Speaking of Dumping...

[IMustBeCrazy]

After reading a post that talked about terminally ill pts "dumped" to psych because they were depressed (duh) about their illness...it made me think about something else.

Lately our unit has been the "dumpee" from Neuro when they get a Lewy Body Dementia pt or stable TBI pt that is giving them a run for their money. Apparently the Neuro charge nurse facilitated the transfers to our locked unit (by way of grievance) because both pts were in the high obs area which was highly trafficked by staff and visitors and the pts were yelling obscenities and striking out at staff. BTW, neither had a psych diagnosis. Am I the only one that thinks this is crap? These are not psych patients, these are NEURO cases. Since when does psych become the dumping ground for the hospital?? BTW, the Neuro charge stated "it should be ok to move them, they're used to the language and hitting there" ....um WHAT? Same thing with alzheimers pts. I'm not opposed to taking care of any pt, but good grief!!

[BarefootinLPN97]

The same thing happens to our unit.The m/sunit in our hospital is bad for ''dumping on us. When we pass thro there unit and if there is a pt. sitting at the nsg. desk in a geri chair ,,rest assured they will try their best to get the Dr.to transfer them to our unit.I'm with you. We are here to take care of pts,,but we also get Alzheimers and Dementia pts, and tell me What can we do for these pts?

[NikkiRN_BSN]

If they are in need of IVs and complicated medical care these people stay on the neuro floor with a sitter. If they pass them on to us it's usually because no one is sure what to do with them next. Our social worker works like mad to make appropriate community placement for these patients. They can't participate in our programming and there is no way to determine benchmarks for improvement. We are an acute psych floor. Our patients are supposed to be helped through the immediate crisis than set up with community services.