What happened to get adequate staffing in your Dept?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Hi to all Emergency RN's out there,

I work in a level 6 Trauma Emergency Department in Sydney. We are one of the busiest in our state, seeing an average of 220 presentations per day.

Myself and some other RN's are part of a working committee aiming to highlight the recent surge in presentations and why we need more nursing staff. Our catchment area has recently swelled significantly which has heavily impacted upon on demands. Access block throughout the hospital has meant longer ED stays with sicker patients who ultimately need to be in their appropriate ward or unit to receive adequate care.

So Im asking you all, have you ever been involved in a similar project aiming to get improved staffing ratios in emergency? What did you do?

We have our Nurse Managers support; he has been trying to prove to hospital management for a long time why we need more staffing numbers, only to be told no. We have also spoken to the Union who are supporting us.

Our aim is to ultimately get a safe ratio of one nurse for every three patients, with one to one for a trauma/resus bay all the time (which we do have, however if more patients need to be in that bay this changes).

Do any of you work in Emergency Departments that use on call?

Thank you in advance for any similar experience you have to share with me.

Altra, BSN, RN

6,255 Posts

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

I have worked in departments that use call, most often for overnight shift periods as theu are hardest to staff at the last minute from registry/float pool.

What does your union contract say about your ratios?

Does your designation as a trauma center or other specialty designation have any requirements for nurse to patient ratio?

Ultimately, you have to speak the language of the financial decision-makers. Whatever productivity metrics are being used at your hospital - how do your nurse patient care hours for your unit stack up against the goals/benchmarks for your unit?

Any sentinel events that you can tie to nurse to patient ratio?

Good luck - keep us updated!

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