perkines

When I started there was a clinical manager for each unit. Then we had one for both but also had two adm/charge for surg and three for med. They are eliminating the adm/charge in the hopes of staff filling up open positions in other places in the hosp. We will be going back to a clinical manager for each unit again. They are also thinking about doing team nursing with RN/LPN with a 12-14 pt load. Has anybody done team nursing and how is it from RN view and LPN view Thanks for all your posts. You are all so helpful

What I find that is amazing are the people who, you know are SICK, SICK,SICK, yet know matter what you do or how many times a night you wake them up--they smile and say thank you. I am personally not a happy or nice sick person lucky for the guy taking care of me I just keep my mouth shut. Except when giving birth lol.:stone

We are still throwing ideas back and forth. Watching tele is a for sure for unit clerk unless the hospital can't get staff for the position. They are running with thoughts of having a charge with a small (light) team. I see a future of lots of bickering amongst co-workers. My main concern is the lack of somebody who is "boss" and resource person on the floor. Who has worked were there is not a charge nurse? How did it work out?

Our house supervisor will now have to go to each nurse to get a report also instead of one charge which will also waste more time. We only have two lpns on staff for days, but there are quite a few on nights as of now our charges take care of the work that is out their scope of the job-- not sure what the plan will be for them. I am on the transition committe and we are going to be implimenting in Jan--of course one of the busiest times of the year for us. By the way our med unit is combined with peds so we take care of every age except newborns. Thanks for replies

Our hospital is going to eliminate charge nurses from the med/surg floors. On the med floor staffing calls for 5 license for 24 pts with the change it will call for 4 for 24. Staffing for pct on nights is 1 for 18 pts 2 pcts once we hit 19. Our unit clerks are going to also be our tele tech. Management has decided to put computers in all pt rooms and have nurses carry cell phones. I know that now we are already stretching ourselves very thin on pt care with the staff we have. Now with the elimanation of one person to help. The uniit clerk will make up assignments and assign pts to their rms Does anybody work in a hosptial setting similar to this? How is it working for you not to have a charge nurse? I am very intersted in the pro and con of this new adjustment. Thank you very much for input

I work every fri. sat, sun 7p-7a Around 8 I start vs and I tell each pt the plan for the night and morning. If I will be waking them up every four hrs or when I will be in to draw blod. That way when I come in at 4 in the morning I can remind them about what the plan was. Only on one occasion have I had a person who was A&O jump all over at me . Calling me names and b*tching about not getting any sleep--blah blah blah. So I let him go on. Explained that if that is how he feels that he should remember everything he just said and to repeat it to his doctor. All I am doing is carrying out his orders and I did explain to you that I will be in a 2 to draw some more blood and by the way I will be back in 4 hrs for some more. He was a lot nicer at 6 I never take anything personnal when it come from a confused pt. Some people though should just no better