Recently I cared for a young man we'll call Fred. He had one of those patient-controlled pain pumps, where the patient can push the button and get pain meds through the IV whenever they want.
Well, there are limitations on the pumps. The nurses set a timed lockout on it per doctor protocol. So if the limit is one dose per 10 minutes, the patient can push the button a billion times and the pump will only deliver one dose in that 10 minutes.
Ok so back to Fred.
Nurses discovered that Fred was going through a syringe of pain medication in just a few hours. That is awfully quick for the rate he was supposed to be at.
They watch Fred a little more carefully and see that Fred has figured out the code to get into the settings menu on the pump, and has taken the liberty of allowing himself a dose every minute or so.
Tsk tsk Fred.. That is NOT the way to get on the good side of your nurses!
Updates and musings from one momma nurse
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