discharge/new admits

[gaylordfocker2002]

Hello everyone. I have been working as an RN for almost 9 months now. I am really becoming stressed out. The only experience I have is on the unit i am currently working on. It is a telemetry unit. My question at this time is about patient turnover. I don't know if it is just my unit or what, but i sometimes discharge and admit 2-3 people per shift. It really puts me behind. Completing all that charting is soo time consuming. If I have no distractions/complications i can complete a discharge in 45 minutes...new admit maybe an hour. It is not that I am slow, the process at my hospital just takes that long. So best case scenario, if I have 2 D/Cs and 2 admits, that is 3.5 hours of work dedicated to mostly paperwork. I sometimes feel like I am neglecting my other patients because of this.

Now my questions is: Do most other units have turnover ratios that high? Is the process of DC/admitting that time consuming everywhere?

thanks in advance.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

well, it depends...we use computer charting...

Overall, it usually takes me about 15-20 minutes in the room with a new admit to get all the information I need....another 5-10 minutes to get assessement information.

To do the charting it's about 15-20 minutes.....so about an hour. The d/c paperwork can take about 30mins to a hour....it's just where you have to have that time. I try to make sure no meds are coming due, I round on all my patients to meet needs beforehand, and then I deal with whatever comes up....Usually I can get it in, but it can throw you off....just takes time.