Nursing Lyfe 101
Welcome to Nursing Lyfe 101! 🩺✨
Join Colby and Christopher, two seasoned nurses navigating the highs and lows of healthcare, as they share personal stories, practical advice, and insights on nursing, wellness, and career growth. Whether you're a student, a new grad, or an experienced RN, Nursing Lyfe 101 is your go-to for real talk on life in scrubs, mental health, and tips to thrive inside and outside the hospital.
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Nursing Lyfe 101
Navigating Frugality and Waste: Stories from the Frontlines of Nursing
The podcast explores the frugality within nursing practice and the dichotomy between wastefulness and cost-saving measures in healthcare. The co-hosts delve into the impact of supply changes on patient care, the implications of recent hospital practices, and the importance of meal prepping to maintain wellness in a demanding profession.
• Discussion on waste vs. frugality in nursing
• Impact of supply changes on patient care quality
• Consequences of the Baxter plant shutdown on healthcare
• Role of nurses in managing costs and awareness
• Meal prepping strategies for improved self-care
• Note on hospital profit margins affecting care decisions
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Welcome to Nursing Lyfe 101, the most important nursing class you never got to take in nursing school. We will be traversing different objectives, like interviewing, what to do in nursing school, boundaries, burnout and so much more. If this interests you, I hope you are taking good notes because class is now in session. Hello and welcome to Nursing Lyfe 101. We're so excited to have you here with us as we dive into the world of nursing, sharing our experiences, insights and a little bit of fun along the way. I'm Christopher and I couldn't be happier to introduce my co-host.
Colby:Hey guys, it's Colby. Together, we'll be bringing you real stories, practical tips and discussions about all things nursing, whether you're a fellow nurse or just curious about the life behind scrubs. We're thrilled to have you join us.
Christopher:We survived the holidays, we've made it through and now we are in 2025, selling. But one thing that I've realized is that, as nurses, we do two things we either are very wasteful or overly frugal, and it's weird. It's a weird dichotomy that nurses have to go through. So I want to talk about the frugality of nursing and the frugality of hospitals in general. Do you believe that hospitals are frugal?
Colby:Do I think hospitals are frugal? I think it's really easy to say no. If you think about how much waste we create day to day. That's inevitable, right. But I do think that they try. I do think hospital systems try to be more mindful, or thoughtful, where they can. I mean you can't reuse a pair of gloves, you can't use a syringe more than one, like per one time, per one patient.
Christopher:I mean you can, but you shouldn't.
Colby:Right, it's not okay to you know, because of risk of spreading disease and everything else. So there's certain things that inevitably it's just not in healthcare's nature to be frugal with. But I will say in the complete opposite. My other opinion on it is that hospitals cut costs everywhere they can and I think sometimes you'll see that, like in the quality of our supplies, when they'll you can tell when they're changing a brand, because all of a sudden something new pops up in the supply room and like you can just tell it looks cheaper in comparison to what you were using before. And that's just the cold hard truth and it happens at every hospital.
Christopher:What's the most recent one that you're like? Why did they do this?
Colby:I think our IVs are something I've noticed recently. They keep rotating different styles of IVs. Really, you know the longer ones and they have the shorter ones. Yeah yeah, those keep rotating.
Christopher:Well, I know that the 22 definitely has been the one that's kind of been fluctuating back and forth.
Colby:I think the 22s and the 20s, the pinks and the blues, I feel like, change often. The greens, I feel like, because they probably aren't. Yeah, they're not putting 18s in as often as they are 22s and 20s. So I feel like maybe the idea is still to change to whatever new ones, but we just haven't blown through the supply yet.
Christopher:I hope not, because I like the ones that we use.
Colby:I like our longer ones.
Colby:I feel like I just got used to that feeling. I mean, you put in way more IVs than me We've discussed that but I feel like I struggle with the smaller ones, which is funny, because I used to be better with smaller ones and then I got used to the longer ones which is funny, because I used to be better with smaller ones and then I got used to the longer ones. And I feel like I have to go back to getting used to it. But you can tell. You can tell in our supplies, like when things change, oh, must've been a price cut here. Like let me find, let them find the cheapest thing, Um, yeah. So I think it goes both ways.
Christopher:And that's really sad, honestly, because when, when nursing is doing the work and they've become accustomed to the work that they're doing and we switch something up like that, it doesn't sound like something so simple as an IV switch product would make such a. It doesn't sound like something so simple as an IV switch Product. Yeah, yeah, product would make such a difficult transition, but, if I'm not mistaken, the ones that they're switching to they don't have an auto-retract.
