Hallway Medicine

[NurseK93, LPN]

Hi All,

I recently switched hospitals about 4 months ago, and let’s just say I have been less then overjoyed at my new facility, and it just seems to be getting worse. I know in Canada it has been a problem for quite some time with ‘hallway’ nursing. But I cannot believe my eyes with some of the things I am seeing. Keep in mind this is a large regional health care centre.

The hospital has done a new “hallway medicine” rollout where every single day, they are sending 2 patients by 10am up to all the medicine floors to get people out of emerg. No report is given. No transfer of accountability is done. The patient just rolls onto the unit with a porter and chart and are parked in the hallway in a stretcher until a bed becomes available on the unit (whenever that may be). There is no washroom. No emergency equipment, suction etc. It is the nurses responsibility when the patient arrives to go onto the computer a ‘read’ the consult note and flip through the chart to put the pieces together.
Keep in mind this is on a very high acuity medical floor where there are a million other things going on, sick patients, people going for tests etc already, and then now patients just lined up in stretchers down the hallway receiving world class ‘healthcare’.

I am starting to feel like I am the one loosing my mind. I can’t believe the things I am seeing and the patient safety and ethical issues. As well as nurse safety and the fact it’s our license on the line.

Is it this really bad everywhere else? Is this really what health care and nursing has become? I am starting to feel like I am doing more harm then good when I am at work.

[MunoRN, RN]

Hallway beds aren't particularly unusual this time of year in the US either, although these are typically limited to the ER. I have worked at facilities though where even all the spare space in hallways were full in the ER so the state allowed for "provisional" licensed beds on the floors, these were in the corners, nooks, etc with those rolling temporary dividers on wheels.

While we spend way too much on healthcare in the US and still have this problem, Canada probably spends too little.

The issue of sending a patient without a nurse-to-nurse report also varies regionally here. Some states allow the practice so long as the receiving nurse can "look up" the patient and call with questions. My current state views this practice as a violation of a nurse's license, and only a direct conversation between the handing-off and receiving nurse is allowed.