Private duty nurses job description in the hospital

v_noreen2 · Feb 23, 2010

I am a Hospital Based Private Duty Nurse in a tertiary hospital in Davao, Philippines. We function like a staff nurse in fact more closely like an ICU nurse since most of our patients are intubated and it is 1:1 patient ratio. We report directly to the doctor and the doctor gives their orders directly to us. The on duty hospital staff nurses don't handle the patients but they include us during their rounds. We just update them on the patient's status or any new orders so that they will be aware.

Yes, we give medications according to the physician's order be it IV or oral. We carry out orders, charting (the patient's chart is with us not at the nurse station), IV insertions (as long as you have an IV license), wound dressing, NGT feeding, enema, bedbath, etc.

I'm not sure of other hospitals but I think its up to the hospital management to provide their own policies like in my case,the hospital will only hire PDNs that had undergone training with them (which is a minimum of 5 months).

caliotter3 · Feb 23, 2010

Any and all rules and policies would be spelled out by the hospital and should have been made clear to the nurse when they first entered the facility. Important to make certain there are no overlapping duties or missed duties because one person thinks the other is responsible. If there are any remaining questions, then the private nurse is obligated to ask.