situation: does the nurse manager provide care

[nedlloyd]

I hope this question is okay to ask, I am looking for rationale. Assume you are a nurse manger on a specialty unit and you have orders to admit a patient and start treatment. All staff nurses currently have patients who require 1:1 care. What is priority action by the nurse manager? The options I am struggling with are for the nurse manager to accept the patient under her care, have a nurse float from another unit or delay initiating orders (non-emergency treatment) until a staff RN can assume the care. I would think the nurse manager should accept the patient into her care, would that be correct? I cannot see delaying the orders, even though not an emergency I would not want to delay the orders. A nurse from another unit wouldn't be a good choice because it is a specialty unit and the nurse probably wouldn't have the knowledge/skills to take care of this patient. So does the nurse manager take the patient? I know you shouldn't go by what happens in the real world (where I have seen a manager do everything possible in order to not assume direct patient care). Am I missing something? Should the manager leave herself open, what happens if there is an emergency on the floor and she is busy providing 1:1 care? It asks for priority action, which I would think is to carry out the orders. Please help me out, thanks:)

[caliotter3]

Well, that's what I would say, but I sure can't tell you if that is the right answer. Let us know if you find it.