Rapid Response Team and Families

Specialties MICU

Published

Our Rapid Response Team (RRT) is about one year old. It has been a success. The nurses on the med surg units have appreciated the assist.

Part of the JACHO requirements for the Rapid Response Team is to involve the pt/families, allowing them to call the RRT themselves. icon5.gif Has anyone started this aspect of the team function?

I don't want this to be a taddling on their nurse or underminding the pt's nurse. I want it to be part of the pt's orientation to the room/unit. Given positively and part of encouraging the pt's participation in their care. Ex: do your I.S. DB/C and call the RRT if you feel like you are in a crisis and your nurse hasn't been able to help. Talk with your nurse first.

We have the Joint Commission "Speak Up" posters everywhere and it would play into that theme.

Do you have a family handout?

Who receives the call from the pt/family? The team itself? A "screener" like the nursing supervisor - to screen out irritation calls? (no one is answering the call bell fast enough).

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Apparently there is some research regarding RRT and families calling. Something like, the patient has a more likelihood of survival if it's a real emergency. There were gonna start implementing families being allowed to call RRT but I haven't heard anything yet.

Specializes in ER.

Ya know, RRT's clearly have been decreasing codes where they have been implemented BUT...I wonder if increasing the RN to patient ratio wouldn't do the exact same thing.

Of course then you wouldn't have the dramatic saves for the hospital to boast about, and I bet that the hospital gets more money from high acuity patients brought back from the brink....Just some thoughts.

Specializes in CCU/CVU/ICU.
My facility allows it as well. If a family feels that a floor nurse isnt giving them the attention they need in a change of pt status situation, they can pick up the phone and call the operator who will immediately page us. I think it works well for the most part.

I still think it's a dumb idea...and a wee slap in the face of the floor nurses. The message is clear: "...you may not be as good as assessing a patient/situation as the family is..." :argue: Whatever. It's an abuse of the RRT system (and critical-care nurses) i think.

I understand the arguments some nurses may think/give regarding family-guided code-calling and such. But... i think a much better system would be a family 'panic button team' that consists of the nurse manager/charge-nurse and perhaps another nurse from the patient's unit. If these three nurses determine that an actual RRT call is needed...then by all means...please do it. BUT...should this 'family panic response team' determine that grandma's just being neglected and/or has to poop and/or is puking...and/or etc... then the (usually busy) critical-care nurses/docs/resp. techs need not be bothered. Let the floors sevelope and train 'family panic teams' (FPT's i suppose) if they're in favor of them.

But..again...whatever.

Specializes in Critical Care.

That's a thought, the operator paging the Service Director (manager) - on Days (might interrupt some meetings) with her Charge Nurse her back up, and Supervisor on PM shifts. There is not a Nursing Supervisor on 7-3. We still haven't put the family call in place. I'm glad so far, though I'm very family supportive, I keep going back and forth about this. I'd love to be able to drop and investigate any call. The concern is mainly because the ICU Charge Nurse/RRT Nurse now has a full pt load. (budget) Granted it should be the lightest load, but that sets you up for transfers out and crash ins. Not to mention, are the other staff able to handle your load too while you're gone for at least an hour at a time. We aren't getting very many calls lately but we can't even attend all the RRT calls now, then add Family calls. As it is we've had to add the ED staff to our RRT staff if we can't go. On days there isn't a nursing supervisor so we have to attend the RRT calls.

So, do any of you have a Family Call system P&P to share?

One pro-thought for family calls: during night shift, a family member runs to the nurse's sta with an emegency situation and all the nurses are in pt rooms the family member would have a back up plan by calling the operrator with the family emergency code.

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