Hospital Converting Practice to Only Metric

Hi

I'm looking for examples of hospitals who have made the move to have their nurses document patient heights and weights in only metric values. Pediatric nurses are used to it but adult nurses are not. I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it.

Thanks Keisha
Quote from jonesy7625Hi I'm looking for examples of hospitals who have made the move to have their nurses document patient heights and weights in only metric values. Pediatric nurses are used to it but adult nurses are not. I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it. Thanks Keisha

I think we use strictly metric (or at least I remember converting height in inches to centimeters to put in the computer). I'm not 100% sure, I haven't been on an adult floor since November. It didn't seem particularly difficult. Our bed scales could provide measurements in pounds and kilograms and we had a little conversion chart at the nurses desk to convert inches to centimeters.

I've always worked pedi so that's all we did in the hospital. Scales were locked on kg and thermometers were locked on Celsius. Computer charting only allowed you to enter weight in kg, height in cm and temperature in Celsius.

Quote from jonesy7625I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it.

[QUOTE="Altra;7744969"] Educational program? Instead of "training" or an "educational program" how about use of a measuring device with the appropriate scale??[/I often chart patients stated height, which they give you in feet and inches. The average person doesn't usually tell you how tall they are in centimeters so I could see how training would be appropriate if the computer does not automatically do the conversion for you.

It disturbs me that there are hospitals that aren't yet all metric. Medicine is science based, and science is metric. It's even scarier to think that some hospitals are using metric in some areas and imperial in others. Way too much risk for error. My hospital has been metric as long as I've worked there.

Inches to cm multiply by 2.54Lbs to kg divide by 2.2.Educated!

Ismp just put out best practice recommendations on this so I'm happy to hear there are hospitals where they do not support entering both English and metric values into the computer. While we may get these values from out patients, we are in the frontline of making sure that the right information gets to the people that need it. And that information should be in metric. I work with hospitals that haven't made that transition yet so i hoped to hear how others have this made the change within their org and culture if standardization was new to them.

The various hospitals that I've worked at have strictly used the metric system. As far as doing it, basic math skills come in handy. After a while, you get used to it.

Quote from jonesy7625Ismp just put out best practice recommendations on this so I'm happy to hear there are hospitals where they do not support entering both English and metric values into the computer. While we may get these values from out patients, we are in the frontline of making sure that the right information gets to the people that need it. And that information should be in metric. I work with hospitals that haven't made that transition yet so i hoped to hear how others have this made the change within their org and culture if standardization was new to them.

Quote from jonesy7625Hi I'm looking for examples of hospitals who have made the move to have their nurses document patient heights and weights in only metric values. Pediatric nurses are used to it but adult nurses are not. I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it. Thanks Keisha

Inches to cm multiply by 2.54Lbs to kg divide by 2.2.Educated!