lilibet
I'm not sure whether this is based on area or not, I know that in my area DN's are not allowed to carry syringes, that are not allowed to carry dressings!!! They can't even pick up perscriptions from the surgery, this has to be sorted all by the person/family and be available for them within the home... (this has been brought in since the Dr shipham incidents)
A key for a locked box wouldn't be allowed to be carried keys either, but now the use of a secure key box that is secured to a wall and locked with a complination lock which of cousre the DN or community carer will be given the code for to retrieve they keys they needed...
When I was working in the community, I could give a client medication that was in a nomad type dispensing sytem that had been either sorted by family or by the chemist, if a client ask me to give any tablets that were in a bottle, I could losen the lid for them, but nothing else if I took the lid fully off or even tipped contents on the table so that they could take the required amount it could have been seen as dispensing....
As you can see how what seems to be a simple situation becomes a real nightmare to put into place... The policies, legisations and regulations to help protect and ensure that there human rights are adhered to has made the giving and providing community and residental care full of problems trying to implement it all around all these and there are many grey areas on handling certain situations, I'm so glad that I got out about 6 months ago after working in it for 15 years....