#nursblr

Friendly reminder that respiratory virus season is upon us. Protect the young, old, and immunocompromised among us from influenza, RSV and COVID by practicing these simple infection prevention and control measures:

Wash your hands with soap and water or use an alcohol based hand rub regularly, especially…

Before touching your face (nose, eyes, mouth)

After you’ve blown your nose or used the toilet (potential contact with bodily fluids)

Before eating or serving food

After contact with high-touch surfaces like door handles, hand rails, light switches, and other peoples’ hands

Stay home if you’re sick. If you have to go out, wear a mask.

Wipe down high-touch surfaces regularly with a cleaning solution that kills viruses and bacteria.

the charting system at work now has an AI option to write your notes for you.

to write your notes for you.

to write your notes for you.

you know, the notes you make about PATIENT CARE.

THE CONTEXT

A home care client called me today to report her frustration with a worker who declined to prepare a meal (a modified spaghetti carbonara; ingredients included eggs, cheese, and bacon) for the client. Worker stated she is a vegetarian, thus she could not prepare that meal for the client because it contained bacon.

*It was not specified whether the worker is a vegetarian for moral reasons or religious beliefs, because workers aren't obligated to share that with clients (or me, for that matter).

The task the worker was assigned to do was bulk meal prep, as the client is unable to prepare meals for herself. Typically, the expectation is that clients will provide the ingredients and recipe(s). Meals have to be fairly basic because the worker only has two hours to prepare, cook, and store enough portions of the meal(s) for 2 weeks' worth of dinners (to be frozen and reheated).

The hot question at the office today was, "Should a client who is unable to cook for themselves have to abide by the dietary preferences of the worker assigned to prepare their meals?"

Due to chronic staffing shortages, our clients don't necessarily have the same worker assigned for each meal prep visit, nor can they choose the worker assigned to them. If two clients were to ask for the same meal to be prepared but were assigned two different workers, one client might be able to have that meal made while the other would not. Is that fair? I don't know, I just go here. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The other thing to know is that a large proportion of our home support staff are either Sikh or Muslim, and have dietary restrictions related to meat.

The bag monitors the amount of blood loss and allows workers to immediately take action. Before this, they had to just eyeball it.