Food Labels And A Script

I noticed some nurses from another unit eating from containers stamped with patient's names. This was homemade food in Tupperware containers. I couldn't imagine why they would want to eat food from a patient's home, even if it was offered to them.

I asked why they were eating patient food and they answered that it was their food. I asked about the name stamp and they said they did that so they could keep the food in the patient's refridgerator.

Let me explain why that it so brilliant. There is a health department rule that employees cannot keep their food in a patient refridgerator. If caught, the food is thrown out along with the container. Depending on who does the catching, we could also be cited. By stamping a patient's name on their food, it passes for being patient's food and won't be thrown out.

We do have our own employee refridgerator, but it is down the hall and not as convenient. I love creative solutions like that.

***************************

We have been handed a script to follow when giving change of shift report. One of the questions we are supposed to ask is, "What are some goals that you would like to accomplish for this shift?" The next question is, "Can you please teach back these goals to me?"

I have just one question. What the hell does that mean?

Assuming that a patient could give me a goal it would probably be something like, "I want to get some sleep. I haven't been able to sleep since I got here."According to the script, my reply would be, "Can you please teach back this goal to me? "

Huh?!!! Why does management want us to sound like idiots?