Admit/Discharge RN?

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Oct 30, 2015

I have worked with admission nurses in LTC, I could not imagine the luxury in acute care, of a nurse facilitating admissions and discharges.....I would think , that I had died and gone to heaven....

CelticGoddess, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2015

Hi All! I'm considering a position as an admit/discharge RN on an oncology unit. I have hem/onc experience, but we never had a nurse who did all admits/DC's. Any one do this or have RNs in this role on their unit? Thoughts on what this role is like?

We had an ADT (Admission, discharge, transfer) on our unit until she stepped in to be the interim CUE. The ADT was responsible for everything except for the assessment. It's a lot of paper work, teaching, charting, etc. Our former ADT enjoyed it. She worked M-F, 8.5 hours per day. She will probably step back into that unit when the hire a new CUE.

If you enjoy paperwork, teaching, and talking to patients (no direct care), you might enjoy it.

kay91 · Oct 30, 2015

We had an admission and discharge nurse for like 6 months and it was amazing. One day, I picked up an extra shift after they did away with it and did admits/dcs (we were very admit happy that day)for 5 hours and did like 12 admits in that time between 2 floors. And there were like 8 others I didn't even get a chance to do. When we had it, that nurse did the admit assessment, got a weight, height, and asked about the meds the patient takes, and so on. For discharges, they would do the paperwork, but we would still go in with it to the patient. Honestly, though our secretaries can type up the dc instructions while the nurses type up the next dose of meds, so usually our nurses just did their own discharges with the help of the secretary. That was my experience with it in the short time we had a nurse to do them.

kay91 · Oct 30, 2015

Oh and the ones we had would help with iv starts and nursing tasks too if they had time. It's a lot more about doing the charting than anything else, but you still get some skills.

mf299709 · Oct 30, 2015

We have an ADT on our unit as well. She works 5 days 7a-3p through the week and is off weekends. She enjoys it and it is a huge help to the all the other nurses. She takes care of the paperwork, getting admission orders, getting the or ready for transfer, and taking them out of the computer. She is sometimes given a section of patients instead of ADT when we have a high patient census.

~PedsRN~, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2015

We have ADTs that work our unit, and it's so nice because we do have a high patient turnover. They work 10a-10p, M-F. It's amazing. I love them. :)

jessimee · Apr 28, 2016

So just an update on this topic--I took a job in a med-surg unit as a "Resource RN". And I love my job! I work 7-3, and fill the morning lull before the admits/discharges start, by passing am meds for nurses so they don't get behind. The rest of the day is spent doing admits, discharges, iv starts, passing pain meds and fielding questions from newer nurses. When census gets high, I keep some of the admits until the next shift comes on. We generally have ratios 4:1 RN and 7-8:1 CNA, with a charge (no patients) and a UC. The only grumbling I ever hear on our unit is about problems with lack of supplies. I'm hoping that our patient satisfaction scores go up, as I really try to prioritize discharges and attending to pain. Now if we could just get a resource CNA whose sole job would be potty patrol, it would be perfect!

tmremramr, MSN · Apr 29, 2016

I have worked with admission nurses in LTC, I could not imagine the luxury in acute care, of a nurse facilitating admissions and discharges.....I would think , that I had died and gone to heaven....

So just an update on this topic--I took a job in a med-surg unit as a "Resource RN". And I love my job! I work 7-3, and fill the morning lull before the admits/discharges start, by passing am meds for nurses so they don't get behind. The rest of the day is spent doing admits, discharges, iv starts, passing pain meds and fielding questions from newer nurses. When census gets high, I keep some of the admits until the next shift comes on. We generally have ratios 4:1 RN and 7-8:1 CNA, with a charge (no patients) and a UC. The only grumbling I ever hear on our unit is about problems with lack of supplies. I'm hoping that our patient satisfaction scores go up, as I really try to prioritize discharges and attending to pain. Now if we could just get a resource CNA whose sole job would be potty patrol, it would be perfect!

I want to come work with you! Those ratios would be a dream come true. Wouldn't need an ADT with those beautiful ratios!

jessimee · Apr 29, 2016

Yes! This is how acute care nursing should be :yes: