post op care in ICU

[cconvard]

We are a small rural 5 bed ICU. Occasionally we will recover post op ICU patients. We only staff the ICU with two nurses. On this particular day we had a septic patient and another patient with c diff. Should we give the post op patient to the nurse who has the c diff patient or to the nurse who has the septic patient. Are there any policies out there that state that post op pts. should be recovered one on one or with a nurse who does not have a patient who is on isolation. What is best practice for recovering of post op patient in the ICu?

[Sharon]

Your scenario has left a lot essential data out. Are the patients, adult or children? How independent are the patients? What organism made the one patient septic? Are you acting as the recovery room or are the patients transferred to you from recovery? If they are adult and have some control over their body functions then it probably won't matter how you pair up the patients. You could even pair up the patients with C-Diff. and the one who is septic.

It would not be appropriate to create a blanket policy that states, " all post -op patients will have one on one nursing care once out of recovery or while in recovery." Because in reality not all post -op patients require one-on-one nursing care.