Colby:They don't. It's like old school. Right, yeah, it doesn't have an auto-retract. It has a piece of metal that goes over the tip.
Christopher:Right.
Colby:But yeah, it's like really, it's like really old school kind of janky it is, and that's that's I mean.
Christopher:People can, because you don't, you're not aware and you're not used to it, you can accidentally stick yourself like there's a lot of other things that can come of this because of and you can roll out a new product, all you want and do all kinds of in services, but it doesn't. That's not gonna stop, you're not gonna hit everyone yeah and not everyone's gonna be able to learn in the 10 minute in service that you do yeah, it's a lot of.
Colby:You have to be I mean truly and we talk about this a lot as well but, like in our field, you have to be very flexible and like you gotta, you gotta be willing to make quick changes. It is. And so it's really hard for for staff to be, like you know, feeling confident when they go into a storeroom and then all of a sudden it's a new product and we're like, well shoot, never used this before, let me figure this out. And like we of course, want to go into a patient room and have an encounter with them that we're exuding confidence, like we know what we're doing, even though I've never used this IV before.
Christopher:See? Well, and that's the thing, especially with IVs, because most people don't like to get poked.
Colby:Right, yeah, and that's the thing. It's like you're using a new product that and I'll be honest they haven't gone through and done in-services on the new product. No, I haven't, and it's very different from what we have been using.
Christopher:It is.
Colby:So you're going in there and it's your first time actually putting an IV in a human with this. Maybe that you practice with the mechanics of it. You opened one up and do it. I mean that's what I did because I was like I've never seen this before. But then you put it in a human and it's a completely you know different situation and you miss because you're not used to the product. So you know it affects your patient care as well.
Christopher:It does so like? Do you think that the reservation for, like, switching new products in hospitals or not, not reservation, but their willingness to switch products in order to save an extra buck here or there? Do you think that same mindset transitions to other practices in the hospital? So, like your nursing your's, your doctors, do you think they are just as willing to in in their specific practice?
Colby:I think it depends, and I think it depends on how much like I think a lot of it falls into nursing, because we are the patient forward, like caregivers, where, like we're we're doing things. Um, I think, just think we're doing things with the patients constantly and have more of an awareness of cost, like even if it's in the back of your mind, so like even if we're not talking about supply room or products and stuff like that. For example, we do ekgs all the time on patients and like one EKG at our hospital system costs anywhere between like $250 to $350. I'm glad you knew that. Yeah, it's like one EKG, that much.
Colby:And sometimes a provider like I'll be like I'll message a provider and say, hey, this patient just had 15 beats of VTAC. They were asymptomatic, their vital signs are fine and they're like, can you get an EKG? Why would I? And in this case the VTAC is gone, they're now back into their normal sinus rhythm. Like what is the clinical indication of getting this EKG? Like I didn't capture it and I can't just like make it happen again. Like this EKG is 350. Do we really need this?
Christopher:it's just going to show normal sinus so I I mean honestly, I didn't even know that was the pricing for an ekg.
Colby:And knowing that, kind of makes you question like oh that's, that's a good thing.
Colby:And so, like you, like you said you didn't know that our, our lips don't necessarily know that either, and like, and it's not even, it's not about laziness, and I think that's like, maybe, and maybe I'm making an assumption and I shouldn't be, but I think sometimes that the per, the providers, think like, oh, it's just laziness, that nurse doesn't want to get that ekg, it's, it really just doesn't seem clinically indicated, and like let's not charge this patient that might not have the best insurance or might not have any insurance for an ekg.
Christopher:That's not necessary yeah, like what's going to change in the the long in the plan of care of that patient, like if we get this ekg when there's nothing, if they weren't sustained cool absolutely, we would want to get one, yeah right like, but yeah, I, I didn't even think about that yeah, so that so like circling back, I do think it's.
Colby:I do think it's kind of all not it's not going to always fall into the nurse's hands but or onto our plates to kind of be more mindful with those things. But it is kind of also part of our job to like educate everybody, including the providers that are, you know, maybe above us and and and even like people that are below us, like our techs and whatnot.
