question about meds and work

[twinnie]

sorry being noisy here just wanted to know do you carry your medication to work in a bag or are you allowed to leave it in the first aid room {if you are lucky enough to have one } or in your desk as i work in a care home and carry all my stuff in a bag . thanks guys

 

[Caroline]

Where I work, we all leave our medication in locked drawers or lockers. There is a first aid room but no one is allowed in there with a first aider in an emergency or a member of security staff.

 

[Caroline]

Should also add for security reasons and because the collections are valuable we are not allowed to carry bags round with us in storage ares, I work in a library, so we are all provided with space to keep valuables and stuff.

 

[twinnie]

thanks for the quick reply caroline as i work in a care home there is rooms in the building for medication and i was wondering wether to get a tub and put spare needles,lancets,strips and insulin there just incase

 

[Steff]

When i used to work i left my medication in my locker it was always secure enough in there x

 

[Caroline]

Think the rules are different depending on the kind of work you do. I am office based with ventures out into collection areas, and our first aiders for the most part are pretty good.

Just curiosity on my part, if you work somewhere where there are doctors and nurses, are there still people who are trained to do first aid?

 

[twinnie]

well i am trainned in first aid and work with some brilliant nurses i do a lot of the same trainning as the nurses e.g medication

 

[AlisonM]

I have the office to myself most of the time and I'm the resident First Aider too! I keep my meds with my testing kit in my backpack under my desk. I have to take some with my lunch so I want them handy but out of sight of the clients. I do have a small lock box I could use if I thought there was any danger, but since I only carry what I need for the day... I suppose that will change when I go onto insulin but I'll worry about that when it happens. One of my pals has a mini fridge in the kitchen at her office that she keeps her stuff in. Both her colleagues know what it's for and steer clear unless she has a hypo and they need to get into her sweetie collection. If either of us worked in a larger organisation I suspect we'd have a more difficult time of it.

 

[Sugarbum]

Think the rules are different depending on the kind of work you do. I am office based with ventures out into collection areas, and our first aiders for the most part are pretty good.

Just curiosity on my part, if you work somewhere where there are doctors and nurses, are there still people who are trained to do first aid?

Yes, this is the case where I work. We have doctors, nurses and a heck of a lot of equipment, but we still have to have a "first aider" on duty every day bizzarely, purely a paper exercise as they say

thanks for the quick reply caroline as i work in a care home there is rooms in the building for medication and i was wondering wether to get a tub and put spare needles,lancets,strips and insulin there just incase

Twinnie, I think if you do that then you must be careful, make sure you label it fully (Im sure you would anyway). As a clinical area, if you must store and dispose of sharps according to local policy and not leave them in your tub. If they allow you to do this then you medications must be locked away in a medications cupboard... this might be a bbit of a pain? I would personally stick to keeping it in my work locker! Your employer should prvide you with one if they havent or maybe even access to a deak drawer with a key lock? Hope that helps.

 

[Caroline]

As we have dedicated staff resteraunts we are not allowed to have fridges of any kind to keep things cool in. I keep hypo stuff handy (I know it's less likely for type 2) as it is quite a walk to get anything from anywhere in this building.

 

[SacredHeart]

Mine's just in my handbag, which is at my desk 🙂

 

[sofaraway]

I keep my stuff in my handbag which is usually under my desk, I don't have a locker or anything. There is hypo stuff in my handbag and bottles of lucozade in pretty much every room in my building.

 

[Copepod]

There's a difference between food, which is vital for treating hypos, but food may be banned for non-medical is some settings; and medicine, which is a potential risk to anyone who injests; and sharps, which can injure anyone who handles it. I'm thinking here of protecting children or mentally impaired adults etc eg in a care home. Even at home, where no child lives regularly, but we do have child visitors, I leave blood testing kit and insulin out of toddler reach. At work, I prefer to keep everything in a locker, so nothing, food, valuables etc can be tampered with, but always have a packet of sweets in my pocket.

 

[twinnie]

thanks guys ive been given a locker at work so off to buy a tub tomorrow and labels for my meds 🙂

 

[rachelha]

I keep spare needles and a tub of glucotabs in my desk, and spare insulin in the fridge in the communal kitchen. My test kit, pens etc stay in my bag with me.