patient assignments--need ideas for fairness

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can you guys tell me works and what doesn't work for dividing up the patient assignments for the nurses. Right now we work on a number acquity system: 6 are hard pts, 5 average, and 4 discharging or very little care. this isn't working and we are having very tired and frustrated nurses. Can anyone tell me what is working for them?

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

What kind of unit do you work on? What kind of patient is a considered a five or six?

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

Yeah, we started doing numbers on our unit, but we don't have that kind of time to figure out what is hard, what is easy, etc............

Maybe something about heavy care-bedbound, lots of meds/tx, non-routine, frequently incontinent, lots of doctors, heavy family presence..etc. If you have 2 of these, then maybe they should have 3-4 routine patients and have the last admit rotation. sometimes the assignment is not fair, but you do what you can and what you have to.

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I have run into that alot. the patient assignments were not fair. I would get more assigned than alot of the experienced people even when I was a brand new nurse. I thought it was more confidence in me, but with my blinders off, now I think otherwise!

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Do you have enough warm bodies to handle the patient load? No amount of "acuity juggling" will make up for under-staffing.

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