Mandatory Patient Care

[Flyboy17]

Has anyone worked at a hospital that required administrative staff to do a certain amount of hours of direct patient care during a pay period or over a months time?

I have seen in our own department how our director works and pulls call time every now and then. I have seen how much he is respected for it as well. Employee satisfaction is so high as well as patient satisfaction.

Any recommendations for this type of change to adminstration staff?

[sapphire18]

Many administrative staff are not licensed or trained to work directly with patients. It's also not what they signed up for. I dont see how it would work.

[amoLucia]

This reminded me of something at one LTC positon of mine. The administrative staff were required by corporate to be CNAs so that they were allowed to do 'hands on' if necessary. And they did help in little ways ( some more than others). Personally, I believe it was so that if staffing were dangerously below 'the numbers', they could be counted into 'the hours' to bring up the numbers. They were certified CNAs - went thru the course and did clinicals as required.

[catlvr]

I think that it is a terrific idea for administrative staff to be trained as CNAs or some other capacity so that they can have a true, holistic understanding of how the facility works. At my last SNF (mostly rehab patients), the DON and ADON were *always* on the floor answering lights etc during day to evening shift change - they felt that it was important for the nurses to have enough time to get a quality report, and not have to rush off to get to "work" right away. The NHA (a bean counter type) spent shift change on the LTC floor fo the facility and handed the nurses a list of stuff to do once they were finished report; this was less helpful, but at least there was a set of eyes on the floor, and way fewer falls.

[Flyboy17]

But many administrators are licencsed. Radiology adm usually are RTs, nursing adm usually are nurses BSN, MSN, or PHd. Those are the ones that make a lot of decisions regarding their unit and how it functions.