Giving Up a Patient’s Care to Another Nurse

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Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.

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Does anyone ever have those patients that you've worked with for a long time that going to work without caring for them doesn't even seem possible? These are the patients you just click with and who make your day better when you see them.

How do you feel when you are forced to transfer their care to another nurse? 

For me, I always feel a sense of disappointment. If I have a connection with them, then I don't want to step back and let another nurse work with them.  Frankly, I find it very difficult to let some patients go, especially when undesirable assignments replace them.  And too often than not, that's exactly what happens--I receive a patient I'd rather not work with at the expense of another.  

Anyone else ever feel this way? How did you work through this? 

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Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.

Today was one of those days.  A favorite female patient of mine was just transferred to my colleague's unit.  It was sad hearing the staff on that unit welcoming her and getting her settled in.  

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
11 hours ago, SilverBells said:

It was sad hearing the staff on that unit welcoming her and getting her settled in.  

How dare they!

Now the resident is going to believe you're not the only nice nurse that cares about her, SilverBells!

I'd find some way to sabotage this relationship, if I were you.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

It's both a blessing and challenge of long term care that staff members often form relationships with particular residents/patients. Another nurse recently posted about the difficulty when a resident with whom she had become very close died suddenly. 

In this case I think it's reasonable to have some disappointment if you're going to spend less time with this resident, however, it's not as if the resident has died. I'm sure that you can stop by and interact with this woman and she will always be happy to see you. For me, a philosophy I always had related to my kids was that the more people that cared about them, the better it was for them. So I think this is a good thing for her because now she'll have you as a friend in addition to those she will work with on the other unit. 

I think that in some ways you have assigned a very emotional aspect to your job that might be impacting your outlook. You often speak of desirable/undesirable people and assignments. In my opinion, this thinking clouds your ability to do your job, and whether you intend it or not, it impacts how you approach people. I think you would be better off to try not to assign an overall emotional label to people and approach every interaction on an individual basis. Even the gentleman you described recently that is challenging- go in with a professional and direct attitude, trying not to anticipate a negative interaction. You might be surprised that more things go well than you might have been anticipating. After all, it's your job and all patients deserve the same professionalism and approach- no matter how they react. Good luck!

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Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.

It turns out the female patient is now having issues on my colleague's unit.  My colleague and I were joking around tonight.  I'd happened to mention that my new admission was already a handful, and my colleague joked, "Want to trade? So-and-so is having issues," in reference to the female patient.   We both knew at this point switching isn't an option.  I did mention, though,  that I had requested the female patient to come to my unit multiple times.  I was loud enough for the DON, Social Worker and Admissions Coordinator to hear, so maybe I made a point.  

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Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.

Update:  I've found it best to let this work relationship between the patient and myself go, and focus on the other patients assigned to my care.   Of course, if the need were to arise that she would need something from me, I would help out.  However, that hasn't happened; she seems to be well-looked after on her new unit, and I don't see the need to interfere with that.   I haven't visited her at all since she has transferred; I feel that this has been best for myself, and maybe even for her.  As a side note, it sounds as if she now has orders for four or five eye drops that need to be administered multiple times a day.  I only mention this because most eye drops need to be spaced so many minutes apart from each other, hence making this time consuming.  In hindsight, I think things probably worked out for the best with her being on a unit that is better equipped (aka "staffed") to manage her many medications and a multitude of other treatments.  

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
On 5/5/2022 at 8:39 AM, Davey Do said:

How dare they!

Now the resident is going to believe you're not the only nice nurse that cares about her, SilverBells!

I'd find some way to sabotage this relationship, if I were you.

In case you didn't get it - Davey is being very tongue in cheek. I think he's pointing out your martyr complex and the fact that you seem to think you are the only one who can provide adequate care to the patients. You should really talk to someone about that.

Oh, and best of luck to you.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
2 hours ago, klone said:

In case you didn't get it - Davey is being very tongue in cheek.

Two monks were walking by a river when one of them said, "See how happily the fish swim!" The other monk said, "You are not a fish, you don't know if they're happy!"

The first monk replied, "You are not me, you don't know what I know".

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Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.
2 hours ago, klone said:

In case you didn't get it - Davey is being very tongue in cheek. I think he's pointing out your martyr complex and the fact that you seem to think you are the only one who can provide adequate care to the patients. You should really talk to someone about that.

Oh, and best of luck to you.

At one point in time, I may have felt as if I was the best person to oversee that particular female patient’s care.  However, I am working on letting go of that, as I am hoping is evident in my post from yesterday.  I haven't visited that patient since she has transferred to the other unit, and at this point, I don't plan on it. 

A while back, I had a similar situation in which a patient was transferred to a different unit, and I visited her continously, resulting in obvious favoritism for a patient who was no longer mine.  My goal is to make sure that doesn't happen again, so staying out of this particular patient’s room, unless there is an immediate need, seems to be the answer at this point.   I'm not going to purposely destroy the working relationship we had, but I'm also not doing anything to maintain it either, if that makes sense. 

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