Weekly Update Sept 29, 2023

Weekly Update Sept 29, 2023

Kudos

* To everyone who has been in Unit for the this week. It has been a rough one and you championed it!

* Sandra and Madeline H for catching and reporting med errors. 

* Wade for his advocating for an itching guy. 

* Carolyn and Tracey for handling a very busy week. 

* All charge and resources. Our unit runs so smoothly because of you so thank you so much for all your leadership :)

Remember to wear an orange shirt on Saturday, September 30 in recognition of the Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Weekend Day Surgeries

In order to improve communication about weekend DS patients and have awareness of these patients ahead of time, the OR UAs will start to send us a fax with patient booking info as well as the OR booking slip. Please treat this as your notice (mostly for CN and desk UA) that these patients will be arriving direct to the unit and are to be admitted/registered like a direct admit. 

JPCH Orthopedic Day Surgery Patient Scheduled on Weekends

Date:

Patient Name:

HSN:

Date of Birth:

Surgeon:

Procedure:

Update precautions in SCM.

This will help ensure that rooms are getting appropriately cleaned upon discharge as different precautions require a different cleaning. Help us fight hospital acquired infections!

Update to Vanessa's Law

The Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act, also known as Vanessa’s Law, is intended to increase patient safety by improving the reporting of serious adverse drug reactions (serious ADRs) and medical device incidents (MDIs) by hospitals. Mandatory reporting by hospitals, which came into effect on December 16, 2019, applies to therapeutic products, including pharmaceuticals (prescription and nonprescription drugs), biologic drugs (including vaccines), radiopharmaceutical drugs, disinfectants, and medical devices. As of June 22, 2023, the definition of therapeutic products has been revised in the Food and Drugs Act to include natural health products (NHPs). 

Vacation Policy Update

Vacation Policy released October 1

The SHA is committed to a healthy workplace by providing annual vacation opportunities for employees to have time away from work to rejuvenate and meet personal commitments, and for their physical and mental health.

There are differing practices across former regional health authorities as it relates to vacation scheduling/payouts. There is now an opportunity to standardize these practices to create consistency across the SHA.

The new vacation policy will be released October 1, 2023 and has immediate impacts to requests for vacation payouts and annual carry over values. Please familiarize yourself with the policy, your role as a team member, and the supporting knowledge documents available in MyConnection.

Park and Ride options expand in Saskatoon

Based on direct feedback from staff and union stakeholders, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is expanding Park and Ride options for staff in Saskatoon.

New Park and Ride stalls will be available for employees at Royal University Hospital (RUH) and Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital (JPCH) as of October 1. The SHA is continuing to work on securing similar safe parking options for staff at Saskatoon City Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital. Almost 65 per cent of staff who responded to the SHA parking survey indicated they would use Park and Ride options, if available.

Park and Ride is an SHA-operated shuttle service in Saskatoon and Regina that provides an affordable, convenient, and safe solution for staff parking. Staff approved for parking stalls through the Park and Ride option, park their vehicles in a specific Park and Ride lot and are picked up by an SHA-operated shuttle that transports them to and from the hospital location where they work.

Five hundred parking stalls are being added for RUH and JPCH staff, providing safe parking options for eligible staff currently on parking waitlists at those facilities. The SHA recognizes this expansion will not resolve the current waitlists and is continuing to explore options to address staff parking needs in Saskatoon. Similar demand for additional safe, staff parking options in Regina will see the construction of a new parkade at Regina General Hospital (RGH) beginning this fall.

Park and Ride stalls will be awarded based on parking waitlist seniority. Parking Services will contact staff eligible for the new stalls. Information on staff parking is available on the Parking Services webpage.

It’s time to think about Halloween again!  This year’s department costume will be….Where’s Waldo!  You can make your own costume, or if you’d rather, you can wear blue jeans/pants and a white shirt, and we will provide you with a hat, glasses, and some red tape to stripe your shirt.  If you’d like help from us, the cost will be $10.  Please let me know by Oct 9, 2023 so we have time to get everything.  Jeanine will collect money, and will have all of the costume pieces for those that ordered.

