pt acuity system

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hello guys,

I am in nursing management class right now and I have a question about the pt acuity system, please help me out!

My understanding is that this system is used during both pt delegation and assignment as a sign of workload. However, according to the category I, II, &III, from minimal assist pt to complete assist pt, it based on feeding, amb, and bathing assistantce requirement which is the CNA job, I am confused how it is related to assignment of RNs.

Thank you very much!!!

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Can anyone help me, please....

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Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.

Not every floor has CNAs? There should be more criteria though.

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Specializes in 4.

We use it in Outpatient Surgery for LVN & RN assignment. We use it as a scale to determine the patients overall complexity of care. We don't have CNA's so if a patient is assigned you, you do total care. So it all depends on the facility really. If a patient is requiring a lot my attention, then he/she is a 4 (highest) but if he/she is requiring standard care then it's a 3 (the norm). Hope that helps!

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thank u very much, I did some more research, it is a really complete system when u do assignment. I think both of your explanation helped me. I forgot there are some area only have rn, thanks again

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

The state boards of nurses hare specific about this...and most states have specific language in their Nurse practice acts.... [h=3]Joint Statement on Delegation - National Council of State Boards of ...[/h]https://www.ncsbn.org/Joint_statement.pdf

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Specializes in Pedi.

There's a lot more to acuity than whether or not the patient is total care. And, as PediLove said, not all floors have CNAs and, even if they do, that doesn't mean that a total care patient isn't more work for the nurse.

Also, every facility does this differently. My experience of working in the hospital was that we had certain categories of patients who were high acuity and meant to be staffed at 2:1 on days or 3:1 on nights... but if staffing didn't allow for it, you could still end up with 5 or 6 patients including your 1-2 who really belong in the ICU.

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