does this sound extremely unsafe or is this typical??

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Nov 28, 2013

Due to Budget cuts our Telemety/CVCU unit is doing away with Tele Techs for every shift beginning Jan 1st. Doesn't this sound a bit unsafe? Both day and night shift nurses have 6-7 patients each. Night shift CNA's are also getting cut - no more CNA's from midnoc to 0600. Night shift nurse will have to prep any first case open heart with hibicleanse, sage wipes, etc and bring all their own patients to diagnostic areas if between 0000-0600. Our hospital Admin said this is becoming typical for many hospitals. Really???[/quote']
To me - doesn't sound unsafe, sounds CRAZY!
Anne, RNC

Bringonthenight · Nov 28, 2013

There are no monitor techs where I'm from. No CNAs. No transporters at night either. You'll learn to adapt.

Unfortunately is all about the money. Nurses don't generate revenue- they just generate care.

schnookimz · Nov 28, 2013

Never had monitor techs where I come from either. RNs watch their own, no big deal at all, but we don't have post surgical patients. Typically it's just people with history of afib that they stick on a monitor.

MendedHeart · Nov 28, 2013

Thats crazy...we have a Telemetry room staffed with 3 monitor techs 24 hours. They watch all tele on the pt floors.

We also have cna's and Secretary around the clock.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Nov 28, 2013

No tele techs where I come from either.....one CNA for the floor...no secretary's either at night

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Nov 28, 2013

Maybe typical for unsafe hospitals that are trying to keep making money at last years rate while ignoring the changing healthcare environment and putting patient safety second. Our 40 bed tele unit has a ratio of 1:4-5 days and 1:5-6 nights with 4-6 techs. There are monitors outside each room that show the whole floors rhythms. (No monitor techs).

MendedHeart · Nov 28, 2013

We make plenty of money and have all staff as said above. Our ratios are 1: 4 days, 1:4-5 on nights. 1:3 for gtts. I find it very interesting the differences between facilities and states.

cardiacfreak, ADN · Nov 28, 2013

Our monitor techs watch our three telemetry floors (even though we have our own monitors at the nurses station, and my unit which is considered ICU step down has the monitors in the patients room as well as at the nurses station). We also have remote telemetry monitoring for the med-surg floors that only the monitor techs view. ICU monitors their own. For years the three telemetry floors watched their own monitors. It's nice to have someone else keeping on eye on our patients too, but it isn't really necessary.

On my floor which is 20 beds, we have one unit secretary and PCA until 11p then only the PCA after 11p. Our surgery transporter comes to the floor to pick patients up for surgery.

bankssarn · Nov 30, 2013

Sounds typical. I worked nocs on tele. We interpreted our own strips. No techs at noc. Ratio was 6:1, sometimes 7:1. The ratio didn't change if you had drips, post-CABGs, trachs, chest tubes, etc. You'll notice I said worked. I got out of there after a year. It wasn't safe.

And a unit secretary? What's that?

Biffbradford · Dec 2, 2013

One more job for the charge nurse! Park at the monitors.

turnforthenurse, MSN, NP · Dec 2, 2013

I worked nights on PCU. For the longest time we always had a unit clerk and at least 1 CNA (though our staffing would indicate 2-3 CNAs for a full floor of patients) but then that changed. The patient census will determine if the floor has a CNA if at all or a unit clerk. Many times it's an all-RN staff, meaning someone will have to clerk in addition to taking patients. To me that just doesn't work.

As for watching the tele monitors, we had a few monitors stationed in different areas on the unit and during our charting or whatever we would just park ourselves by them and watch them.