PCN Cardiovascular floor

martymoose, BSN, RN · Dec 14, 2009

i feel safe with 3-4 , including a couple or so on drips and art lines, but not too good feeling when its 5-6, and 2 or three are heavy medical confused patients , and the rest are drips and lines.

Willow Moonsidhe · Dec 14, 2009

Thanks I am taking five and feeling really push to shove. Had an especially bad night last night. Three were really bad off and one crashed on me throwing me off really bad. I have always worked specialty areas like Trauma, ICU and L&D and this is beyond me why administration does not see the danger.

~Willow

martymoose, BSN, RN · Dec 15, 2009

oh , that was on nights? our nite nurses usually avg 6-7 overnight, 5 on eves , and 3-4 on days, altho on days a bad day would be 5. I think it is not safe, and we would have very acute pts that would take away our time from the other pts- ie. be in the room with the unstable pt for 4 hours or more- totally unable to even check on your other pts. that part stinks. Our resourse nurse had us start documenting when we had a very acute pt- the time spent 1:1, what their problem was, etc. We were going to present this as evidence that our acuity can be so high. I think sometimes the stepdown pts are moved from icu too soon, or we have ones on the floor that should have never come there in the 1st place, or sometimes the icu is full and we cant move the pt, so they stay. If thats the case tho, we usually have the advise of an IcU nurse as part of the response team.

hth- i know the bad days you talk of.hugs

Willow Moonsidhe · Dec 21, 2009

Thanks I am trying to cope best I can and just voice to Shift Leaders and Manager when I feel things get scary and unsafe.

imaRN08 · Dec 21, 2009

i routinely have 5, most time 6 pts, drips vary- sometimes a lot, sometimes none, --and usually we all have atleast 2 confused pts a piece. very very very busy... wouldnt be so bad if our management was better. we routinely get OD's, ETOH's, psych's, and lots of med/surg overflow pts on top of it. it makes for a very stresfull unit. we are also a smaller rual hospital, so we are not just about cardiac anymore... we are kind of a catch-all area anymore. used to be that we ONLY took cardiac and severe pulmonary pts. but on the other hand, i love cardiac care and until i can get into the OR, this is my 'home'

martymoose, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2009

omgosh imarn08- do you work on my floor(lol)jk. Thats exactly what we've been saying too- all of a sudden we are now the overflow floor; hardly get any cardiology/plasty pts anymore. Thing is we still get them occasionally, and it screws up caring for the confused, psych, etoh, etc pts we get now. Sometimes taking care of 3-4 plasties(including art lines, freq. checks) was easier because you knew what to expect. management (upper) doesnt get this- all they see is that there is an empty bed to be filled RIGHT NOW. ughh so frustrating. There have been times I have considered going to the OR at least that would be one pt at a time- they arent going to fall, they arent going to punch me( hehe well, the doc might, lol?). But I live to far to make call. So, not an option for me. I guess we do this til we cant do it no more, or we lose our licenses. :-(

also, didnt read that you were considering going to the OR until after I posted. Ha, we're on the same wavelength

imaRN08 · Dec 21, 2009

wow... eerily similar!! we do not have art lines in our unit. but our management is pretty much the same.. oh look, PCU has an empty bed, theyre short staffed and drowning, and in the middle of a code... but they have 3 beds open and guess what, theres 3 admits coming from the ER. :devil: there is one house sup who speciaizes in this EVERY day. our hospitalists like to send all the 1:1 pts to our floor too bc someone in ER told them that PCU is the 1:1 floor... no joke. we over heard one hospitalist tell another one that right at the nurses station as they were being oreinted!!

martymoose, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2009

ugghh that stinks!is it me, or does it seem like there are more 1;1 pts anyways? i have worked ot on other floors, and still have the same 1;1's. with no one to watch them if they are confused, or 1:1, because they are "this close" to needing ti be in icu. atghhh.

how long do you have to wait to get into the or?

imaRN08 · Dec 22, 2009

who knows how long it will take... if they even call me for an interview. i have been trying on and off for 4 years to get into a OR, weather it be where I work or at another facility. i hate to sound negative, but I'm not gettin my hopes up at all.

Willow Moonsidhe · Dec 22, 2009

Ended up with 5 one on ones last night grrr