Question for House Supervisors

Nurses General Nursing

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mattsmom81

4,516 Posts

i think most house supes would agree staffing is a bytch....worst part of the whole job. :(

When I first started as a house mouse, my preceptor had me use a small notebook with useful information. I never could find what I wanted in it. The next place had a pocket sized telephone directory and I made notes in that. Now I don't.

I have never had the luxury of only having one book with all the info I needed in it. We always have had far too many books. And it just isn't practical to carry it all.

I hate carrying anything I can't put in my pocket. Anything not in my pocket gets left somewhere.

After too many years doing this I carry a copy of the census, my beeper, the keys, a pen, a highlighter, and some change. I write notes on the back of the census. Extensions I keep in my head or ask someone. Door codes--most of them I have memorized and miraculously remember.

Thye're calling a trauma, gotta go.

hoolahan, ASN, RN

1 Article; 1,721 Posts

Specializes in Home Health.

Hank, I can't answer your question about the notes. But, I would think since a supervisor does have some liability potential, then yes, I would imagine your notes are able to be supoenaed (Sp??)

But cetainly they wouldn't be a part of the chart, b/c I am assuming you have more than one pt's inof on your note's and that would be a breach of confidentiality to put other person's info into a diff chart.

As far as having all your info, I swear by my palm. I also swear that you could adapt it to anything.

You could use the adress book to keep a house roster, that could be synched q shift for updating. The tricky part about that is, who would be responsible for updating the census ? That would be waaaay too time-consuming for the sup.

You could also use the adress book to have all staff members phone numbers in it, and thier emergency contact number, plus the numbers you need, like air transport, OR on-call team, whatevere reference you keep in that book of yours. I would think the only thing you may have to carry around is a census print-out. You could use the note pad of the palm to take breif notes in, then beam or sync to a desktop or printer, and print them out for a perm record, then delete off the palm to make rom for the next day's info, or keep it on for a few days so other sup's can add noted to yours and their own.

I keep my whole caseload in my palm so when I am on the road, if my pt is getting d/c and needs transpo, I can call them and just look up the biling info, their address, doc, whatever I need.

I LOVE my palm!

Gardengal

146 Posts

When I was an off shift house supervisor for a 500+ bed hospital I worked with a partner and we split the hospital. The supervisor covering trauma kept a list of the trauma patients and security levels to deal with media calls, otherwise we didn't carry any census information other than the everchanging census numbers per nursing unit....no particular patientes except for trouble areas.

We carried a few sheets which had preprinted the departments and room for staffing,census numbers and a few comments. The supervisor who covered the house issues took notes on the back or another sheet. All fit easily in a pocket. We always wrote census and staffing info in pencil because it always changed.

Policy manuals and references are on all of the nursing units and our office.

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