DO NOT DISTURB?
By David Vance On August 28th, 2011
Our caring NHS – this time around a hospital trust’s decision to give nurses ‘Do Not Disturb’ uniforms to wear during routine ward duties to prevent patients from speaking to them.
Yes, that’s right – it’s about stopping patients talking to nurses
When nurses are wearing the bright red tabards, patients have to address any concerns to care assistants, who do not have clinical qualifications. The hospital says interruptions, such as patients asking questions about toilets and meal times, stop nurses from doing their jobs properly and could lead to patients being given the wrong medication.
Perhaps it would be best if patients could avoid going to hospital and thus freeing up even more time for the nurses concerned?
I see they still use those wooden, hand-made drug cabinets manufactured by the unemployable Irish FAS types in the UK as well.
Actually,I’m surprised the contracts for those implements haven’t been out-sourced to China.
When drugs are being dispensed by a nurse, no one should be speaking to them about any other subject.
One of my major clients is a national pharmacy chain. You are not allowed to speak to their pharmacists when they’re consulting on drugs or dispensing them, either.
To the extent that this practice is used when drugs are being dispensed, it is really good quality control.
I think that Charles would agree with me on this.
I do agree with you Phantom. I think a little quiet so the nurses can concentrate on the task at hand will cut down on dispensing errors, some with possible lethal outcomes. That being said, the quiet rule should only be used for the intended purpose.
The hospital says interruptions, such as patients asking questions about toilets and meal times, stop nurses from doing their jobs properly …
The job of a nurse is to talk to patients, to care for them, clean them, wipe their brow and make them feel better.
That’s the damned point of nursing, not getting above your station because some bureaucrat tells you you’re “a professional”.
Registered nurses ( as defined in the US ), and their equivalents elsewhere do those things, but they do a great deal more than that too. They are highly skilled professionals.
When they are dispensing prescribed medicine – which can mean dispensing multiple medicines to multiple patients on a busy, noisy floor – there should not be any distraction.
I’ve read what happens when someone is given the wrong pill by a nurse or by a pharmacist. It doesn’t happen much of the time, but it is everyone’s worst nightmare when it does happen.
Which is why pharmacies and hospitals want these professionals in a zone with zero distraction when they’re giving someone Xanax or Oxycontin or any another powerful medication. It’s to everyone’s benefit.
Bloody patients,eh?
Measures like this wouldn’t be necessary if they weren’t so demanding…
What do they think – we’re here to care for them??
Taking simple steps to prevent giving out the wrong medicine is pretty high on my list for advanced caring.
Phantom,
You may not have noticed, but here in the UK we are pioneering a new kind of “illiterate, party loving, people hating” nurse.
It’s proving very successful, as more and more people are becoming ambivalent or even reluctant to enter hospital..
I think some of you are confusing the nurses’ duties when dispensing drugs with what their role is at other times. I do believe wholeheartedly in their minds being on the job when undertaking what is a very important task. The only criticism I have is that someone found it necessary to make them wear those stupid overalls.
PS.
Why are these warnings in English only?
Surely people of other tongues are entitled to read the warning in their own language??
A mobile neon display, such as seen on motorway gantries should fit the bill……
“illiterate, party loving, people hating” nurse.
Is that in the job description? I could qualify for that gig!
Phantom,
You probably haven’t got the legs for it.
It is well known that potential nurses have to be in posession of legs of a certain shape:
“sturdy” is probably the kindest way to describe them.
(Although I must say real caring, attentive and efficient nurses are absolutely wonderful…)
Phantom -
That’s like saying a mechanic is too highly skilled a professional to change the oil in your motor’s engine.
The point of nursing is human caring, to soothe, to wipe, to smile and welcome, to touch and to reassure.
If you want to be a “highly skilled professional”, go be a doctor.
Nurses cost a lot less than doctors do, and I doubt that it is the nurses who asked for this change. It would be those who run the hospital.
In both private and public hospitals, the roles of doctors and nurses have changed for the same reason – cost control. You want to have every task done by lowest ranking person who can do it. Years ago, routine things like taking a patient’s blood pressure or temperature might have been done by a doctor. That’s often done by a nurse now.
Nurses are more than qualified to do this task – it would not make sense for a doctor to hand out prescription medicines a nurse could do it. Regardless of who was doing it- it makes sense that they should be focused like a laser.
I won’t be surprised if other private and public hospitals pick up on this practice.
This is all about reducing the number of medical errors. Something all should applaud.
“Routine things like taking a patients blood pressure or temperature might have been done by a doctor. That’s often done by a nurse now”. Wrong, with the introduction of blood pressure machines which have replaced the old sphygmanometer and electronic thermometers which are shoved in the ear means that these tasks are now now often undertaken by Health Care Assistants. Personally, I am not convinced that electronic BP machines are calibrated regularly.
That just reinforces the general stand – that you don’t need doctors to do the things that they once did.
Technology changes things.
Some of the views of nursing here seem a little outdated – sure there are ‘foot-soldier’ nurses who do the under-rated ‘caring’ tasks described (stretched to the max of course as scapegoats to various efficiency drives). Other nurse roles can include one that fits somewhere between that of the old-school nurse and that of a doctor. Should you be unfortunate enough to be in emergency situation in hospital, like it or not, there is every possibility that it will be a nurse practitioner who will save your life. You might even be grateful, or maybe you’ll be saying, ‘run along fatlegs, this isn’t your station’.
These tabbards are nothing new some hospitals in Northern Ireland have had them for years but a lot of nurses don’t bother wearing them.