Nurses add to list of non-nursing duties...

[cougarnurse]

They want to focus on patient care: The Telegram - St. John’s, NL: Local News | Nurses add to list of non-nursing duties to focus more time on patient care

Nurses in the province are turning up the heat — if that’s not on a growing list of non-nursing duties they will no longer perform because of what they claim is the provincial government’s failure to deal with a critical nursing shortage.

On Oct. 1, the Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses’ Union (NLNU) advised nurses to stop performing a list of non-nursing duties. As of Thursday, a whole new bunch of duties will be added to the list.

“The health-care system in Newfoundland and Labrador is experiencing a serious nursing shortage, which is negatively affecting patient care,” said Debbie Forward, NLNU President. “Having nurses perform non-nursing tasks is an inefficient use of time for this skilled workforce. By removing these duties, nurses can now focus on providing quality nursing care to patients.”

The non-nursing duties added to the list are: Mandate Registered Nurses back to work; call back non-nursing staff (such as housekeeping, cooks, etc.); deliver or pick up meal trays; porter patients for routine procedures; register patients and retrieve charts after midnight; book routine appointments; and transport routine specimens to the lab.

Forward said all duties have been carefully chosen to reduce risk to nurses and patients.

The list announced on Oct. 1 includes: cleaning (carbolizing) beds, stretchers, floors, shelves, baths; emptying garbage, linen bins/baskets, sharps containers; moving furniture; cleaning equipment such as IV poles, monitors, etc.; restocking shelves; clerical Duties such as restocking charts, filing and arranging building maintenance.

Geez...back in the early days, this WAS all part of our jobs!