PT rooms too small??

lpnflorida · Mar 27, 2009

Too small in an understatement. The rooms were never designed for all the equipment we use on patient's in this day and age. Try using bariatric equipment in these out moded rooms, Yikes.

mama_d, BSN, RN · Mar 27, 2009

I swear that some evil person drew up the blue prints for hospital rooms...they measured the beds first and then decided to make the doors just 1/2" wider.

The only rooms we have that are big enough are our bariatric rooms. And it's just getting worse at my facility, they are installing the computer stations for when we go live with computerized charting. Apparently noone thought to talk to the floor staff before deciding where to put these monstrosities...they hang right over where we put the recliners. I've already cracked my head on a few. I'm not the most graceful person in the world, granted, but I can already see incident reports being filled out on a regular basis b/c patients/family members have cracked their noggins on the darn things.

RNperdiem, RN · Mar 27, 2009

Most of our rooms are big enough.

There is never enough horizontal space to put things. The supply cart, the windowsill and the overbed desk is it.

The doorways could be wider. Modern stretchers are as obese as some of our patients.

The nursing stations is where I find the crowding and everything in the way.

vashtee, RN · Mar 27, 2009

Our rooms have two beds in them. Bed "A" space is non-existent, especially if a visitor drags a chair in there. I wish they would expand the hospital and make these tiny rooms into single-bed rooms.

iriska_meller · Mar 27, 2009

Oh this is a big pet peeve of mine. I just want to find the person (or team) who established the size of the rooms and doors... bring them to people's court and sentense them to 10 years of daily assignment of moving beds in and out of the rooms with all the equipment attached... ALL DAY LONG. And for those who made the final decision... make them move the beds out of a room in an emergency situations! :yeah:

Quaffetti · Mar 27, 2009

Mama d must work in the same hospital as me. Our computers were put in as an afterthought, and sometimes you cannot even get around the end of a bed without gouging your back by one.

Plus, we have one wing that was originally offices, but they decided to make them into pt rooms. Not single rooms, mind you, but double rooms. These are just tiny offices and now we have two pts in them.

There was a time last week I literally had to crawl over the patient's bed to get to the other side to see his chest tube. Yeah, that looks professional.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Mar 28, 2009

And it's just getting worse at my facility, they are installing the computer stations for when we go live with computerized charting. Apparently noone thought to talk to the floor staff before deciding where to put these monstrosities...they hang right over where we put the recliners. I've already cracked my head on a few. I'm not the most graceful person in the world, granted, but I can already see incident reports being filled out on a regular basis b/c patients/family members have cracked their noggins on the darn things.

Some of ours hang over the sink! In the open bed area of our unit we have two terminals on a short piece of countertop right next to a sink. The COWs for the area are plugged into wall outlets at the head of the bed, meaning that there is an electrical cord running from one end of the bedspace to the other. I rolled my ankle three times in one shift when I stepped on my COW cord.

Our rooms have two beds in them. Bed "A" space is non-existent, especially if a visitor drags a chair in there. I wish they would expand the hospital and make these tiny rooms into single-bed rooms.

Plus, we have one wing that was originally offices, but they decided to make them into pt rooms. Not single rooms, mind you, but double rooms. These are just tiny offices and now we have two pts in them.

Our single rooms have been turned into double rooms. We're expected to put two stretchers, two ventilators, two pump trees, one supply cart, two overbed tables, six chairs and all the assorted accoutrements that go along with everything else into these rooms. Never mind putting people in there. We also have converted our x-ray viewing room into a double room... even smaller than our former single rooms.

Our computers were put in as an afterthought, and sometimes you cannot even get around the end of a bed without gouging your back by one.

Our computers were "retrofitted". We now have so much equipment at our bedsides that there's no way to get to the patient in an emergency without moving the furniture. (ICU) On Wednesday I had the cardiologist doing an echo on one side of the bed between me and my ventilator and our resident trying to place an art line on the other. He was between me and my pumps and his sterile field was between him and me. I couldn't have reached the monitor without a long stick. The ventilator was alarming for low minute volumes from the echo, the kid's sats were in her boots and she was bradycardic with the associated alarms going off and the cardiologist was totally oblivious. It was a gong show, literally.

There was a time last week I literally had to crawl over the patient's bed to get to the other side to see his chest tube. Yeah, that looks professional.

Last night I had a fresh post-op cardiac baby. All our fresh post-op cardiacs have mediastinal sumps that drain into small volume (200 mL) cones that attach to our suction canisters. The suction outlets are all along the back wall... behind the head of the bed and the pump tree, down near the floor. Crawling around on the floor every hour isn't all that professional looking either! She had a short run of SVT just after midnight and by the time I went to the terminal on the countertop next to the sink and went through the generic log-in, then my own log-in and took a "snapshot", I coudn't remember what time the event had happened at; the wall clocks don't show the same time as the monitor/computer, so I missed it altogether. Bravo!