Patient assignments

[Laney123]

Hi,

I work in an 8 bed Phase I pacu at a community hospital. I have a question for you seasoned PACU nurses. How do you do your patient assignments. This is my first PACU job, which I have been at for 2 years now. I have done ICU and ER previously. It seems that in my PACU, there is such a dysfunction in assigning a nurse to a patient. How are your assignments done? Do you rotate nurses and take turns? Do you assign a nurse to a surgeon? Do you assign cases at the start of the day? UGH, :bowingpurI just don't know the best way. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much for your insight.

Laney

[debthern]

we are assigned 2 nurses for each 3 slots we alternate who gets a pt and example is nurse a and b are in slot 1,2,3 nurse a gets slot 1 and nurse b slot 3 nurse a gets a pt and they both get the patient settled, then nurse b will get one which they both settle then we use slot 2 for the overflow and the nurse that is able to take that patient does. We also have PICU patients which are 1/1. We also do phase1 and phase2 in the same slot so you might have an ICU patient and your partner a MRI so they of course take the 2nd pt. Remember that standards say Phase 1 pts are 1/2 ratio

[Laney123]

Hey there,

thanks so much. I think that just may work. I really like that idea. We too do phase 1 and 2 in the same area.

[anne74]

Each nurse gets assigned 2 bays, and then we go in order around the room. Our shifts are staggered, so the first nurse in gets the first patient and so on. It doesn't always shake out perfectly - some nurses get stuck with a patient all day long, while another may get multiple quick outpatients, but we do the best we can to make it fair - at least our good charge nurses do that.