taking turns admitting babies

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Gosh, my unit has been so busy lately! Let's all give a heavy sigh......uuuuggghhhh Anyway, I have a question for you. How do you decide who will admit at the begining of the shift? We have many 3-7 holes that are filled with part time nurses who will not admit. It is either they are scared because they do not admit enough, or that they are only there for four hours. It makes me angry that as a full time employee I am admitting almost every day that I work! I love to admitt, but not every shift I work!!!! ANY SUGESTIONS??????

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Specializes in NICU.

Every shift, an assignment is made up by the charge nurse from the prior shift. The "admiting nurse" must possess the added nursing skills necessary to do admissions (ie. I.V's, NRP etc) Everyone usually rotates through the position and new people are "buddied" to the position. If, as you say, they "don't admit enough"....how will they ever be comfortable in that role if they don't do it? It doesn't seem to matter whether the RN is full or part time, we all do it!

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Everyone admits in my unit supposedly. Whoever has the lightest assignment admits.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

We admitted only to the ICU part of the unit. 1st, 2nd and 3rd admit were assigned @ the beginning of the shift. Their assignment was lighter because they had to go to deliveries til they had an admit. If we ran out of admits, we'd move things around to free up another nurse(s). The charge nurse did not have an assignment (believe me, she had her hands full anyway); if worst came to worst, she would admit, then hand the baby off to someone. Almost any one working in the ICU, and most of the people in the intermediate nurseries could go to a delivery and admit a baby.

Management needs to get rid of those 4hr shifts. After a certain date, don't hire/transfer anyone into an 8hr slot; only hire to 12 hrs. Then give the remaining staff on 8 hr shifts 6 months notice that they will be moved to a 12 hr slot, days or nights according to senority.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice, Home Health.

all RN's admit at my hospital...however, we do have 2 nurses who work 1-9p m-f that do our direct admits. but if someone is coming up from ER, all of their history is already completed, so it's just the physical assessment and paperwork...

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Your suggestion of getting rid of eight hour shifts is a good one, but it is comical. You dont know our day shift nurses! We have a bunch of day shift eight hour nurses who throw fits anytime the word 12 hour shifts are brought up. They are over the age of fifty, and say that they are too old to do 12s. Management is scared of them and will back down every time. ( they are very intimidating women) I love them, but they need to retire I guess.

I am not too hip on 12s because that means I will probably have to do nights, and I don't function well doing those. :sniff: I like being able to sleep at night like normal people do. lol Although I have worked in our NICU for seven years, only two of those were full time, so I am closer to the bottom of the day shift list than most of the others. But, I am sure the day is going to come. (recently our M/Baby unit went to all 12s) I hope that when the day does come, the issues with those 4 hour holes will dissapear.

We have so many nurses who only work one to two days a week, so that they can raise their kids etc. When they do work, they usually take the easier babies and do not admit.

I did get a good suggestion from another staff nurse that I work with.... (when I do get to work, take four easy patients, and let that cushion me so that when I dont feel like admitting, I wont feel guilty) We usually take three babies to one nurse.

Oh well, we will see if that helps on the days I am too spent to take the first admit.

:rolleyes:

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