Continuity of care...What's your unit doing?

Gompers, BSN, RN · Jun 22, 2006

We sign up for primaries and associates.

We have a big board in the back of the unit that has all the babies' names on it. When a baby is admitted and goes up on the board, nurses are welcome to sign up as that baby's primary nurse, or if the baby already has a primary, then they can be an associate nurse. Primary nurses almost always get assigned "their" babies when they work. Associate nurses will get that baby if the primary isn't working that shift and if it works out with staffing. Basically what an associate is saying is, "I really like this baby, so if it's 'up for grabs' on a shift I'm working, please assign this baby to me rather than someone else."

It's totally voluntary. Each baby can only have one primary nurse (who can work ANY shift) and multiple associates.

Each night, the night charge nurse goes to the board and pencils in all the babies' names next to the nurses that are working for that entire next day, all shifts. She'll write a P by that baby's name if the primary nurse is working, and an A if it's an associate nurse. Then she goes through the assignments and tries to make sure all the primary nurses will be given their babies that day. Almost all the nurses coming on shift at 7am get their primary pateints. If a primary is coming in at 7pm, say, she will assign that baby to a 12-hour day shift nurse so it is "up for grabs" at 7pm when the primary comes on. Am I making sense?

Once all the primaries are assigneed, the charge nurse tries to get as many nurses their associate babies as possible.

We also look at the previous days' assignments and try to reassign babies to the nurses who've recently had them, in the cases where the baby does not have a primary or associate coming on shift.

LaNICUnurse · Jun 22, 2006

Thanks for the info. My unit needs to do something like this.