I just want to run this past some others out there as to what they would think was acceptable staffing.
I was working in a small non-interventionist unit and one evening we were down to only 2 patients. In the evenings there is only 2 staff on that unit but that evening the manager insisted that 1 staff member be left alone while the other staff member went across to ICU to help out with meal breaks.
The manager (and even the hospital Supervisors) insisted that this was "safe" as there is an emergency call button behind every bed.
Both of the two patients both had had chest pains just hours earlier. One of the patients had apprehended violence order against her significant other (at this stage we did not know if he knew where she was).
The unit is new and each room is enclosed so that it is impossible to directly visualise the patients from the main desk.
This was not the first time this pressure had been put upon me to do this but worst, for me was that it was being done in such a way as the responsibility for leaving the unit with only one staff member was mine.
Fluesy
42 Posts
I just want to run this past some others out there as to what they would think was acceptable staffing.
I was working in a small non-interventionist unit and one evening we were down to only 2 patients. In the evenings there is only 2 staff on that unit but that evening the manager insisted that 1 staff member be left alone while the other staff member went across to ICU to help out with meal breaks.
The manager (and even the hospital Supervisors) insisted that this was "safe" as there is an emergency call button behind every bed.
Both of the two patients both had had chest pains just hours earlier. One of the patients had apprehended violence order against her significant other (at this stage we did not know if he knew where she was).
The unit is new and each room is enclosed so that it is impossible to directly visualise the patients from the main desk.
This was not the first time this pressure had been put upon me to do this but worst, for me was that it was being done in such a way as the responsibility for leaving the unit with only one staff member was mine.