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Discussion

Hey Night Shift: Do You Have Transport?

Hi! I'm a new grad on night shift on a med surg floor. At my hospital, transport goes home at 2200 and comes back at 0700, so if STAT imaging gets ordered anytime in between, I have to leave my assignment and take my patient six or so floors down to CT or US or whatever. Honestly this seems unsafe to me, especially since I've gotten stuck at ultrasound for a full hour before with a colleague covering the rest of my assignment - and we have a lot of early post-ops and a lot of cardiac patients on tele. We all know "being covered" is nowhere near the same thing as having your own nurse on the floor and checking on you. So I'm interested to know: what's your experience and your opinion, and what area of nursing are you in? How do you deal with it if you have STAT imaging ordered on one patient but another seems a bit "off" to you and you're not comfortable leaving for an hour? Thanks!

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    With regard to all situations where another nurse might "watch" my patients for a prolonged length of time (including a lunch break if able to take one), at some point I stopped informally asking others to watch my patients and started using the words "give a quick report" and also documenting that the care was turned over to [name].

    You also have the option of speaking with your CN or the house supervisor if you really don't think you should be physically gone from your assignment for the length of time you anticipate. It's okay to stand up and say, "I can't just be gone for an hour...we need another plan, here."

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    4 hours ago, 2020newgrad said:

     I'm interested to know: what's your experience and your opinion, and what area of nursing are you in? How do you deal with it if you have STAT imaging ordered on one patient but another seems a bit "off" to you and you're not comfortable leaving for an hour? Thanks!

    I worked predominantly geriatric psych for the last 17 years of my nursing career at Wrongway Regional Medical Center. 

    I believe Wrongway went against its name and did things the right way when a patient decompensated. An expendable staff member, sometimes from another unit, transported the patient to the ER or wherever.

    Some of the House Sups were really good at juggling staff, and if pushed came to shove, that House Sup would transport or fill in where needed.

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    Our transport also leaves at 2300, but I'm in the unit, so leaving the floor only means giving report on one or two people. Sorry you've gotten stuck there. Do you have a supervisor that can assist with emergent situations? Things obviously happen sometimes, but if you're frequently getting stuck you might bring it up with your manager as a patient safety issue to see what other resources might be available. Good luck. 

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