Overloaded by admissions

[LetsFixNursing]

The unit I work on has a central nurses station surrounded by mini nurses stations called foyers. The nurse assigned to a foyer will have 3 to 4 pts 5 feet away from their little desk with a bank of tele monitors for their patients. No one has to walk all over creation to get suplies for their rooms because its centrally located in the center. Degins seems cool right?...NOT!

Every floor I have ever worked on had only a central nurses station with a supply room at one end and you may be assigned at the other end of the hall, buand your patients may not be all in the same area but they based the assignment daily on acuity so no one nurse had a hard group and another had their heels up all night playing candy crush or whatever. They would stagger admissions based on of course who had empty beds and who was caught up enough to take the first admit. Then the charge nurse would let you know who was next in line so you could prioritize your tasks to be able to take the next admission. You would also get a phone report so you knew what to expect and sometimes bed management would assign a patient to our unit who wasn't appropriate for our capabilities and would need to be reassigned (much simpler to rearrange bed assignment before the pt hits the floor, right?) Well my unit doesn't base assignments on acuity or stagger admits. If u arrive at work and have 3 empties. You're most likely gonna get 3 admits before midnight because of staffing (have to have a certain number to keep our nurses) this is very dangerous in my opinion because you are crunched for time orders get overlooked and you may get more than one at the same time!! My hospital has gone to bedside report so that it involves the pt and therefore improved pt satisfaction scores...let's face it hospitals have become hotels these days. I feel it's unsafe fr everyone involved because these are sick patients one step from the ICU. I know I have delusions of grandeur but come on there need to be a better system. Have an admissions nurse who asks admission questions, orient the patient to the room and then I can focus on their care! I can see bedside report for a patient l ready on the unit but if they are transferring from the ED or another unit a preliminary report should be called in first so I know what equipment to have ready to go and if they are appropriate for my floor. We as bedside nurses need to step up and get involved with these policies to improve pt care and employee satisfaction. Any body disagree or want to add a comment?

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

That does sound a bit hokey.

Can you ask the charge nurse to help with the paperwork after beside report? You want to do your own assessment, and chart as you go--can he charge nurse then go get your fluids or an IV pump or whatever?

Is there a forum where you can address things such as an admissions nurse? Maybe you all take turns being the admissions nurse for each foyer? (Which, by the way, "foyer"?! Which in my neck of the woods means a front room right inside the door that one takes off their coats!! HAHA) When hospital systems spend great deals of time and money coming up with cool names for things as opposed to "hall" or "nurses station" or even "pod" (

I am making light, however, it is a serious issue. But admissions and charting are 24 hour gigs. Do everything you can, assess, meds, fluids--perhaps any orders that need to go in can be done by charge, make sure you have a brain sheet so that your other patients don't get missed meds.

Best wishes!