No nursing station with COWS?

fiveofpeep · Dec 25, 2009

Ive worked in a brand new PACU that had bedside COWs for every patient but they still used the nursing station ALOT for giving report away from the bedside, doctors writing orders, charge nurse, and where the remote tele monitors may be observed

kathy313 · Dec 25, 2009

Would also be a good idea to place a few away from the nurse's station (break room or something), it used to make me crazy trying to chart at the station during certain times....family, shift change....very hard to finish your notes with everyone talking to you and over you.

cargalrn · Dec 25, 2009

yes, thank you, but what about NO nursing station? I have been told by a friend that it is being implemented into a design. I personally, could not stand and chart for hours. The station is also the heart of communication between disciplines. We also need the other nurses nearby to gage whether our cohorts need assistance.

kathy313 · Dec 25, 2009

I've worked in an ICU that had pt. rooms along one wall with wall mounts in the room and small stations placed across from the rooms enabling the staff to keep an eye on the patients, the monitors for each were placed accordingly. It was a pretty nice set-up, actually.

netglow, ASN, RN · Dec 25, 2009

I like having one in every room as well as the alcoves spaced every several rooms with desk area, drawers, and a few shelves above. Good to have when one in a room is down. You gotta have a nurses station! Best with a sort of wing with a few computers meant for docs on rounds (this way you can keep their germy little hands off the ones we use, LOL).

ittybabyRN, RN · Dec 25, 2009

I work in a new NICU, we have wall mounted computers in each patient room (single patient rooms) and the are on kind of an extendable arm you can swing around, so you can pull up a chair, swing the computer down and chart while sitting. We also have alcoves between most of the patient rooms with computers to sit and chart at. I think the style is called "decentralized" nursing stations. At the front desk we have a charge nurse station that also has the tele monitors but the nurses don't sit there, we stay near our patients

ittybabyRN, RN · Dec 25, 2009

oh also, one more thing, we have "team rooms" one for the fellows/attendings, one for the residents and one for nurse practitioners, they have their computers, books, papers and other important things in there, they round with cows but have their own space for everything else

EDRN-2010 · Dec 25, 2009

At my hospital the "cows" have adjustable height, they go from sitting height like a computer desk sortof to various heights that each user can adjust to their personal working height. They are actually really slim, the laptops plug into the top, and makes it really convienent to do all of your charting whereever you want to do it. There is a central area that I guess you could call a nurses station but the nurses dont really use it as such. It is where the laptops are charged, supplies are stored, etc. We do report in a conference room. I know here, we do not miss having a nurses station.

I personally, could not stand and chart for hours.

imaRN08 · Dec 26, 2009

our NM got rid of our COWS. reason- they're bulky and look ugly. we all have to haul laptops all over with us, which is kind of a nuisance when you have like 10 things to carry into you PIA room and u wanna limit your times in and out and get it all over with in one swoop. i would like to see a computer in every room, wall mounted, with only that pts chart accessable in the room. that way you have free hands at all times, dont have to worry about "using a barrier" in every room for your computer, and you would always have their chart if there is a code. i would def. keep the nurses station. one thing in my hosp i would like to see changed at the station is wireless mouse and keyboards. there are WAAAAY too many cords under the desks. you always get tangled up in the cords and about kiss the floor every time you get up from your seat.

cargalrn · Dec 26, 2009

I would definitely keep the nurses station too. I have only been with echarting two days, there is COWs, and a computer in every room. I noticed they were filthy.

On a different vein, I think all that we touch in this electronic world is transmitting pathogens. We are spending more time with our computers, pickle phones, some of us on personal cell phones, etc, and washing our hands, than with patients.

I would compare a nursing station to a volley in tennis. It lets us take a breath, organize, frame our time, and regroup. And wash our hands.

foreverLaur · Dec 26, 2009

From a tech point of view (I work night shift), I would hate that. We just redid our floor and all our patient rooms have bedside computers. I use them when I go in to do vitals, but when I have to chart safety checks, not so much.

I don't actually have to wake the patient to do safety checks and often, going into the room and turning on the bright computer does wake the patient and I try to avoid that since we do it q2h.

I also get busy and don't have time to do real time charting. I have to write down my I&O with the time and such and chart them later.

I do this charting sitting down at the nurses station. It also gives my feet a bit of a break. In the morning, all the doctors come around and sit down at the nurses station and review charts and online charting from last night before going in to see the patient. When the nurses need new orders written during the shift, the doctors sit up at the nurses station and make phone calls, write in the charts, etc. It provides for better patient confidentiality as well.