PIPD Update March 27, 2025

Peer FIT testing

Next dates for fit testing on the ward:

April 15/25 0930-1400

April 28/25 1930-2300

May 8/25 0930-1400

May 13/25 1930-2300

Measles

There is a work standard for placing suspected measles cases on the ward. The key point is these patients NEED to be in the negative pressure rooms (2301 and 2305). Having them in a regular room with the door closed and an air scrubber is NOT sufficient. If the patient is needing obs level of care we will need to adjust staffing to provide that level of care in those rooms, not move the patient to obs.

There is a copy of the work standard and the posters for the entrances in the charge nurse binder under M.

CNE Update 

Info tip of the Week - did you know that there are many pre-made discharge information sheets on the S-Drive? This includes information for you, the nurse, to teach on discharge and information for families on caring for their child after discharge! 

Check out the S-Drive: Pediatrics-Acute Care 🠆 Discharge and pt information (folder)

We would love to know what is missing for teaching families - send your ideas to us and we will reach out to physicians and the Outpatient Nurse Coordinators for that specialty.

PIPD Update March 21, 2025

Med Room Doors

Pharmacy has found med rooms to have tape over the latch to allow opening the door without a prox card. Please do not do this. The meds rooms are proxed for safety and accreditation and cannot be propped open or have the locking mechanism disabled. If there are issues with the prox entry to the med rooms please have an urgent req put in for maintenance. If you are having issues with you prox card please see security services.

Cultural Responsiveness Training
This mandatory module needs to be completed by all staff by March 31^st. It can be found on My Connection.
My Connection > My Learning > Access My Learning > Search All Modules > Cultural Responsiveness > Introduction to Cultural Responsiveness

Measles

There has been a confirmed case of measles in the province. Some staff would have had their childhood immunizations in the time were 1 MMR vaccination was considered fully vaccinated. In 1989 the national recommendations changed and now 2 doses of MMR are required to be considered fully immunized and protected. This is a good time to check your own immunization status with OH&S.

Additional dates for FIT testing of N95 masks on the ward are being confirmed. More info coming.

There is a measles toolkit on the Intranet and on the S Drive under Q-cards-nursing with information about signs and symptoms of measles and resources for what to do. Please review: IPAC Algorithm Management Suspect Confirmed Measles. A work standard is coming for suspected measles patient placement guidelines.

Short notice trades/LOAs

Trades and LOAs need to be approved through staff scheduling/manager. It is very difficult to ensure safe staffing when it only done by word of mouth (ie me telling the charge nurse that someone else is working my shift tomorrow). If there are issues having things approved in a timely manner through staff scheduling let Gail/Manager know and that can be addressed with staff scheduling. The charge nurse is not expected to approve these leaves.

Annual Vacation for Employees on Leave of Absence

Ø  PIPD Team, please see below from the Sr Scheduler. Should you have any further questions re: your annual vacation, please send these to Gail and the covering manager (Lynette, Fiona, or Lori), so we can direct your questions to the Sr scheduler and follow up as needed: 

"I’m currently entering approved vacation into schedules of the Leave of Absence employee’s, even though they haven’t returned to their rotations yet. Any approved shifts or blocks will be recorded so they appear correctly once the employee is back in rotation. Given the size of the group, I’m updating the calendar monthly.

 At this point, I believe all approved vacation through the end of June has been entered for employees on leave. I will continue working through the remaining updates. 

Please note that with the new Annual Vacation process, employees no longer receive approval or denial emails. Once Scheduling has processed requests, we notify the unit managers."

 

 CNE Updates 

Salbutamol nebs - remain in limited supply. Availability is expected to improve over the next few weeks. MDI supply remains stable.

Oral Chemotherapy medications - must be given by a Chemotherapy Certified RN. Even if it is for a non-chemo patient (Policy section: 2.1). Precuations are to be followed the same as IV chemotherapy (Policy section: 2.6, section 3.2.4 - 3.2.7 & section 3.4). Please review Policy - SHR - Chemotherapy Drugs (oral) for Cancer and Non-Cancer Treatment: Administration & Precautions