question: 1 on one what to do?

Nurses General Nursing

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I was just wondering, in cases where you are 1:1.....what do you do when your patient is sleeping? Are you allowed to read? Listen to music? Watch a movie? What's the policy like at your facility?

This is ofcourse assuming that charting and other tasks are done :p

Sorry. I needed to be more clear. This is a home health situation as a caregiver. Client is stable medically, needs reminders for medications and prompts to eat, dress, etc.

I was just wondering. Thanks for the responses!

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In Aust we cannot leave the bedside of a patient if we are a special (1:1), we are not allowed to. Even if we go to the loo, we must tell someone so they can sit by the patient. I'm surprised you can go help other people. We have to monitor the patient in all things, ie: going to the bathroom, sleeping, taking meds, especially psych patients. What is the point in having a 1:1 special if you can wander away from the patient?

I'm in the US and at most facilities that I've been in a nurse, tech or actual "patient sitter" would be terminated STAT if they left a 1:1 for any reason at all without getting someone else to cover. This includes critical pts, pysch pts and ocassionally I've seen families hire private sitters or off duty hospital staff so that their relative is never left alone.

I never heard of anyone being allowed to go help out others if they are assigned a 1:1

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I think we all assume 1:1 means something different, based on our own specialty. I'm used to 1:1 being for very critical patients. You most likely wouldn't have time to help others out, but you wouldn't be fired for leaving the bedside. In contrast, if it was a suicidal psych patient, and you were a sitter, then yeah, I'd expect some kind of punishment for leaving them alone.

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Specializes in Hospice/Mental Health/LTC/Home Health.

I worked on a psych unit while I was in nursing school and did 1:1's all the time, I worked night shift and we stayed with the patient in most cases even while they were sleeping. It gave me a perfect opportunity to study materials. Most of the time the charge nurse didn't mind because the patient was sleeping half the time anyways. Sometimes though you get patients with various psych d/o's that don't sleep. And since they were sleeping TV was out of the question because they didn't have TV's in the patient rooms. And since it was dark you have to do something to stay awake :yawn:

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If I had a 1:1 they were way too sick/complex/busy to even pee, much less do anything else. that was the definition of 1:1 = too complicated to give you a moment to even think about doing anything else but keep them alive.

Agreed. 1:1 in ICU usually means "put on your running shoes"! No time for reading!

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Sorry. I needed to be more clear. This is a home health situation as a caregiver. Client is stable medically, needs reminders for medications and prompts to eat, dress, etc.

I was just wondering. Thanks for the responses!

this type of patient is 1:1?

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this type of patient is 1:1?

I thin it's a caregiver in the home (like an assisted living situation). Not a hospital. Some patients need that instead of leaving their homes for a nursing facility. :twocents:

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

As a sitter, you need to keep the patient within your view. They let us bring in homework or books to read or if the patient has TV ordered, we are allowed to watch TV (unless the family states otherwise) but of course you are there for the patient, so you still need to keep your eyes on them. We had one sitter on night shift who did not periodically check on the patient to see if they were still breathing...of course, the patient stopped breathing, body was cold...they didn't know what the time of death was :eek:

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