Project for school

[iamoph]

Hi all! we have a project on delegation for school and I am a bit confused and already stressing out and Im not even in charge of real people! I think its an interesting project and Im not looking for answers to it just some guidance on how things work.

Here is the scenario:

I am the charge nurse. I have no patients assigned to me. I have 4 RNs and 1 LPN. I have 26 patients on my floor. One of the patients codes and the RRT, which consists of 1 ICU RN, 1 ED RN, a pharmacist, a physician, and a resp. therapist, is called. The primary nurse is gone for 1.5 hours during the code along with 2 other RNs off my floor. That leaves 25 patients and 1 RN and 1 LPN to take care of them.

What I'm wanting to know is if float nurses could be called to my floor to help with the patients? I'm also wondering why 3/4 of my nurses need to be in the room and if i can pull the two who arent the pts primary nurse out of there. Obviously I would take on patients during this time even though im not *assigned* any but if split as equally as possible that would still leave me with 8 pts, the LPN with 8, and the other RN with 9. However, I do realize that I cant just split things down the middle. I have to utilize the 5 rights of delegation.

I am still a student and havent seen that many codes but the ones i have seen it was only the primary nurse and the RRT in the room...as well as us students. The other floor nurses didnt come in.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

why would you need to send three RN's to a code from one department?

I would contact the House Supervisor and get someone to assist, ASAP. If the House Supervisor is too tied up with the code, call charge nurses in other areas and ask for help. Even unlicensed people can come for a while. Also, I wold not worry about the numbers so much as the status of the patients. If they are all watching TV and are comfortable, then all you need to do is make rounds. If no help comes, call the CNO.