“Who Tipped my Cow?” Change is a sometimes evil necessity. To be honest who really likes change? Ask any group of people: young students, adults in the workforce, or retired elderly. No one is very fond of change. Nursing is not so different; traditional practices become entrenched and resistant to change—these are commonly referred to as “sacred cows” (Hanrahan, Wagner, Matthews, Stewart, Dawson, Greiner, &… Williamson, 2015, p. 3). In order to increase patient safety, many hospital units are implementing change based on the latest evidence based practice (EBP). It therefore becomes important to replace our “sacred cows” with practices that is supported by EBP. This journal entry will illustrate such a change involving the handling of expressed breast milk in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where I work, using Lewin’s change theory of unfreezing, movement, and refreezing.
“Sacred Cow” In my NICU, nurses have always received express breast milk (EBM) from the …show more content…
Some of these errors included, fortifying more EBM then the infant needed within a 24 hour period, failing to place the proper color circles on the bottle, and not knowing how much EBM was available for the infant. More serious issues included placing infant’s milk in the wrong bin, feeding an infant the wrong EBM, and sending home the wrong EBM with a parent upon discharge of their infant. Breastmilk misadministration (when the wrong milk reaches the wrong patient) is considered a bodily fluid exposure (Choc-Children’s, 2016, p. 1). Exposure to the wrong EBM is a patient safety issue. While the risk of infection is low, breastmilk is a bodily fluid and concerns about transmission of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV exist (Choc-Children’s, 2016, p. 3). When risk outweigh benefits of a “sacred cow” it is time to give her a good tipping and put her out to pasture. This process must involve
“Sacred Cow” In my NICU, nurses have always received express breast milk (EBM) from the …show more content…
Some of these errors included, fortifying more EBM then the infant needed within a 24 hour period, failing to place the proper color circles on the bottle, and not knowing how much EBM was available for the infant. More serious issues included placing infant’s milk in the wrong bin, feeding an infant the wrong EBM, and sending home the wrong EBM with a parent upon discharge of their infant. Breastmilk misadministration (when the wrong milk reaches the wrong patient) is considered a bodily fluid exposure (Choc-Children’s, 2016, p. 1). Exposure to the wrong EBM is a patient safety issue. While the risk of infection is low, breastmilk is a bodily fluid and concerns about transmission of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV exist (Choc-Children’s, 2016, p. 3). When risk outweigh benefits of a “sacred cow” it is time to give her a good tipping and put her out to pasture. This process must involve