Team nursing - Anyone still doing this?

[KrysyRN, BSN]

I used to work on a postpartum unit where an RN, LPN, and CNA would work as a team and were assigned 12 patients on a 36-bed unit. The RNs responsibilities included the assessments, rounds with physicians, chart checks (paper charting), and discharge teaching. The LPNs responsibilities included med administration, IV therapy, pre-op prep, and staple removal. The CNAs did all of the basic care and wheeled moms down to their cars at discharge.

Are any nurses still working with teams like this in any units in hospitals? We were a well-oiled machine, and I don't ever remember feeling overwhelmed, even when we had several higher acuity patients, and admits and discharges coming at us left and right.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

It sounds wonderful. A lot of problems arise when duties are not clearly assigned. Seems like we should go back to that method.

[kp2016]

It works great, with the right people. I have worked on a surgical unit where it worked great, a medical unit at the same hospital it was hell.

Given all care is ultimately the RNs responsibility it can end up being a lot more work if you are working with people who are lazy, have to constantly be “asked nicely” to do A,B and C or who fail to notify you of abnormal situations. This is before we even mention the elephant in the room, people who are bullies or down right difficult to work with.

[Mn nurse 22]

Yes, but our teams are 8 patients and if short on nursing aids our teams are 6 with just an RN and LPN. I love having the extra help and the team approach means that even if one patient is tanking the LPN will keep up with the other patients and even ask other RNs to help with items that are out if their scope.

We learn to communicate well as we are always updating our teams on whats going on with each patient. And gives us lots of ways to bounce ideas off each other. With a new RN when they get paired with a seasoned LPN it helps them to learn so much, but also in the rare chance that the new RN is struggling the LPN can gently recommend they reach out to another RN for guidance.

We are lucky that our unit is a great place to work with no room for bullies and it's rare to have a lazy coworker.

[KrysyRN, BSN]

15 hours ago, Mn nurse 22 said:

Yes, but our teams are 8 patients and if short on nursing aids our teams are 6 with just an RN and LPN.

Wow, the number of patients in your assignment is really reasonable.

When I read on this site about nurses that are overwhelmed with their daily patient assignments, I often wonder if team nursing would ease some of the stress and help make the work more manageable. I'm surprised that it isn't practiced more.

[RNperdiem, RN]

This is like the group projects a lot of us did in our school days. If you are working with a group where everyone puts in the required effort and has a strong work ethic, then the group can accomplish amazing things. If even one person in the team is a slacker, the burden will fall heavily on the RN.

When I worked med-surg, we didn't have team nursing per se, but the understanding was that our assignment was doable because of the CNA. If the CNA assisned to you for the shift was one of the hard-working energetic ones, then your day was off to a good start. On the other hand, some of the CNAs were always hiding out somewhere, or off for smoke break, breakfast break, coffee run or otherwise unavailable and the med-surg workload could be unbearable.

[Arr-tistRN]

Hi, I work inpatient psych at the VA in Seattle. We do team nursing on my unit. We also did team nursing on the psych unit when I worked for Mass state.