Census-related cancellations?

[AngelRN27]

Fellow managers/supervisors:

I work at an LTACH facility and recently we've been in somewhat of a census drought, which of course has led to census-related cancellations often--especially of nursing assistants. Our facility is small, so charge nurses on the floor handle cancellations and staffing issues for the oncoming shift. Currently we keep track of cancellations on paper, which are later transcribed into our electronic scheduling software by our CNO. The trouble is keeping track of who is due for cancellation--that is, who has gone the longest without being cancelled due to the census. It's a tedious process, and sometimes we get it wrong...

I was wondering how you all keep track of this type of thing? Is there a software out there perhaps? I know it's likely that most facilities handle this type of thing with nurse supervisors, which we don't have here, but perhaps they're in the audience!

Thanks in advance for any advice or insight.

Angel

[klone, MSN, RN]

Couldn't you just put it in an excel spreadsheet and then sort by date?

[AngelRN27]

We tried that originally, but then apparently the spreadsheet wouldn't save right across all users on our intranet... not really sure why.

[oceanblue52]

Put a paper spreadsheet in a designated staffing binder with people's names and then put the date they were cancelled. A quick scan of the dates is all that is needed to help pick a fair choice. That is how my workplace does it.

[crazin01]

I have always seen it done as Ocean stated above. A 3-ring binder at main nursing station. It was up to the nurse being cancelled to ensure it was logged in said binder, so they would not be the next one cancelled. It's happened on occasion, the nurse wouldn't update the log when he/she was cancelled and make a royal fuss of it, for not marking it appropriately.

We used the same binder & paper charting for both cancellations as well as being floated to other floors.

I'm sure staff is very quick to be upset if they were cancelled consecutively due to book not being updated. But they learned the not-nice way that they were the one who didn't mark it down, thus they have nobody to blame but themselves...

[CCU BSN RN]

We used the binder method as above. Charge updates it when they cancel/float you, and you verify that they did it on your next shift. It's still something of a pain to look through the dates since you can't sort them as in an excel spreadsheet, but it's quicker and easier to do and verify when it's on paper. A spreadsheet would have to be access restricted or any staff member could go in and alter it, and then you run into the issue of new charge nurses, charges who don't read their email and know where to find the spreadsheet, people who suck at computers and would need a crapload of training to use Excel, the list of possible errors/abuses goes on and on. Believe it or not, pen and paper seems to be the easiest way anyone has come up with to track this.

[AngelRN27]

Thank you for all the replies. I think I'm going to suggest we use a list of staff names instead the method we're using now. It's essentially a tiny printed Excel calendar and the names are printed in. Therefore, when it's time to cancel, you have to look for the scheduled staff members' names and go back and see who was canceled most recently, etc. I think it would be much easier BY NAME than by date.

Thanks again for the input. It seems like a silly problem to have, but as some of you mentioned, the ROYAL FUSS that occurs when we call the "wrong" person to cancel is extremely frustrating.

Angel

[klone, MSN, RN]

Oh, wow. Yes, I agree you should list the staffers and then put their last called off date, rather than go by date.

[AngelRN27]

Thanks for all of your responses. I already prepared a new spreadsheet (by name) and printed it for use by charge nurses. I left for vacation after that and will be returning to work tonight, so I will see how it's worked.

Thanks again!

Angel