Last Weight Check

[coldhoist]

I have noticed that some nurses do not walk the patient to the weight station for their last weight check. The patient then has to yell out his/her weight to the nurse, who may be being setting up a machine.
This seems to me to be a violation of patient privacy and HPPA. Your weight should be your own business.
I also thought the nurse was supposed to walk the patient to the weight station just in case the patient might pass out.
Has anyone else seen this at your center? I think this is wrong. This is a Fresenius center.

[Paul]

I mostly dialyse in a Fresenius clinic, when I first dialysed and at the moment I am dialysing in a NHS hospital. In both of those, unless the patient is unstable, they go to the scales and weigh themselves alone. However they do not yell their weight across the clinic, they go back and tell the nurse their weight. Obviously a nurse will walk a patient to the scales if they are not sturdy on their feet (either because of dialysis or because that is the way they are) and some are pushed in wheelchairs. But it is common practice to let the patient weigh themselves. I think I'd feel a little patronised if a nurse helped me weigh myself.

[iolaire]

At my former US DaVita clinic they let people do as Paul shares. But generally the weight was shouted or you could put it on a slip of paper and leave it by the weight machine or hand it to the tech/put it by the computer keyboard as I usually did, unless the tech was still on the computer then I was more likely to shout it.

[Michael Murphy]

In the center I go to a Fresinius Clinic if your blood pressure is low or if you are having health issues you are escorted. When I returned 18 months ago from a major heart attack I was escorted to my chair from my chair to the scale back to my chair and finally out the door.  I began to feel weird about it like do they expect me to drop dead.   The death watch has not been removed but it has lessened.  Now they have a pad of paper and pencils by the scale if you want privacy write  your weight and name and give it to the charge nurse.  Personally I don’t care about calling out my weight no one looking at me would think I was thin but if I did I would walk over and tell the tech or nurse.

[Simon Dog]

Now they have a pad of paper and pencils by the scale if you want privacy write your weight and name and give it to the charge nurse.

The scales at DaVita print out little slips with the weight on them.  Good for patients suffering short-term memory problems, though they still may need an escort so they don;'t get lost on their way to their chairs.

[Paul]

In the center I go to a Fresinius Clinic if your blood pressure is low or if you are having health issues you are escorted.

In the Fresinius clinic I go to, if your blood pressure is low you are taken to the scales in a wheelchair. Happened once to me, I felt such a fool, especially when the nurses told transport to take me to the ambulance in it.

[PrimeTimer]

At hubby's Fresenius clinic they walk him to the scales and write it down. He says they never shout out someone's weight. He did say tho that sometimes they mutter profanities about each other under their breath but no, never shout out someone's weight.

[lulu836]

There are so many other more important things under God's sun to worry about besides who can hear or see anyone's dry weight.

[Michael Murphy]

In this day in age people grow up in a environment of bullying and fat shaming,  they are sensitive to weight issues if having there weight bandied about upsets them it upsets them, judging weather it should bother them or not is not a issue.  If it bothers them it’s medical information and they have a right to both their feeling and their privacy.

[PrimeTimer]

In this day in age people grow up in a environment of bullying and fat shaming,  they are sensitive to weight issues if having there weight bandied about upsets them it upsets them, judging weather it should bother them or not is not a issue.  If it bothers them it’s medical information and they have a right to both their feeling and their privacy.

Well said, Michael. I agree.

[lulu836]

I disagree but I have to pick my battles and bullying is not on my agenda.

[iolaire]

If it bothers them it’s medical information and they have a right to both their feeling and their privacy.

I agree, but I also see it sort of along the lines of getting a seat on a crowded bus.  Its nice if someone offers their seat, but if you feel you need it you should also be ready to ask for the seat (and then have an expectation that someone will move from the accessible seats).

So if you want privacy then its up to you to not shout the number to the nurse/tech but rather communicate it to them privately, even if it means walking back into the treatment area to share the value privately.  Or maybe better request from the center a private method to communicate the value confidentially.

[LorinnPKD]

Agreed.  I understand why this could be a sensitive thing, and I don't always feel like shouting it across the room, either.

My center seems to accommodate the patients who keep this information private.  There's a patient who weighs and then resets the machine so no one can see, then whispers it to the tech.  And it's fine. 

[Paul]

In this day in age people grow up in a environment of bullying and fat shaming.......

Yes, but people who bully do so because the person they are bullying looks fat, they don't go by the numbers, so it makes no difference if they know how heavy you are, it is if you look fat to them. And nothing this side of losing weight will change the way you look.

[MonicaJade]

At my clinic, a few people call out their weight at the end of treatment.. I have never had a weight problem, but I don’t shout mine because I just am uncomfortable hollering in public, and I guess it would feel like I was boasting a little, so I just tell them normally.

[coldhoist]

To be clear. I do not have a weight problem. I just think it is the tech or nurse's job to be with the patient at the scale for the final weight check. Is that asking too much? Is that too out of the ordinary. To me the tech or nurse is just being lazy. Do your job!!!

[Michael Murphy]

If a provider has fewer patients then they have the time to escort every patient out. For about a year every time I moved in the clinic I was escorted. If the nurse treating me was tied up the charge nurse walked me to the scale and back.  I think after the heart attack they were afraid I would die on them.  Now I am occasionally escorted but it’s based on my BP.

[Charlie B53]

My Fresenius clinic staff will escort anyone that needs it, some that are questionable will be moved in a wheelchair.  Others, like me that do well just go weight on our own.

It is up to the individual whether they want to call out their weight or not.  Most just write it down and drop the slip in the box on the counter.

I have to chuckle many times as we have one young sweetheart that takes off her flats to weight.  Fortunately she does very well, always tight with her fluids and still has the energy to work two jobs.  I think she is going to be just fine.

[Paul]

To be clear. I do not have a weight problem. I just think it is the tech or nurse's job to be with the patient at the scale for the final weight check. Is that asking too much? Is that too out of the ordinary. To me the tech or nurse is just being lazy. Do your job!!!

In my clinic, unless you are disabled in some way other than knackered kidneys (e.g. Wheelchair, blind, etc.) the patient will weigh themself, walks back to the nurse and tells them their weight. I would say that patients who call out their weight are the lazy ones, not the nurses/techs who will be busy taking people off the machines, cleaning the machines and readying them for the next shift, putting patients from the next shift on the machines, etc..

In fact I would say that patients who just yell out their weight are being bloody rude to the staff. How would you like it if people just yelled across the room at you rather than coming up to you and telling you politely?

And as to those who expect the nurses/techs to do all the work and stop what they are doing to walk over to the scales with them, well I think you can guess my opinion of that.

[laniepoo7]

At my clinic when I was in-center, there were scraps of paper and pens next to the scale.  You write down your weight (unless you cannot make it there) and put it in a little box.  Some patients still yell their weight (no idea why), but most write it down.  Seems like a good way to do it

[Riki]

In my clinic, it *was* policy for everyone to be weighed by a staff member, both coming in and going out, to make sure that the weights were accurate.  That was a few years ago.  As far as I can tell, there's only a handful of patients who do that.  I'm one of them, because for some reason, if I don't follow policy, I get yelled at, even if the person next to me is not.

The scales we have gives a print out.  Most will just write their name on the print out and leave it in a basket on the table next to the scale.  Some will bring the print out back in.  Yelling it would be pointless, as the scale is in the waiting room, and there is a wall between it and the clinic.