Christopher:Right, like our techs and whatnot Right. Well, and you know that's one thing that management also tries to do is one thing we're struggling with specifically on our unit is that we have, luckily, all private rooms, but with that it's a larger footprint with a lot of walking anywhere you go on the unit. So a lot of people are getting glucose strips and they'll put it in a patient room because they know that this patient was, you know, had a blood sugar ACHS, but then that patient leaves and there's only half of the canister used, like we've just wasted a half canister for one patient. But if you multiply that by, let's just say, a third of the unit, which is 28 beds, so seven patients times seven a day, you know yeah seven days in a week, that's 49 empty, half empty canisters right so like that's a lot that's a huge problem.
Colby:We have going on too and insulin insulin bottles yeah, to go with that in in' rooms and it's like well overall.
Christopher:I think there are different hospitals that do different things with insulin, but our current health system does not use a communal insulin vial.
Colby:Yeah, it's, each patient has their own vial.
Colby:Right, which that, in my my opinion, is very wasteful it is and it's not like and I've worked at other health systems where there was like one one vial and it just stayed in the in the pixis pocket and you were. You pulled up the insulin that you needed and then you put it back in the pocket and gave your patient the insulin For sure. That's definitely a more frugal approach. I personally just think I like one bottle per patient, but the problem that we're getting at with this is that people leave them in their pockets, accidentally, take them home, and by people I mean nursing staff. They get left at the bedside, which is a big no-no with Jayco, but also like someone will go looking for it and not find it in the patient bin. So they'll pull a brand new bottle and then they get to the patient's room and there's like already one or maybe two, because somebody already did that the last time.
Christopher:So then they have like an isolation room, so you can't take it.
Colby:You can't take it back, you can't put it back in in the fix, this to be used. So that definitely is another example of of wastefulness. That happens for sure.
Christopher:Yeah, and it's one of those things where there's no good way to fix, fix it.
Colby:Yeah, it just requires heavy policing by your leadership and that is very tedious, amongst other things. So a big thing that we have around with insulin is not only the strips, but we also like the QC material, our quality control material, to test our glucometers. There's really like no reason why you wouldn't have like one or two of each, the high and the low for the entire unit, but for some reason we have like 15 bottles of that and it also expires in three months.
Colby:Like there's no way you're going to go through like 15 bottles of high expires in three months, right Like. There's no way you're going to go through like 15 bottles of high and low in three months, no Like then it's going to be expired. Then you throw it away and it's expensive. That's another expensive like material that we use.
Christopher:And it's in this small bottle.
Colby:Yeah, they're like. Maybe, like I don't. All you need is like one drop per test. So, or maybe it's more than 10 ml's, but they're tiny little dropper bottles and three months has expired, you throw it in the trash. There's like if you only have one or two open, so maybe one or two texts could be doing qcs at the same time right which also is not necessary.
Colby:You just one do the highs and then one do the lows and then switch. Like there's just like I feel like it's actually funny they brought it up because I feel like my floor specifically used to be really good about it but then there's just been like this slow culture shift where, like we've just been like whatever, everyone take a bottle yeah and it's, and that's what it it really boils down to your leadership being tedious about.
Christopher:but then it's, like you know, I'm getting more seasoned in the management role, but I don't think I would have wanted me, as a manager, to be like Christopher. I went into your room today and saw insulin vials and like yeah, you're like that's so far down on my list of like things I need to do or be worried about right now.
Colby:Get out of my face.
Christopher:I just had a code in room five and was in that for an hour I don't care about get out. Get out of my face.
Colby:Yeah, that's like the same thing when management's like your name's not on the whiteboard. Luckily my manager's not bad about that. I hope you're not bad about that. But I know it's like a running joke in health care that the managers come in and they're like, hey, oh, you haven't eaten all day. What a bummer. But your name isn't on your whiteboards.
Christopher:Shut up, yeah, but it's just so. But then we as management try to implement something that's not as like in your face as that and you like, for example, we I'm just going along this whole glucose strip thing we decided that we were going to implement a glucose strip like strategic saving plan, strategic saving plan, okay. And so everybody was supposed to come to get their glucose strips in the morning. When they got there, we use we use a like walkie talkie like type of device to get a hold of each other on the unit, and so they were supposed to come get their glucose strips at that time. Well, we implemented it. Granted, there were some oversights on my part, like we should have labeled the number for each glucose strip and then have it come back so that we knew who was missing what. But practically a week after, people were still just getting glucose strips out of nowhere. But we were still having glucose and it was just we had way too many glucose strips.
Colby:Interesting, so people were just taking them out of the supply room anyways. And I'm like what did I do all this hard work for? Yeah, I get that. Yeah.
Christopher:So yeah it's hard. It's hard.
