rapid response team

cabin5 · May 11, 2009

We have been doing this for some time at our facility. We have several of us that do this and our nurses are the trained staff nurses and managers in our Critical Care Units. We have a designated phone that receives calls and whom ever is on call responds. If for some reason that nurse can not go due to her assignment--the charge nurse, another co-worker or our manager will go for us. It works well for the most part. But the nurse takes a routine assignment.

Cindy

TulsaTime · May 11, 2009

That's what I did at the last hospital I worked at (took an assignment with RRT). But I am now at a hospital where we do NOT take an assignment. Rapid Response is a position all in its own. We are under the administration not the ICU so that we are more a housewide helper. I'm just kind of looking for ideas/suggestions what other hospitals have done to justify it being a dedicated position (right now we are helping with QA, mock codes, some education, stroke team, etc)

APNgonnabe · May 12, 2009

Wow!!! Sounds like a great position. I do admit I am a little jealous.

cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN · May 12, 2009

I'm jealous too! What a sweet gig...

I would roam the floors and help with admits, IV starts and medications in between RRT calls.

MarineNurse04 · May 13, 2009

Our RRT nurses don't take a pt assignment. If they're not on an RRT call, they round on the pts that got out of the unit in the past week, check progress with the nurse caring for them then, and usually help identify and correct any trends that would cause them to become a RRT pt and bounce back into the unit.

cabin5 · May 13, 2009

Wish that would work in our facility--too much of a time waste

Southern Fried RN · May 14, 2009

Wish that would work in our facility--too much of a time waste

Our RRT nurse does not take a pt assignment, and what we do is definitely NOT a waste of time. There are many things to do besides actual calls. For example, check on any patients transferred out of ICU within the last 24 hrs, this really helps because sometimes they need to go right back. We do a lot of education especially with newer nurses. We assist with STEMI patients in the ED and getting them to the cath lab. A stroke team is forming and I suspect we will be a part of that. Along with education, we help with basic skills such as a IV insertion or maybe a question about a chest tube. There are chart reviews and QA paperwork to be done on "down time." We make rounds on the floors and talk with the nurses about the more acute patients. Doctors who are not in house will ask us to check on a patient if they get a call from a floor nurse and need more info. We've even had a few family members call us to check on their loved one. Sometimes these don't fit into the technical criteria but it's another set of eyes and ears with ICU experience helping out with the patients.

dorie43rn · May 16, 2009

Wow, you must have a big busy hospital. Our rrt's are few and far between. Our ICU nurse has a pt load and is assigned either rrt's or codes.

On codes, the ICU nurse pushes the meds. If needed, we also start the IV's or record.

On rrt's, there is an ICU nurse and a RRT. We check the pt out, call the doc, and decide if the patient should go to the unit.

Doris

Dinith88 · May 17, 2009

If dedicated RRT nurse positions materialized at my facility there would be fist-fights in the halls over who would get them...as everyone would want it...luckily i'm a man so i could probably take out 1/2 the ladies i work with. The other half i'm not so sure...

At any rate, you are fortunate because this is a rare set-up. Vast majority of hospitals dont do it this way (for obvious reasons $$$). Most of them utilize the code-nurse/nurses from an ICU (who typically has at-least one other patient). Whatever you do on your 'downtime'...make sure you keep logs and stay visible and useful... because any administrator with any sort of fiscal/monetary sense would be gunning to cut this sweet job as RRTs that dont have dedicated nurses serve just as well...

GucciRN22 · May 19, 2009

that's cool! at our hospital the charge nurse and float nurse go to the codes so the rest of us stay on the unit.

Trauma1RN · May 19, 2009

I work at a 1,100 bed teaching hospital and I am good friends with a RRT nurse. We have 2-3 RRT RN's on at any given time. They go to codes, get rapid response calls, and a variety of other things. As an ICU nurse I call them to accompany my patients to CAT scan or when traveling, its hit or miss when they have the time, but it helps when they do. The help out a lot on the med surg floors, if a patient goes bad on the floor then 2 RRT's come and take them to where ever they need to go, they are not allowed to leave until the patient is in the hands of another ICU RN. They also responsible to go to every fall occurence in the hospital and take them to head CT ect. They are heavily untilized in my hospital and I really believe the positions are justified and profitable to a health system.

RRT's in my hospital have been ICU RN's for a long time, usually over 10 years. They don't necessarily get paid for what they do, they get paid for what they know.