Patient sitter?

SaoirseRN · Nov 23, 2012

We sometimes get "sitters" for our high fall risk patients, and at my facility, it involves being always present in the room. The sitter (we call them one-to-ones) is not expected to give meds or chart assessments, but toileting and personal care falls under the job description along with keeping them from falling or wandering where they aren't supposed to go. But to be safe, you should probably ask the hiring manager to elaborate on the job description.

RNperdiem, RN · Nov 23, 2012

Nurses love to get sitters for their patients.

There is a push these days to minimize the use of restraints of all sorts, and some patients will fall or pull out every line unless they are either restrained or have a sitter there.

Sitter work is variable. You might sit at the bedside of a sleeping patient all night, or you might spend long hours wrestling with a restless person who is confused.

In my unit the typical sitter patient has alcohol/drug withdrawl or a head injury. These patients are challenging. They are agitated and are tireless! We cannot keep them knocked out on drugs and they don't always respond to verbal redirection.

We expect our sitters to do some CNA work like helping us boost the patient up in bed, helping with hygiene and assisting with meals.

girlpolice · Nov 23, 2012

We used to use a lot of sitters when I worked in trauma step down. Most of the sitters were CNAs and did all the cna-type work for that one patient.

My only complaint was that some sitters would fall asleep on the job, which is Not A Good Thing. If you're the type of person who can nod off, even during the day, I wouldn't be a sitter.

-girlpolice

anotherone, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2012

some places the sitters do not do any hands on care. in some sitters can do anything aides can do . it varies by facility.

Morainey, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2012

Our sitters are now expected to have NA licenses because before we had some issues with sitters who insisted that they "couldn't touch the patient". We now expect all sitters to be able to assist with personal care.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2012

I haven't seen sitters in many years. Nowadays, the family has to hire and pay for a sitter themselves. And yes, the ones we do occassionally have do nothing but "sit." Apparently the families tell them to just call the nurse for anything! We do use bed alarms, which are really loud and wonderful. Not much problem with falls with them. We do not use restraints at all. I myself would LOVE to make some extra money by sitting!

evolvingrn, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2012

I haven't seen sitters in many years. Nowadays, the family has to hire and pay for a sitter themselves. And yes, the ones we do occassionally have do nothing but "sit." Apparently the families tell them to just call the nurse for anything! We do use bed alarms, which are really loud and wonderful. Not much problem with falls with them. We do not use restraints at all. I myself would LOVE to make some extra money by sitting!

I have seen it both ways. In staff sitters are expected to do cares but when some is hired by the family we might have them help boost the pt but generally for liability reasons we don,t have them provide cares. Some are great but others are more work than the pt. the ones hired by the family are usually because the pt is wealthy and the family doesn't want them alone....not because the are restless

Jenni811, RN · Dec 3, 2012

We have patient sitters, but we don't hire into that position. Our patient sitters are our own staff. (i.e. Usually a nurse or a CNA that is already hired). So usually we pull one from off the floor, get one from another floor that might be over-staffed or have someone on call. Sometimes a float pool CNA or RN will do it. If all else fails, we start calling peopel at home to see if they will come in.

It's a really boring job to be honest....i've had to do them, and you are NOT allowed to leave the patient. Not for one second. It can be super boaring where you do absolutley nothing, to getting hearly hit, punched or kicked. Each patient is different for their reason to be on continuous observation. However; its a good job while your in nursing school because you really won't have staffed hours usually. This is because alot of the times there are no patients on continous observation. So they just tend to call you when they need you.

turnforthenurse, MSN, NP · Dec 3, 2012

Before I was a nurse, I was an aide/nurse tech...there were aides who were strictly hired for the sitter pool but oftentimes our own staff is used, or an aide/tech is pulled from another floor to come sit. Where I work now, that's how it is - we use our own staff. Patients needing a 1:1 at my facility are the ones with suicidal ideations or the ones who are very confused and are pulling at things.

You may have a patient who will sleep all night or you may have a very confused patient who is constantly trying to pull out their lines and climb out of bed. It really depends. We expect sitters to provide basic patient care and help with toileting. Sitters usually get vital signs for the patient, too. And please, WATCH THE PATIENT. Nothing irks me more when the patient still manages to pull our their IV even with a sitter at the bedside because a sitter wasn't paying attention. There was an incident where a patient actually EXPIRED (not where I work, btw) and the sitter didn't realize it until much later. I don't know what happened to the sitter or the nurse in that incident.

kreed · Dec 3, 2012

If you do take the position. Do NOT leave the room without having a nurse tag you out. Not even to pee. I had a sitter leave and not tell me the pt fell OOB and broke his arm and had a large gash on his head. She had turned his bed alarm off because it "annoyed" her. She was fired by the family and the facility will no longer allow her to sit with any of the patients

Good luck!!

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 3, 2012

I just finished my last day on the first after working as a sitter for 15 months and a day (yes, I counted).

It is not for the faint of heart. Prepared to be slapped, kicked, spat at, deal with rude, nasty patients and their rude, nasty family members, sexual assault, death threats and rude management. All I could do was sit there and maybe help out a nurse, doctor or PCA turn and feed the patient. Sometimes I had to stop patients from running from the hospital, hurting themselves or other people. I've dealt with drug addicts, alcoholics, suicidal, homicidal, confused, dementia and everything in between.

The sitters have a high turnover rate, so fifteen months in this "field" is impressive, but I've been told by nurses and PCAs how they felt sorry for me for having to be figuratively attached to the hip with the patient. It sucks, I found the job to be overall boring on most days and overwhelming on others. I felt like I couldn't do anything for the patient and found myself practically useless on the job. On top of that, I wasn't allowed to read or do anything to distract myself. At one point, sitters were expected to sit in a dark room in a comfortable chair and stare at the patients. We couldn't read a magazine or bring a book. Management soon realized how idiotic this rule was after finding numerous sitters asleep on the job (what did they expect?), but that sure as hell didn't stop sitters from sneaking in homework or a book for entertainment (I did).

I just recently got a promotion as a SNA. I start on the 14th. I would suggest going for a PCA job over a sitter job. I have been working as a PCA at another hospital. You get more respect and hands on experience with the patient, and you get to move around a bit, which helps you keep awake. The pay is only a little bit higher, but overall, it is better.

Good luck!