Assigning patients to rooms on Med/Surg Floor?

[Mito]

Hello All,

I am curious to know what experienced Med/Surg nurses do when it comes to assigning pt. rooms. By that I mean where do you put the most critically ill ones, the ones that require complex or frequent care (ie diabetics/IV therapy/complex drsgs.), and MI pts. both fresh and stable.

Thanks

Mito

[deespoohbear]

We try to put the most serious pts near the nurse's mods. Helps cut down a little on the running. Also try to keep the confused pts near the stations. Hopefully that way you can get to them before the fall out of bed and break a hip! Especially since we are not allowed to restrain anyone anymore.

Also we put infections (such as pneumonia, URI,) together and non-infectious together (such as CHF, R/O MI, angina). I just hate it when the ER fails to tell me that a pt has a fever or an elevated WBC until after we have assigned a room. Just makes more work all around. We are a small hospital, so we decide room assignments on our floor. No bed book, just us.

Hope this helps.

[JMP]

Mito

I know the assignment that you are doing- and really, you should do it on your own......... just my opinion.

[preciousnurse]

Mito,

It is a hard chore sometimes when it comes to room assignment especially for us because our rooms are not private. Like deepoohbear says, keep infectious patients together, etc. We have some private rooms (4 to be exact) and this is bad because it the fartherest from the nurses station and is where we put our MRSA Isolation patients, who 9 times out of 10 are from a nursing home and confused. Sometimes it is hard to make an assigment especially is you are already filled up with patients and then people are moved to accomendate.

[Luv cats]

We just put them in whatever is available/open. We had a weird layout to our small hospital anyway.......circle pod things.

[shannonRN, BSN, RN]

we try to put those who are confused, vented, require more frequent checks...closer to the station. but in this perfect world that doesn't always happen.

IOriginally posted by JMP

I know the assignment that you are doing- and really, you should do it on your own......... just my opinion.

wait...is this a homework question????

[Mito]

Hello All,

Yes I had an assignment to do based on certain criteria, and the assignment was completed before I posted. I was comparing my rationale to that of more experienced nurses which is something I think even JMP can understand.

Mito

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

We are so busy right now, it doesn't matter. We put patients wherever there is a spot. We won't put an infected patient with a roommate, or say someone with pnuemonia in with a postop, but it's a free for all. Often confused patients wind up with alert and oriented patients, and we have to move patients around in the middle of the night.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

We are so busy right now, it doesn't matter. We put patients wherever there is a spot. We won't put an infected patient with a roommate, or say someone with pnuemonia in with a postop, but it's a free for all. Often confused patients wind up with alert and oriented patients, and we have to move patients around in the middle of the night.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

There is, of course, an unwritten law in all health care facilities that requires the most egregious call-light abusers on the floor to be located at the most distant ends of the hall. Accordingly, the patients who need total quiet in order to sleep have to be placed a) directly across from the nurses' station, or b) next to the elevator.

And so it goes..........

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

Originally posted by mjlrn97

Accordingly, the patients who need total quiet in order to sleep have to be placed a) directly across from the nurses' station, or b) next to the elevator.

And so it goes..........

:chuckle :roll Or in the same room as the DT'er in leathers who won't stop screaming at the top of his lungs.