As usual, we will plan for a picture at 12:30pm on the stairs leading down from the main floor of JPCH towards RUH (the green mile).

More info to come re: trick or treating etc. later

Thanks!

Ayisha

Message from Dr Grace Ho

Staff Scheduling Website Upgrade – October 11, 2023

 

We're excited to share that our scheduling system is about to get an upgrade! You are required to register now at https://sask.staffscheduling.ca. 

We'll begin the roll out for former Saskatoon Staff Scheduling users on October 11, 2023 at 10:00am.  

From this point forward, your employees will use this system to: 

• View schedules 
• Request time off  
• Bid on shifts 
• Request shift trades 

To support you and your staff with the transition to the upgraded system, there are training materials available on the website in the "Help" section which you can access at the bottom of the registration page and after you log in. 

Additionally, we will be hosting daily Q&A sessions for managers and employees from October 2 – 6, 2023 (see details below):

• Manager Sessions
• Registration Link: https://skhealth.webex.com/webappng/sites/skhealth/webinar/webinarSeries/register/58704e615bf24e5c8ba7649ab7a45717

 

• Oct 2  13:00 - 13:45
• Oct 3  13:00 - 13:45 
• Oct 4  13:00 - 13:45 
• Oct 5  13:00 - 13:45
• Oct 6  13:00 - 13:45

 

• Employee Session
• Registration Link: https://skhealth.webex.com/webappng/sites/skhealth/webinar/webinarSeries/register/f1be6f1bc8ea4ef887f61284d32d1313

 

• Oct 2  10:30 - 11:15 or 15:00 - 15:45
• Oct 3  11:00 - 11:45 or 15:00 - 15:45 
• Oct 4  10:30 - 11:15 or 15:00 - 15:45 
• Oct 5  11:00 - 11:45 or 15:00 - 15:45 
• Oct 6  11:00 - 11:45 or 15:00 - 15:45 

Thank you for being a part of this important step in improving our scheduling experience. 

Weekly Update Sept 22, 2023

 Preceptors needed - we have requests to fill for the winter term. Please let Jonathan or Fiona know if you can take a student. Dates are as follows:

- Jan 2 - Apr 12 (336hrs)

- Jan 8 - Feb 15 (212hrs)

- Feb 26 - Apr 12 (212hrs)

Ed Day eLearning 

You have until the end of your Ed Day to complete all your eLearning. You will be paid for a full 12 hour shift for this year’s Ed Day. This means you get paid for the 8hr in-person portion AND 4hr for eLearning time. You will be given your certificate for your Learning credits only once you have completed the Ed Day AND the eLearning. You can use this certificate for your CRNS Continuing Competency.

NEW eLearning content on the SHR eLearning site:

1.       Baby Friendly Initiative Basics – it is on MyConnection/Thinkific titled The Baby Friendly Initiative (approximately 10 minutes to complete)

2.       Supporting Chest/Breastfeeding Families – on MyConnection/Thinkific (approximately 60 minutes to complete)

NEW Seasonal Influenza 2023-2024 eLearning module on MyConnection/Thinkific is now available!

Seasonal Influenza Certification 2023/2024 (thinkific.com)

Nursing License renewals

Hours for license renewal will be/has been sent to your primary email (as listed in Gateway). HOWEVER – they seem to actually only be sent to your SHA email.

CRNS Members – email arrives Sept 18-23.

SALPN Members – email arrives in the first 2 weeks of October

 

Sept 30 is National Day for Truth & Reconciliation. You can wear an orange shirt, pin, etc on this day (Saturday) &/or Sept 29 (Friday). Please take some time “to reflect on the transformative process of acknowledging historical injustices, fostering healing, & promoting unity within communities” (CRNS email, Sept 21).

 

Virtual Education opportunity on Transfusion Medication topics – Save the Date! Please note the times are EST so will need to look at difference for what time it is here in CST. Registration opens in October. See attached PDF for information.

 

Dextrose 50% vials are in VERY short supply. They have been removed from Pyxis and pharmacy will make vials. Pharmacy-prepared vials of dextrose 50% will be stocked in the refrigerator. Please scan your orders to pharmacy so they can keep track if dextrose is being used. Please call pharmacy if you don’t see it in the fridge. See huddle board posters. 

Did you know? – Medication mini bags (like Vancomycin) have overfill? Well holy smokes this is your new learning for the day!

All medication (bag or syringe) must be given completely. For your bags, this means the bag was be empty AND the tubing must be empty too! For syringes, make sure the syringe is also empty.

Wondering how to do that? Easy! Don’t set your “A” line flush until you’ve ensured your medication bag & tubing are empty. Set a “call-back” on the pump when you program your “B” line. The pump will alarm, calling you back > ensure all medication bag/tubing/syringe is empty > set flush! Tubing with fluid in it is actually MEDICATION! This is a Med Error. Please call 1600 if you are finding bags/tubing with medication still in them from prior doses.

Questions? Not quite sure what we mean? Contact a CNE. 

Charge Nurses

Friendly Reminder to ensure you are checking the slate for the next during your night shift. This will help Carolyn out in the morning when placing patients :)

Topic of the week: Psych Kids in the ER. 

Standard practice is we don't accept psych kiddos on the ward unless they are being admitted under a pediatrician. If the ER is calling your asking for you to admit, just say that that psych is not within our units scope. 

Keep up the good work, we are super proud of our charge nursing team!!

KUDOS

·   Family kudos for Liesa, Masyn, Mary and Melanie P for all their excellent care (Sept 14)

·   Sept 17 Nx unit 2 nurses Hannah, Harper, Danae, Alex, Carly, Wade and Katie W for managing a very busy unit with ++ sick patients and obs admissions

·   Madison for being an excellent CN during a very busy night

·   Sept 17 Kalei for catching a med error and reporting it

·   Carolyn for getting a patient discharged from PACU on home IV

·    Sept 21 and 22 – all staff for making sure precautions are entered into SCM

·    Tessa for getting rid of the smell in the unit 2 nutrition room

Weekly Update Sept 8, 2023

 Introduction to standardized SHA Droplet Precautions

The Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) department is pleased to invite SHA staff to an information session about the provincially standardized “Droplet” bundle of Additional Precautions signage that will be implemented across the SHA in October. This signage was developed in collaboration with multiple stakeholders and is intended to replace former regional Additional Precautions Droplet type signage.

The session will be held on Tuesday, September 12 from 1 to 2 p.m. and will be recorded for those unable to attend. Please register in advance by clicking this link:

https://skhealth.webex.com/weblink/register/ra649192d978e61926d147a054465cebf

Accreditation  

JPCH will be going through accreditation this fall. ​Accreditation Canada is the independent third party organization that creates best practice standards and assesses compliance with these standards. The first part of the Accreditation Canada process is a staff/physician/resident self-assessment of our practice relative to the Accreditation Canada Standards.

ACCESS THE SELF-ASSESSMENT with the following link: Inpatient Services Self-Assessment. Assessment end date is September 22, 2023.The self-assessments are anonymous and confidential.

Please see the What Is a Self-Assessment document for more information as needed. 

Once the self-assessment is done we will be talking more about the standards, most of which we are meeting based on the 2022 survey, and any new information we learn from this self-assessment. The last part of the process will involve an on-site accreditation survey with Accreditation Canada assessors the week of November 6, 2023.

 CT Scans and IVs

Patients < 2 yrs old, can have any type of patent IV.

               If you have a patient > 2yrs old, ASK the tech : 

          Does this test require a pressurized infuser or can the contrast be                                           pushed? 

