Unfortunately, healthcare professionals often aren't given the tools they need to do their jobs properly. People are forced into workarounds and corner cutting, or they are forced into wasting time by running around to find equipment — or working equipment. Considering how important their work is, we need to make more of an effort to ensure they have the supplies, equipment, and information they need to provide the best patient care.
Below is a picture from my archives – of a piece of nursing equipment (a hand held medication scanner) that was literally held together with a band aid.
You might call this “creativity over capital,” but I call it not properly supporting your team.
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Seeing this makes me nervous what else is holding this hospital together! It’s amazing the corners people will cut (sometimes because they have no choice) when they don’t have the proper equipment. This might not be the best solution, but it was probably the best available solution at time. Hopefully they don’t have to do this often!
The staff members were doing the best the can. Seeing a band-aid like this prompts me to ask:
– Why isn’t there a better process for getting equipment fixed or repaired?
– If there’s a good process, why don’t staff know about it?
– Are the managers and charge nurses responsive to situations like this where equipment is falling apart?
It’s a systems issue, not an issue with the front line staff “cutting corners” in this case.