Patients’ campaign groups have criticised the growing use of ‘do not disturb’ tabards worn by nurses in a bid to cut medication errors during drug rounds as sending out the wrong message.
The tabards are being used in a number of hospitals to try and reduce the risk of personnel being distracted by either patients or other staff, which can lead to mistakes being made. Such errors include giving patients the wrong dose or receiving medication intended for someone else.
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust is the latest to introduce the distinctive red tabards, which are worn during three daily drugs rounds, each of which lasts about 30 minutes.
But Joyce Robins, co-director of Patient Concern, told the Nursing Times that she was concerned the clothing sent out the wrong message to patients.
“It looks as if you’re saying – even if it’s not what’s intended – ‘don’t bother me. I’m too important’. There’s a bit of a feeling that nursing isn’t as caring as it used to be and things like this add to that,” she said.
Robins suggested that nurses might be advised to undertake a ward round before their drugs round to ensure that requests from patients were dealt with in advance as a means of avoiding any subsequent interruptions.
But nurses pointed out that the tabards could be helpful as long as they were used as part of a wider strategy, which included having sufficient staff on the ward.
Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Medication rounds can be complex and we would support measures, which ensure that staff are able to concentrate when carrying out this task on a busy ward.”
But he added that it was also important to be very clear that “ schemes like this must never become a cheaper substitute for having enough fully trained staff on every ward”.
One Response
Red tabards
The tabards do not say the nurse is too important, they say that medication round is important. How quick would they be to complain if they were the ones receiving the wrong medication. The wards are staffed by a team, the tabard is there to say that if patients require non urgent assistance they should approach a different member of the team. It’s petty nonsense like this that continually drives a wedge between nurses and their patients, the job is hard enough without these erroneous claims.