Colby:It's definitely, it's definitely hard when I feel like we work in such a fast paced environment and we need something, we need it right then.
Christopher:So you always want to have it, like readily available, and that that alone, like that thought process, contributes a lot of wastefulness yeah, yeah, I, I don't know, I don't know what what to do in terms of because, you're right, nurses, nurses are mindful of at least the pricing of things.
Christopher:Certain things that we do, often, depending on the unit that you're on, you probably know, like, for example, antithymocyte globulin which is nicknamed rabbit because it's synthesized, but it's all an immunosuppressive medication costs close to 16 grand a bag, and so we're very mindful of not doing the pre-medications until we absolutely see the bag, making sure that the bag isn't tubed in the tube station, making sure that it's not jostled or shaken because it can really mess up the bag in, because it can really mess up the the, the bag, yeah, and you know that is something that we, as a transplant unit, are very mindful of. So we are very frugal on what we do and making sure we do what we're supposed to so people don't, right, have to pay for this expensive medication. Have you ever thought about when we were in COVID and you were traveling during that time and I was just coming out of my year of um?
Colby:like our wastefulness with ppe yeah yeah, it's interesting how every hospital had different take and it. You know, obviously, like in the beginning of when things were really bad and we just didn't have enough supplies and like some hospitals were legitimately giving their staff like trash bags, it was pretty wild, yeah, um, because supplies were so short and that we were like reusing n95s and like keep the same n95 all day. We're into, in and out of other patients rooms. Um, then they then they developed a process where they could like sanitize their n95s, so that made it a little bit better. But you know, it was like months before they got to that point.
Colby:Um, forgot they did that yeah, and then the gowns themselves. So at our health system I don't know that we ever used anything but the disposable ones. Yeah, did we. Okay, um, because in the beginning we were, we definitely were so, and then I left in the middle to go travel and then when I came back, we're still using the disposables. But when I was traveling I worked in different hospitals where they had um, both disposable disposable, excuse me, um, but on the covid unit specifically, we were. We were wearing um like reusable um gowns, not like to be reused in the same day, but they went and were laundered and then they came back to the unit so they were made out of like a plasticky, vinyl-y interesting yeah, some.
Colby:I don't actually know what the actual fabric was, but it was like it was kind of like a plasticky um type fabric and I'd use those almost poncho yeah, kind of almost like a rain poncho, but thicker um, and we had used those those other health systems too that I worked at um, which is interesting like it's. There's definitely some question around like truly having a clean product going in um like do you trust the cleaning process, the sanitizing process that those went through um, and wanting to keep your, your like footprint, your you know carbon dioxide footprint small as far as a hospital, and like um really reduce, reuse, recycle kind of mindset um versus like knowing that you're you're wearing something that's clean. I mean, I feel like on some level, it's like you're definitely just having to put trust in the company that is sanitizing those gowns for you. So, in a sense of frugality, if that is a word, the reusable gowns were good with how much we were needing to use them during COVID, but there was some question behind like is this really our best option?
Christopher:Right Were you at our current health system when they decided to just say you just need the isolation gowns for C, diff or enteric precautions. Now and COVID, no Wait.
Colby:C-diff or enteric precautions now and covet no wait so they said temporarily we didn't need them for like regular, like mersa vre, that sort of stuff. Oh, and that was just during covet, because now we're definitely wearing them, yeah wow, that's interesting, but yeah, in order to conserve.
Christopher:We were doing that, but the question is why did we go back?
Colby:Yeah, if it was okay then why did we? Go back. Real interesting. I feel like policies were bent and Maybe even broken. And broken to make things work during a very difficult time.
Christopher:Yeah.
Colby:But it really made me question the safety that it provided for other patients and ourselves. Like I think it's fair to say, like I often joke about it, that oh, like I'm just going to throw like just throw gloves on to go like sign off this heparin drip real quick and in a MRSA isolation, like we all have MRSA anyways. That's like a joke, but like also legitimately, if I don't have it, I don't want to get it.
Christopher:So I would prefer to continue wearing my gown well, yeah, and but which is which was very interesting, like, yeah, you were still having, you had to still wear gloves, right?
Christopher:yeah but you didn't have to wear a gown. And I think I mean, depending on what scrubs you're wearing, depends on how much your skin is actually exposed. But I'm one that doesn't wear a long sleeve shirt underneath my scrub top. I usually just use either. Well, excuse me, I usually just stay away from T-shirts. I don't wear T-shirts because I need my pockets. Yeah, but in terms of, I usually just have short sleeves so I can see how MRSA could definitely get onto my skin. But really and truly most people during COVID and I do believe most people. Well, let's not make gross generalizations. Christopher, I know I do and I think, if I'm not mistaken, you do. You practically take off your scrubs right when you get into your apartment.
