canurse24

LaylaHendrix: that sounds interesting as well. Thanks!

I didn't say that the patients are not being turned every two hours.. i Said we all Try to make it happen. But do you not agree that in an ICU the events are not predictable, times when docs and families are there are not predictable; and nurses and/or aides have their own ways of working and different priorities etc etc? This would assure that there is a uniform goal being aimed at and most likely met as per guidelines. I love my hospital and my unit. we have 32 beds in this ICU. They try to staff us 2:1 or 3:1 for more stable patients. We have the best team I have ever worked with -and I was a travel nurse. I am pretty sure our aides do feel as part of the team. But I was referring to the fact that as you stated "it is sometimes hard to get enough Hands to get the task done" -which is the main issue! In the past two years I have worked here I can see staffing has changed enough that we all feel a strain being able to meet the needs of all of the patients, and still have time to study the charts, and leaving them and the rooms, clean and neat as can be when we report off. First and foremost of course is to keep your ICU patient alive (as I guess there is a need to state the obvious in case of any misunderstanding). Anyway I had asked if people have experiences with turn teams and to share them? My purpose here was not to analyze the inner workings of my unit, but myself and my council believe that trialing a turn team can help reduce costs of pressure ulcers and increase staff satisfaction. I don't really feel like it is necessary to explain beyond that as it does not add or change anything to the research topic.

We do use specialty air mattresses -all of our beds are; and then we order other beds for totally bedbound patients and bariatrics, etc. We are doing this because yes the expectation is to turn q 2 hrs, but does it honestly get done that way especially with lower staffing ratios and higher acuities/needs of patients and families? Healthcare is changing, and hospitals are not being reimbursed for pressure ulcer related costs as it is deemed as something preventable. I think this would also optimize the way we utilize our aides and would help them feel like there is more onus to their role on the floor, so hopefully it would increase job satisfaction? as in response to meandragon, that is just like where I work -the nurse is responsible for everything including turns/baths etc right now. We have aides but they are not "responsible" for the patients care. They answer call bells, help with transfers, "try" to get accuchecks done and meals set up but pretty much everything else is like they have to be asked to do something -its not like its assumed its to be done; like turning patients side to side. Will come back and let you know our results. It will take us about 6-8 months. Anyone else have experiences with having a Turn team i'd like to know how it is being done and what the pros/cons are.

I work in ICU that has a mixed bag of both surgical -hearts and you name it.. with medical patients. It has 32 beds. We therefore get a large variety of patients. One hot topic lately is pressure ulcer prevention. We are starting a project of trialing our PTCAs (aka Aides) as a turn team; they are going to turn all high risk patients every 2 hours. We will compare the incidence of pressure ulcers before and during/after use of this turn team. Has anyone out there done a similar project or are currently doing this? What do you think of it? As part of my unit council it would be nice to see what others have experienced; and good to have this feedback to get my other staff all aboard to give it an honest go! Thanks in advance.