ICTU/CTIC Staff Meeting Minutes
April 27, 2016, 2016
7:30 AM CTIC Room 17
Guest – Barbara Riley
1) Barbara Riley, CNO attended the meeting. She announced that the search for CTIC and ICTU Clinical Manager has ended! I will be staying.
2) Ms. Riley also discussed the work that has been done and the future plans for the role of the UA. CTIC has three hired UAs, and ICTU has two. There is ample coverage of the units at this time.
3) Stock and outdated supplies are an issue at this time. Old stock will be replaced. As for carts in the rooms, some supplies are not used on a regular basis and the thought is “are the carts as updated as they should be to reflect our current needs?” We will look at this over the next several weeks. Par levels for the store room have been evaluated and adjusted, as always please communicate missing items or items that are in need due to changes in patient case type.
4) Medications and Omni cell configuration will be addressed.
5) Position status:
• RN’s all positions will be posted. Interviewing is brisk. All candidates for CTIC positions will be coordinated with staff as possible.
• ACM – Please remember this position is still open and we are currently sourcing candidates.
• UA positions currently filled
6) Reminder: Next Cardiac Day April 28 These lectures are to meet the identified learning needs of the staff over and above the skills needed each day. We are so fortunate to have Elaine and Pat available and willing to provide this on a quarterly basis!
7) Pain lecture with dinner Pan e Vino May 12 – Please pass the word!
8) Reminders:
• Dr Singh Retirement May 27th, information is in the break room.
• Housekeeping survey These are due the end of the week. Your participation is appreciated
• Pumps – We certainly can keep several pumps on the unit in case of emergency. Otherwise please send them to CSD for cleaning.
• Zolls and travel monitor These need to be plugged in when not in use to achieve a charge.
• Heart walk June 5th Sign up on door.
• Unit Practice Council – membership. We need members. If the time of day (10am) is not convenient we will work with that. There will also be call in opportunity. Membership is appreciated!
• Credentialing –Make up for med surg section
9) Please send ideas for Critical Care credentialing to Elaine
10) Patient Experience – Our trends are excellent. There is room for improvement in the area of quietness. There is noise we can control and noise we cannot control. Please keep personal conversations quiet when at the desk and monitor phone calls which may be heard from the desk.
11) White boards need to be completed on a regular basis. Names on the board need to be consistent with the current caregiver.
12) Prior to exiting a patient’s room, if appropriate, please ask “is there anything else I can get for you”. Studies have shown that this will decrease the number of call lights significantly. When rounding on patients please address patient comfort, proximity of personal belongings and bathroom needs. Some of our step-down patients have expressed concern that it is very noisy in the CTIC, call lights are not being answered promptly or that the nurse indicating they will be back in 10 minutes took 20 minutes to come back. We need to manage their expectations a bit better.
Addendums:
**When giving pain medication … if the med is ordered for severe pain, you cannot administer it for mild or moderate pain. Your pain scale needs to reflect the order. Also if you are administering a pain medication, you need to record a pain score. Giving pain medication with no pain score without an explanation is not acceptable by TJC and DPH requirements. I have a print out of this for the past two weeks and will be going over this.
**Be very careful not to transfer a patient to ICTU without an order. We have had a couple of these situations lately. CTIC and ICTU should be reviewing the orders at the time of the transfer to ensure that this is happening.
Have a great weekend!
Paula Gellner