Christopher:When I get home, I change yeah like and so like it's not like we're trying to and I don't know I I have a separate like laundry bin bag.
Colby:Oh, you take it a step further than I do.
Christopher:I'm like scrubs here and I'm sure most honestly I'm sure most people do.
Colby:I'm a little more gross where I just throw it all in the same hamper. But well, that's me but.
Christopher:I'm also not one to like. You know, there are some nurses that are like I'm hopping in the shower right after.
Colby:Yeah, I don't shower. Wash my Facebook. It's hopping in the shower right after.
Christopher:Yeah, I don't shower right after wash my facebook link. It's good to go exactly so. It's just interesting to kind of see that we, as a very developed country, had this very for lack of a better word third world country like mindset yeah where we were like really saving, really being mindful of just what we're using, and I, I really think as a whole america could benefit from that.
Christopher:Um, and I think, but I think there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a fine line, because if we're just cutting corners, cutting corners to save money, and that money isn't going back into those doing the work, don't worry about it. If it's going back to the C-suite or the extra added position that came out of nowhere because somebody asked for a position like yeah, yeah, if it's not, if it's not going to positively affect actual patient care being given, don't worry about it.
Colby:Keep spending your money, I guess. But yeah, I think that's when you said it's a fine line like. It's a fine line between like, are we cutting corners to benefit patient care or are we cutting corners to line your line? The C-suite pockets. And I think, unfortunately, there's a huge which everybody is aware of in the US, as evidenced by a hot topic that's gone on in the last few months. But there you know talk about that briefly about the shooting of the United healthcare.
Colby:Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's exactly what I'm getting at. I mean, it's a huge problem in in healthcare, whether it's like big pharma or insurance companies or the hospital C CEOs and and other you know chief executive positions where most of the money is going into their pockets and it's negatively impacting patient care. So unfortunate truth that's been happening in the US.
Christopher:Well and I think a lot of that comes from most of the C-suite doesn't have a clue what bedside does comes from, most of the C-suite doesn't have a clue what bedside does.
Colby:Yeah, I mean, you'll even find that there's people in the C-suite that have never even been in the same room with a patient, like they've never been a healthcare giver in any form or fashion. It's kind of like how did you get in this spot?
Christopher:What were you thinking?
Colby:Yeah, or it's been so long they don't recognize the actual job anymore.
Christopher:Right.
Colby:They're really out of touch.
Christopher:Which is sad Mm-hmm. So now it's time for our newest segment Health Check. As nurses, we're constantly bombarded with health trends, advice and the latest miracle solutions. But let's be real not all of it's backed by science and not everything fits into our busy life.
Colby:Exactly so. In Health Check, we're taking a closer look at these trends. Each episode, we'll pick a topic, from nutrition and mental health to self-care and exercise, and break down what's actually helpful versus what's just hype.
Christopher:This isn't about giving generic tips. It's about sharing insights we can rely on as nurses and people with busy schedules. Today, we're diving into meal prepping for a shift. Let's find out what really makes a difference and what's just noise.
Colby:Meal prepping I meal prep.
Christopher:I know you do. I was like this is going to be right up Colby's alley. I meal prep. I was hoping at least.
Colby:Yeah, well, I think it's so easy to just eat junk at work, because how often are you getting a break long enough to eat? It's like very rare. But, and there's always like candy and snacks somehow, like you know, maybe a family member dropped it off, maybe your manager was feeling real guilty about something and they brought you in pizza. There's always an opportunity to eat something bad. But I try really, really hard while I'm working to like fill my fuel, my body, with like food that's actually good for me.
Colby:So I like to meal prep and I like make it as simple as I can. Like sheet pan meals are my go-to. Like pick a vegetable, a starch, a protein, cook it up on a sheet pan, put it in, put it in your container and you know you're good to go. You pop that in the microwave for a minute and you can stand there and eat it real fast, but at least like you're getting something that's more balanced than, like chocolate and cheese right, or you could go my route and just um take out order all the time yeah, christopher exclusively eats out.
Colby:No, you've gotten better. I have gotten a lot better.
Christopher:Yeah, I really do and to go with the meal prepping. I think, in terms of, you are lucky to be able to work in a position that your days of the week is only three days in a full week where most people have to work five days a week. So if you're thinking about meal prepping, just meal prep for those three days.
Christopher:Yeah Right, like you don't have to worry about prepping for a whole week and that's the cool thing. But then if you are like man I hate grocery shopping or if you're new to cooking I'm not new to cooking but if you're new to cooking or if you're just like I I my skills are okay I kind of need some guidance. There are are wonderful like services out there. There's there's hello fresh, there's, blue apron there's. I am not endorsing any of them, but this is not a sponsored ad, right, I just I'm saying, but it is a good, it's a good nurse hack.
Christopher:Right.
Colby:And there's a lot of us that use that. There's also um oh shoot factor meals. I think that's like all the rage right now a lot of nurses do it and okay one. It's expensive, so I'll give you.
Christopher:If you do those, it could be expensive what the factor is it ranges, you get good deals really and truly I I'm using a service. Uh. Purple Carrot Blue Apron.
Colby:That's another one, though Blue Apron.
Christopher:I'm using Purple Carrot, which is a vegan-specific one. I'm spending between $150 and $200 a week. That's how much I would buy at the grocery store.
Colby:Okay, what about when you're ordering out? Is that less or more?
Christopher:Oh, that's definitely less okay. Yeah, it works for you.
Colby:I think you just have to do the cost benefit analysis for yourself and decide like, would this, is this actually like worth it, based off what you normally do? But I think what you really need to consider is is the actual type of food that you are taking, and it's so easy for us to not take care of ourselves and I feel like, however you meal prep, meal prepping is going to provide that nutrition that you need to keep going in these shifts.
Christopher:Yeah, and to go along the meal prepping and you know, yes, we are in a very fast-paced setting setting, yeah, but you really that 30 minutes is essential. You really need to take that 30 minutes.
Christopher:You really need to take that 30 minutes yes, you do um, because and it's because there's there's scientific proof that you actually are more productive when you take that 30 minutes away from the, the unit and allow yourself to disconnect. Don't, if you have a way to like, silence any type of notification that you get from your unit secretary, your huck, your pct, anything. You really need to do that because ultimately that is going to help you finish your shift and be more productive and have a better respect or relationship with your patients. That's one thing I'm saying, because I don't do.
Colby:The truth comes out. I was just sitting here kind of nodding but I was like I never take my break.
Christopher:You really need to take that 30 minutes.
Colby:No, you should, you really should.
Christopher:And really and truly. This is also something I, as an A&M, am more than willing to make sure that my staff members, my patient, my staff members, get a break, and if they come and ask me, hey, christopher, can you cover me for 30 minutes, I will gladly do it. Yeah, 100%, and you need managers that do that.
Colby:Yeah, you do, yeah. So what do you think? Meal prepping is this a? Is it worth the hype or is it just noise?
Christopher:100% worth the hype.
Colby:I agree yeah 100%. It's setting you up for success.
Christopher:Yeah, do it on your day off and plan for the three days. You know, make a little extra for the day that you're making it so that you Get a little dinner or lunch out of it.
Colby:I think there's a ton of, there's a ton of um resources for you to like make this as easy as possible to like. You can look on Pinterest, you can just literally do a Google search, youtube, whatever Like if you don't want to do one of the like pre prepped meal services that we mentioned before. But, um, yeah, there's a ton of stuff that makes it really easy, and I just think I really champion this. I think it's really important to fuel your bodies with really good, healthy foods and try to have a snack that warms your heart. It's not that you shouldn't have the chocolate and the pizza, but you don't want to make it like every day I'm going downstairs to the cafeteria and getting chicken fingers and french fries. You're not going to feel good, you're not. You're going to be dragging. It's going to make your shift feel even longer. You're going to be miserable. So I always you know I always really stress the importance of eating well.
Christopher:The grease is heavy.
Colby:The grease is heavy.
Christopher:That's true no-transcript. Yeah, that's a really cool option as well. Let us know we are always willing to listen to what you are doing, because who knows? We might pick it up too.
Colby:If you have any good recipes, we can post them on the Patreon.
Christopher:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back to the fact that hospitals do. It's, like I said, a weird dichotomy of being wasteful and being pretty frugal. We mentioned it briefly. During the holiday season, hurricane Helene hit North Carolina extremely hard it was like devastating and it was in. I would have never thought a area that was not on the the coast right apparently ashville is more of a mountainous uh town town, yeah city town, and and there was a huge IV fluid factory called Baxter. That was in that actual town, or that area, I think.
