Simultaneous admissions (vent)

RNJill · Dec 11, 2013

Hmmm...I don't really understand this. On my unit, you just take whatever admissions come to your rooms after your original patients are discharged. It can be difficult when you have 2-3 admits in a given shift, but I guess it kind of all evens out across the board after multiple shifts. Our charge nurse doesn't have an assignment (but tries to help out) and no one expects them to "do their admissions."

My unit is so large that there is no way a charge nurse can have an assignment and/or take patients - they could be admitting 10-12 patients a day!

gigglestarsRN · Dec 12, 2013

Okay, so when I'm in charge I know that I am supposed to take admissions. That does not mean EVERY SINGLE admission. That also means that yes, I deserve a lunch break too! It also means, if we get two admissions at once, guess what, you just might have to do your own admission!
Can we please break away from this idea that having a charge nurse means staff RNs are off the hook for admissions?? I work really hard to make everyone's day a little easier but I can't do back-to-back-to-back admissions all day! And especially not two or three admissions at the same time!

On my unit we all do our own admissions, the only exception might be if we are genuinely too busy, then charge will take report, get them tucked in and pct get vitals and in monitor. Our unit all works to help one another as much as possible, but there's certainly no expectation of charge to do our admits.

0.adamantite · Dec 12, 2013

We do our own admissions, our charge does not take an assignment.

iluvgusgus · Dec 12, 2013

Well that "unspoken rule" needs to be talked about now, you should put your foot down and say "no" when you dont have the time to take another admission. I think your nurses are just spoiled now and acting bratty when they have to do their own admissions. On my unit the charge nurse does not have an assignment, they will help when needed. The night charge nurses started to help a lot with admissions to the point that it was becoming expected that they would handle all admissions, and they stopped that real quick because the nurses were starting to take advantage of their kindness, got spoiled and complained. Day shift never got help like that so it was unfair. There's lots of RNs looking for jobs now that can replace them, if they dont like it they can leave, right?

AlphaPig · Dec 12, 2013

Holy cow, our charge nurses have NO patients, do NOT help with admissions and rarely help with patient care when the nurses are swamped. This is not because they are lazy, but our charge nurses have SO MANY STUPID tasks to do, papers to fill out, discharge calls to make, rounding to make sure our patients are all "happy" (not getting better, mind you, just "happy"), meetings, etc etc etc they are always running around like crazy. They hate it and it just keeps getting worse

Plus, our floor probably gets about 10 admissions a day, so we all have to take them!

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Dec 18, 2013

THANK YOU! I was beginning to think I was unreasonable and crazy!!
And yes, on our floor it is an unspoken expectation that charge nurse will take all admissions. And then, if the charge nurse doesn't, people gripe about having to do an admission.

Charge nurse is just a literally getting the short end of the stick. Very little compensation, double the work and responsibility and someone to blame for all that could go wrong.

At my last job, the nurses finally set foot down and now the charge nurse is kept out of staffing, is readily available to help the nurses in staffing, do acuities, help with discharges and admissions aside from putting out fires here and there. It is a win win all around.

They will only go as far as YOU allow them!

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2013

Our charge nurses never do admissions exclusively! Admissions are the responsibility of the nurses taking on the patient. Charge nurses here often have their own patient loads as well, so they do their own admissions. And BTW, no extra pay for all that!

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CrazierThanYou · Dec 31, 2013

I can tolerate two admissions at once over two FRESH POST OP admissions at once. A unit at my hospital is bad to reserve all the expected post ops for 1 or 2 nurses. Its crap. A coworker complained about having two at once and ended up getting wrote up. Ridiculous. It isn't safe. Not at all.

NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN · Dec 31, 2013

Also, when they call to send the patient, it is completely reasonable to say "I just got one, can you give me 15 or 20 minutes?" We have no problem holding them for you to get settled.

CrazierThanYou · Dec 31, 2013

Not at my hospital. As soon as you get report they send them up and if you don't get report within 20 minutes, they can send them without report.

CrazierThanYou · Dec 31, 2013

I just realized the OP is talking about admissions as charge. I feel like laughing out loud. Our charge nurses NEVER admit patients. That's all on us.

turnforthenurse, MSN, NP · Jan 7, 2014

I used to charge on a progressive care unit and I would always have a full load of patients. I made the assignments and also determined who would get the admissions. If we were getting slammed and it was someone's turn to get a second admission, I would always try my hardest to do the admission data for my fellow staff just to help them out a little. I wasn't always available, however.

Now, I can understand a charge nurse without having any patients doing the admission stuff, but I have never heard of a charge nurse with a full patient load doing that.