Acute On-Call

I work in a large University hospital that provides acute dialysis and CRRT to acute/critically ill pts. We currently have 8 nurses (we are 3 short). We are required to take call 6 or 7 nights out of a 28 day schedule. We work 12 hours (or more) then are on call during the night. Often, we are scheduled to work the next day to provide adequate coverage. We have a high turn over because of this system. Any!!! input into how other hospitals provide 24hour dialysis/CRRT coverage would be appreciated. Several of us are no longer spring chickens and this pace is becoming more difficult.

[patadney]

This is a problem all over the country-in some hospitals the CRRT is handled by the ICU staff,the acute dialysis nurse just sets it up-other places it is handled entirely by the ICU staff,while the traditional hemodialysis is done by the acute team. But, it is very hard to keep staff when these long hours are the norm and you are too tired to enjopy your time off. I am a travel nurse in acute hemodialysis and I take a month off between assignments --to sleep,mostly.

[mozart]

hi, i'd like to know how many patients (in your country) are on hemodialysis and how many of them are on peritoneal dialysis?

maybe we could share information about HD and PD....