Before heart surgery, do RNs need to report to the charge nurse?

[Miley22]

Do RNs need to report to the charge nurse before a heart surgery?

Thanks

[resumecpr]

Report how? Could you be more specific please?

[Miley22]

Report ...like letting the Charge Nurse know prior to the pt's heart surgery.

[resumecpr]

I'd like to think that the charge nurse knows about each and every patient on the floor, and what tests, surgeries etc. are to take place in the next 12 hours.

I work in a CIC/CSU where we prep open heart patients in the early AM, and recover them until discharge. Our charge nurse knows about each of them, and the hospital has a care map we follow to ensure their prep is completed (as well as pre-op MD orders).

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Yes I think you need to report off to the charge nurse about all your patients at least once per shift.

[dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I]

Man o man, what kind of hospital gives a nurse a patient load while he or she is waiting for heart surgery?

[merlee]

I still do not understand your question. Why would cardiac surgery be any different from any other surgery?

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

I am confused too.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Is that before your surgery or the patients surgery????? :lol2:

I think that every patient need to be updated to the charge nurse. Let's say you leave and she doesn't know your patient is in the OR....someone calls or the OR calls and has questions......the charge nurse's answer should not be...."Open Heart? What Open Heart???" places her hand over the phone...."Hey! Does anybody know if we have someone in the OR?" Sure wouldn't ooze confidence with the out of town family member calling for an update(yes....all approved ahead of time.) or the OR "We need to find the family of the CABG in OR quickly....do you know where they are????".............OPen heart....What OPen heart..????

And if it's you having the open heart......I think she should know before you leave the floor...:)

Just saying....

[Tait, MSN, RN]

Our charge nurses get report from the previous shift (so in OHS cases it would be nights to days). It is also marked on the charge sheet. Once the patient leaves for OR we inform the charge so they know the bed is open, which is basically the same thing for any patient who leaves the floor/discharges.

[widi96]

The charge nurse on our floor usually does not know about each and every patient. If a patient is having problems, they should be notified. They know about why pts are in isolation or if there are any immediately acute medical or behavioral issues. The charge nurse has a full patient load and is responsible for delegating admits, assisting other nurses, pyxis counts, etc. It is not feasible with a charge nurse having a full patient load themselves, to know all about the other 15 patients on the floor. But I work nights - we do have a 7am-3pm CRL who does management type stuff and works as the charge nurse during the day. She knows far more about the patients and goings-on of the unit than we do on nights.