Colby:Yep. And it wiped out that Baxter plant, demolished the plant where there was also facilities um, on site. That house like uh, like a backup supply also of ivy bags. So they make ivy bags with all different kinds of fluids.
Christopher:But they also had like a housing for, like a backup supply yeah, and that, interestingly enough, has impacted the entire country and has actually impacted some countries outside of the United States. What have you noticed in our health system's ideas to conserve the IV fluids?
Colby:Pretty immediately they were sending out like mass wide, like hospital wide notifications that was coming from Baxter as well. Um, about immediately having to do like being conservative with our IV bag use. Um, immediately, like our health system canceled a bunch of surgeries, Like anything that was elective was completely taken off the table and then, like even things that weren't necessarily elective but non-emergent were also taken off the table. They were, they were running pretty like skeleton as far as like running the ORs and like any kind of procedure where you know uh, influx and influx of IV bag usage would be the case. So I think, immediately our conservation went to canceling procedures and surgeries. And then they actually changed a lot of protocols around, like how soon a bag of IV fluids would be quote unquote expired after being spiked.
Colby:They increased the amount of time that we can let a bag be running. And then also, it's pretty common practice normally to use an IV bag of saline or some other kind of fluid as like a, as a like prime, priming the line and then hanging in antibiotic, for example, as a secondary line. And we switched for right now to be our antibiotics. They're just running on one primary line without saline running as a primary first. What other things did you notice?
Christopher:One thing I've noticed is they are every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Notice is they are every monday, wednesday and friday. We're actually taking an account of how many bags of the like essential fluids, um, are being used, so how much that unit has um in their actual storeroom. I know that also in terms of the kind of antibiotic route is that they're running them longer to ensure that they're so that when the next one comes up you can then just switch the bag. You don't have to actually have that IV fluid the.
Christopher:KVO fluid that you have open. Now. That's all in the hospital. As I said, I work in a iv therapy place I didn't even think about.
Colby:Obviously it would affect the iv therapy right um, yeah which is the drip bar.
Christopher:I had said the the name of that before, but, um, yeah, that's. That's been interesting. Luckily, I guess the overarching drip bar, because it is a franchise.
Christopher:They had a store of fluids that we have to kind of be very mindful of what we're using and if we and majority everybody that works at the drip bar where we're located is really good at getting the IV started. You know there's very few that we actually turn away, but we can't, we can't just waste fluids now. We have to be very mindful of that yeah um, and some because of the fact that I I am kind of higher up in in the position. I have noticed that some other drip bars are like changing the pricing of their bags, because they're like oh interesting yeah, like making it more expensive.
Colby:Yeah, because if they spike it and then it goes to waste right, yeah, yeah, um, and so like there's that and well, do you guys not have a? This is kind of a little off topic, but you guys not have a practice where you like? Make sure you get the IV first before you prepare the fluids.
Christopher:Right. So it is different than in the hospital where, if you you know the there's the normal cadence for an IV at a hospital is you put in the IV, you connect the IV exit set, which is like that little tail on the actual IV, and then you have a lure lock that is able to be connected to the actual IV itself. Oh okay, we don't have that.
Colby:I see, yeah, you put in the IV and you hook the line right up to it instead of having the lure lock.
Christopher:Yeah, and so we just trust that the flash is where it's supposed to be. Now, as many of you may know, know, if you are using your iv skills, you can tell when a iv goes into the vein. It's smooth, it has very little resistance. There might be a vein like a valve valve. There you go, a valve that you're up against, and I've been able to float it even using the IV fluid.
Colby:Yeah, or like a flush.
Christopher:Yeah, but you know, we don't have flushes.
Colby:Oh yeah, that's right, because you don't have the lure luck. Yeah, that's a very good point. I, while you were talking, thought of another thing that happened to me. We had of me.
Colby:We had a patient who had a low blood glucose sugar of like 34 and at one point in our health system we use which you may as well in yours the d50 iv pushes like the, the big old ivs with that sticky syrup stuff that's in there. Yeah, um, and there was a shortage at one point, so they moved away from using those right, and so we had a different protocol in place that our health system, where it was like a bag, like a 250 bag of d10 but that's like infused over like 10 minutes or 15 minutes or something like that, and then you do your recheck after 15 minutes after that, and there was like a couple there's a couple different things all involving iv bags, and so when we went into the, when we went into the conservative like time, we were trying to conserve all of our fluids they got rid of all of that and we actually went back to pushing D50. So I had someone that was a blood glucose of 34.
