Patient assignments - Are nurses assigned to empty beds - Page 3

Register Today!
  1. Aug 24, '12 by
    Quote from LearningAboutNursing
    Thanks for all the great input. I really appreciate it.

    How does one ensure they are doing the best assignments? Say, a charge nurse has a list of caregivers that are working for the next shift and has a list of patients/beds that these caregivers need to care for. How would one go about doing the actual assignment? Pick the first patient and see which caregiver is best suited based on the patient acuity? Or group patients by acuity levels and then choose from the list of caregivers best suited for that acuity etc?
    With this post, it kinda sounds like a homework question (if I am wrong, forgive me). Going with the 'homework question hypothesis,' how would you make the assignments? Based on you answers we will be glad to offer suggestions/other points to consider.
    Esme12 likes this.
  2. Aug 24, '12 by
    Maybe create buckets for different patients based on their acuity levels. Start with the patients with highest acuity levels and consider all my expert nurses first for those patients (keeping in mind the ones that took care of the patient previously - if the patient has been there for couple of days). Continue in this order till I assign caregivers to all patients (keeping the patient to caregiver ratio in mind while assigning).
  3. Aug 24, '12 by
    Quote from LearningAboutNursing
    Maybe create buckets for different patients based on their acuity levels. Start with the patients with highest acuity levels and consider all my expert nurses first for those patients (keeping in mind the ones that took care of the patient previously - if the patient has been there for couple of days). Continue in this order till I assign caregivers to all patients (keeping the patient to caregiver ratio in mind while assigning).
    Just to play devil's advocate...wouldn't you want some of your "non expert" nurses to have some experience with higher acuity pts? Now you don't want to overwhelm them, but you are not going to have you expert nurses forever, and as they leave you want to have nurses that will be comfortable taking care of the more acute patients.
    loriangel14 likes this.
  4. Aug 24, '12 by
    We have a pod set up, you get assigned 5 or 6 consecutive rooms (acuity doesn't matter but they will try to split up contact isolation and trach rooms). Sometimes empty beds are part of your 5 or 6 sometimes they are not, based on staffing. We are surgical and have a million admissions a day.