Good nurse, bad nurse’ skit drives lesson home
One education manager has found a highly effective way to teach nurses about universal precautions and also to remind them to change bad habits.
Anne Krishfield, RN, staff education coordinator of VNA of Upper Cape Cod in Falmouth, MA, gave a bag technique skit in which she played two roles: In one, she was the nurse who followed all the universal precaution measures perfectly; in the other, she didn’t.
"I did a quick visit of a nurse who did all kinds of things wrong: She dropped a needle, dropped the dressing on the floor," Krishfield explains. "Then I left and came back as the good nurse, and she did all the right things of following the barrier procedure and washing hands."
The patient was portrayed by a supervisor at the nonprofit full-service agency that serves the entire Upper Cape Cod area, south of Boston.
Krishfield’s skit showed a nurse treating a wound care patient. She presented it to classes of 10 to 12 nurses.
Bad nurse! Bad!
The first thing the "bad" nurse did was put the bag on the floor without a barrier, such as a plastic bag. When she opened the bag, the nurses could see that the bag was overflowing, and she rummaged through the bag with dirty hands.
Then the nurse took off the patient’s dressing with dirty hands and dropped it on the floor. Then the bad nurse drew the patient’s blood without wearing her gloves, and she jammed the dirty needle into a full sharps container.
The "good" nurse walked into the patient’s home and immediately placed her bag on a barrier. Then she washed her hands. The supervisor/patient complained, as the agency often hears patients complain, "How come you are washing your hands again? What’s the matter with my house? Isn’t it clean?"
Undaunted, the good nurse launched into a technical explanation of why she must wash her hands. Then she opened her bag, which was well organized and put on her gloves before treating the patient.
"Just for fun, I wore my old nursing hat, which no one does anymore, and a white jacket," Krishfield adds.
Then her good nurse applied bleach to the dressing before wrapping it in a double bag and placing it in the trash.
Krishfield says her staff’s reactions to the skit were positive.
"Someone told me later that she thinks of the skit every time she looks for a place to put her bag."
[Editor’s note: Anne Krishfield can be reached at VNA of Upper Cape Cod, 67 Ter Heun Drive, Falmouth, MA 02540; or by calling (508) 548-0411.
To contribute to Tips from the Field, write Melinda Young, editor of Homecare Education Management, at 311 W. Earle St., B-9, Greenville, SC 29609; or call (864) 233-1163 or fax to (864) 271-6163.]
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