State your case as to why you can't start a new IV... psych trauma, difficult poke etc. They can clarify with radiologist if they can get away with pushing contrast. Some tests require a steady infusion of contrast, hence they will need a IV that is pressure rated so they can use their pressure infuser.  BRAUN cathlons are not pressure rated. No matter the size of braun inserted, they are not acceptable if they need pressure infusion contrast.

                       - if they CAN push it, it doesn't matter where, size or brand of IV.

                       - If they CANNOT push it due to the type of test, then they will require at minimum a 22g above the wrist. NO BRAUN IVs. 

KUDOS

Cherie and Tanzly for starting another great orientation for our new staff :)

Angeli, Tessa, Leif and Mel C for going above and beyond to support our new PICU transfer. 

Twila for getting her TLR to help with Ed days. 

Support staff for working hard!! You guys have been short lots this last while, it hasn' t been unnoticed and we are working on it. 

Have a great weekend!!!   

Weekly Update Sept 1, 2023

Accreditation  

JPCH will be going through accreditation this fall. ​Accreditation Canada is the independent third party organization that creates best practice standards and assesses compliance with these standards. The first part of the Accreditation Canada process is a staff/physician/resident self-assessment of our practice relative to the Accreditation Canada Standards.

ACCESS THE SELF-ASSESSMENT with the following link: Inpatient Services Self-Assessment. Assessment end date is September 22, 2023.The self-assessments are anonymous and confidential.

Please see the What Is a Self-Assessment document for more information as needed. 

Once the self-assessment is done we will be talking more about the standards, most of which we are meeting based on the 2022 survey, and any new information we learn from this self-assessment. The last part of the process will involve an on-site accreditation survey with Accreditation Canada assessors the week of November 6, 2023. 

Educator updates

When admitting a patient for chemotherapy, please remember that BW is NOT drawn on the day of chemotherapy. Any bloodwork needed will be drawn in the Ca Clinic or on the unit the day prior.  Accidently drawing bloodwork the day of chemotherapy runs the risk that chemo may be cancelled for that patient.  If in doubt, please always check with an experienced chemotherapy nurse.

An updated Carb counting list for diabetics is up on the S-drive.  Look in Q-cards – Carb Counting

Violence prevention mitigation and de-escalation tips

Verbal threats and violence have the potential to exist in any interaction, especially in health care settings where emotions are high. Knowing some basic verbal and non-verbal communication skills can help prevent issues from occurring or escalating.

Verbal communication includes the words you choose to use and the way in which you use them.

·     Focus your attention on the person and let them know you are interested in what they are saying

·     Remain calm

·     Be conscious of how you are delivering your words

·     Speak slowly and confidently at a volume appropriate for your surroundings

·     Do not use complex words or acronyms

·     Listen carefully, do not interrupt, and do not offer unsolicited advice or criticism

·     Encourage the person to talk. Ask questions that require a lengthy explanation, as this can defuse the intensity of the interaction.

·     Try to understand why the person is upset. Use statements like, “Help me to understand why you are upset.”

Non-verbal communication skills include your body language and positioning.

·     Focus on having a relaxed posture, with hands unclenched and visible, and with an attentive expression

·     Match the other person’s physical level; sit or squat rather than standing over them

·     Give the other person about three feet of space from you and positon yourself at a right angle rather than directly in front of the person

For more information check out:

CCOHS: Violence and Harassment in the Workplace - Dealing with Negative Interactions

Professional Assault Response Training (saswh.ca) – page 35

Workplace Assessment and Violence Education - Workplace Assessment and Violence Education (saswh.ca) – page 12

KUDOS

All staff that worked Sept 1st. We were short support workers and they ran their feet off! Lots of nursing support so great team work!

All staff that worked on our power outage Aug 28th. Scary situation but it was handled very well, special thanks to Kelly M and Brook O for your leadership.