[oldernurse]

Please tell me how you all have been taught to handle the situation when you're forced to take report on an understaffed department. I recently ran into this problem, and my tactic wasn't well received by administration. Please Help!!!!

[RNPATL]

Originally Posted by oldernurse

Please tell me how you all have been taught to handle the situation when you're forced to take report on an understaffed department. I recently ran into this problem, and my tactic wasn't well received by administration. Please Help!!!!

First, I think I would like to know how you handled the situation and why it was not appreicated by administration.

I don't think administration ever appreicates it when a nurse stands their ground and simply says, "No this is unacceptable to me and for the safety of my patient."

For me, when my unit is short staffed, I generally like to look at the acuity and see if we can handle it with the staff that we have. If after some review of the acuity I think that we need more help, I will accept the unit (if I am charge nurse) and write an occurrence report stating that I accepted the unit under protest and that the unit is not properly staffed for the acuity of the patients cared for. In addition, I report this to nursing supervision along with nursing administration. If there is no one is administration, I make sure the administrator on duty calls someone from nursing administration and reports the situation. I also document all this in the occurrence report. Once all that is done, we prioritize our care and try to do the best we can to care for the patients. Sometimes it is really bad. Hope this helps.