Published
I don't work as a charge nurse, but I can certainly empathize with you after hearing the many gripes from other nurses about taking admissions. Sure, it sucks to get an admission at the beginning or the end of your shift, but we all have to take our turns. Actually, I'd much rather get one at the beginning than at the end, more time to get everything done.
Some people will never be happy, and there's nothing you can do to correct that.
if people spend less time bit**ing and more time just doing the work, their admission would be in and settled. my question is why do admission assessment have to be sooo cumbersome? a physical assessment should be enough. in my hospital we ask questions about "feeling safe at home", can you read, write, we ask 4 times in 4 different places if they have chest pain (yes, i work in an ICU). i need to ask them how much sleep they get a night/day.....like that matters in a hospital! i especially like the braden scale we use at admission time.....do i think their nutritional statis is adequate.....how should i know, i met them 3 seconds ago!
We are a busy mother baby unit and sometimes we have 20 plus ADMISSIONS and the same discharges EVERYDAY!!!! Sometimes I get 2 admits and 2-3 discharges...just goes with the job. Our charge nurse tries to look at acuity first and then the admits are assigned in order of delivery to nurses based on patient load. The only time I have ever complained is when I got 2 admits that delivered within 1 hour of each other and they both arrived at the same time--SHIFT CHANGE OF COURSE. THAT WAS L/D FAULT...thats for another thread...
It drives me nuts when people spend more time complaining than it would take to do the admit, or whatever else. It's like when I need a second set of hands for something and I ask someone and they sit there and explain for 5 minutes why they are too busy to help me for 2 minutes, grrr....
I once saw a nursing cartoon called "forms we would like to see". It showed an admission form that was one sided listing name, diagnosis, and "what else we need to know".
I try not to gripe about admissions, but after taking care of a few minimally literate folks who are not sure what their meds are other than the "blue pill" or the "pink pill", my time and patience gets stretched.
Last time my son was in the hospital, there was an admission and discharge nurse who handled the forms. In a busy pediatric floor, I'm sure it was helpful to have a nurse available for admissions, discharges and conscious sedation.
mom4josh
284 Posts
I can't stand it when I give a nurse a new admit and they gripe about it until the patient arrives (and sometimes longer). There is nothing I can do about the fact that we are getting a patient right after shift-change. Since this nurse has been here five hours already and the other nurse is just coming on and making rounds (with the same number of patients), it makes more sense to give it to the former. Besides, if she has time to go smoke every couple of hours, she certainly has time to admit a patient.
Grrrrr.
Thanks for letting me vent. Feel much better now!