Colby:And I was like, oh no, what are we going to do? Because we don't have the bags and I hadn't read the email all the way through.
Colby:I just skimmed this email, because they were sending us out emails every single day with like a PowerPoint that was like a hundred pages. So I was like I would just kind of like flip, flip, flip, flip, flip and like get the gist of it and be like, okay, got it. But I had missed that part, and so I like quickly opened up the patient's orders and I saw that they actually had D50 ordered.
Christopher:And I was like, oh, we brought that back, okay, no sweat. Like went and got it, pulled it and gave it, but that's another like major thing yeah that we've, that I noticed, and with d50 you really make sure that vein is oh yeah you need to make sure that the iv is working good.
Colby:I mean, and what? And I was doing teaching, in that moment I was like push it consistent and slow, don't push it super fast. I know that, like this patient's blood sugar is 34, but they're still talking to us right now so that you know they're not like, they're okay, but you are more than likely gonna blow this iv regardless, even if you are pushing it slow, because it's such a huge amount and it's so viscous and hard on our and hard on the veins, yeah, um. So be like, watch that spot, because as soon as you think it's blown, it's blown, pull it out and you're going to have to go to another IV to finish it Like it's, it's, it's. And that's probably probably the reason why, once the shortage on D50 was done, we didn't move back to it just because it's not. I mean, it's effective and quickly, but it's, it is very viscous and hard on the veins.
Christopher:I mean, you really just need a central line for that.
Colby:To give it the way you want it to be given when someone's blood sugar is 34, yeah, central line to push that through is much less stressful.
Christopher:Yeah, are there any other like that? You know of Things that you've had to be like. Oh, we're conserving for this weird reason.
Colby:Ooh, I'm trying to think of something I'm sure there has been, but you put me on the spot so I can't think of?
Christopher:I don't have one. I have not been in nursing long enough to really know.
Colby:I'm positive there has been, but I can't think of anything. When we're done recording, I'll be like oh, you want to know what I just thought of here. It is yeah, yeah, I mean, there's always something. I mean there's just yeah, there's always going to be something, Even if it's just specific to a hospital.
Christopher:You're going to notice that something is running low on supply of, and they're going to be sending out an email being like conserve this, conserve that well, I mean, even with um, the drip bar, like our vitamins, they, they also you have to worry about, like conservation of those as well, when, yes, it could be something that could be readily made or synthesized, but there are some, like magnesium, that tends to go a lot and you get a lot of it and you do use a lot, and sometimes you're going to be like I'm sorry, we can't. You know, we can't do that one today, that specific drip today, because we have very little drip today because we have very little, and it's unfortunate because that is a profit.
Christopher:You know that. Yeah, you know we have to build a profit for the drip bar. This is not a non-profit thing, right um so when you can't provide that, that medication, it's a profit loss for sure, yeah, which they could go to someone else who might happen to have it, which is sad.
Colby:Yeah, it's interesting what our health system did to make a difference in our usage, and it's pretty wild. How was this facility one of two in the US, or are there more?
Christopher:I think it was. I thought it was the only one. So when you said two, maybe it was just two then I could be wrong and if I am, that's, that's cool.
Colby:But I think there's one more like midwest, midwest or maybe more west out um there, but I don't think that they made I think the one that was in north carolina, either that they it was a bigger facility, or that maybe they make they focus on two different types or you know, not two different types, but like one focuses on a certain you know amount of these kinds and then one is the other kind. I'm not quite sure. Um, it's just wild how the effect of that one company, yeah, really created a issue across the world, across the us, but like it, you know, noticed around the world as far as supplies well, even to the point that, like people were like from other countries, were like did did we send you?
Christopher:did we send you money? Did we send you? Like IV fluids? Yeah, so I mean it does. It affects the world in terms of even just that, like, if they're trying to supply us with IV fluids, they have a certain amount of IV fluids they have to use.
Colby:In any of your research did you see if the U SS did accept from outside countries? I wonder how that would work with, like the FDA I didn't look All right, class dismissed.
Christopher:That's a wrap for today's session of Nursing Life 101. We hope you found some useful takeaways to bring back to the floor. Remember, nursing is a lifelong learning journey and we're here with you.
Colby:If you want to connect, find us on Twitter at NurseLife101, or on Facebook at NursingLife101. And don't forget to subscribe and share with fellow nurses. Until next time, take care of yourselves and keep making a difference out there.
Christopher:Conserve where you can you.
