducts the count without interruptions (Norton et al., 2012). Among other required charting documentation are the nursing outcomes or Perioperative Nursing Data Sets (PNDS). These outcomes are responsibilities nurses are expected to implement while a patient is in their care. One item of the PNDS states "the patient is free from signs and symptoms of injury due to extraneous objects" (Rothrock, 2015, p. 207). It is the responsibility of the OR nurse to make sure facility policy is followed to ensure that a patient does not leave the OR with unintentional items remaining inside their operational site or sites. If there is a situation where an item is not located and the patient is stable, the OR nurse should have the surgical field halt activities. The team should then locate the missing item. When found, activities can resume. If the missing item is not found, then other facility protocols, such as intraoperative radiograph are obtained and reviewed by a physician to determine the location of the item. All these steps should be performed prior to the patient being closed or removed from the OR.

Working in a hospital unit can sometimes be very difficult. Nurses must do everything accordingly to practice positive time management while still providing quality care to their patients. In emergency situations, certain supplies should readily available when needed in order to effectively respond to patients needs during emergency situations. Sometimes making sure the unit is adequately stocked with supplies gets put aside or forgotten simply because we become occupied in everyday tasks. This research includes identifying deficits in supply demand and proposition of solution to

the workload of their employees or to make sure that a replacement for a nurse comes in. If this can be done, then the validity of patient care would be resolved and the accusations of nurses just might stop.

Put used gloves and gown in to yellow infectious waste bin, which should be either just inside the room or outside the door before leaving the room.

As the number of the cases increase, the just-in-time supply chains or the standard operating procedures would be really difficult to meet the growing demand. Hence the healthcare systems have been challenged to determine the medical supplies that need to be procured. One of the most challenging jobs is to develop a prioritized list detailing all the supplies and essential quantities that need to be stockpiled.