They're doing away with them

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I just heard they are doing away with CCTs on all of our floors except ICU and MCCU. (CCTs are a cross between unit secretary & monitor tech.) Instead, they will have a central location on the 4th floor with two CCTs watching monitors for the whole hospital and the nurses on the floors will have to do all their own orders, answering phones & call lights, etc. The monitors will still be on the floor so the nurses can still keep an eye on their patients. It would be one thing if we only had one or two tele floors, but this is a heart hospital and practically every patient is on a monitor. Having only two CCTs for the whole place seems like the hospital is setting itself up for some major problems. The nurses can't just sit there and keep an eye on all their own patients and I can't see how two CCTs are going to be able to keep up with that many patients themselves. Then there's the nurses having to do their own secretarial work. I already worked at a hospital where we didn't have a secretary at night and hated that. There's already so much work for us to do and now they're adding even more.

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Specializes in ER.

Damn, I thought for a moment there that care plans had finally bit the dust.

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:chuckle

Damn, I thought for a moment there that care plans had finally bit the dust.

:chuckle

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LOL! Would be nice, wouldn't it?

Does anyone else work in a heart hospital where they only have 2 monitor techs for the whole hospital? If so, how is it working out there?

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Specializes in CVICU, CV Transplant.

I work in a very busy, fast paced CCU. We put in all of our own orders and answer the phones and certainly do not have anyone watching our monitors!

Avery

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Sometimes as nurses when management won't listen to us we have to let them find out things the hard way. Most new management ideas where I work don't work and we end up going back to how we used to do things. When the nurses who are working short already have to start taking off orders and monitoring numerous patients, patients will complain when their nurse isn't there and orders will get missed because we are trying to get to the patients and doctors will start to complain and then things will go back to normal.. The more things change the more they stay the same.

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I work in a very busy, fast paced CCU. We put in all of our own orders and answer the phones and certainly do not have anyone watching our monitors!

Avery

How many patients does each nurse usually get assigned to? Do you have CNAs? If so, how many?

I used to work on a busy orthopedic floor without a secretary, but we usually had 4 techs on the floor to help out and they were also supposed to help answer the phone & call lights. Plus, we only had about 5 patients per nurse. Where I'm working now, we only have one tech on the floor...if we're lucky & fully staffed...and 6-8 patients for each nurse.

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Specializes in Tele, Renal, ICU, CIU, ER, Home Health..

This sounds like a terrible idea! Who watches the monitor for you when you're pushing meds? Are the floor monitors in the room or at the desk? when I don't have a secretary, the phone comes last. If I'm in a room, or busy I don't answer it. Pretty soon the nursing supervisor will come to see why no one is answering the phone. You can tell her/him nicely and professionally that patient care comes first.

As for your attitude during this change. Have a positive attitude, but stick to your boundaries of what you can safely do. What I mean is, I would not encourage staff to constantly complain among themselves. This accomplishes nothing but making your lives miserable. Instead be professional and positive, but write up incident reports for everything that goes wrong due to these changes. Keep copies for yourself. Protect yourself and your patient!! Good luck

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The monitors are at a desk in the nurses station. I think the hardest part is going to be at the beginning of the shift when everyone is busy getting report and then out in the rooms assessing patients, again when it's time to pass scheduled meds, and then again the last couple of hours when we're getting patients ready for surgeries, heart caths, etc.

They are making sooooooo many changes at this hospital and it's all to start at the same time in April. You'd think they would gradually work in all the different changes. I have a feeling there's going to be a mass exodus. :uhoh21:

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Sometimes as nurses when management won't listen to us we have to let them find out things the hard way.

We don't have monitors where I work, and we don't have a night secretary or even a charge nurse at night w/o pts! IF they are lucky, the charge nurse gets 7 pts instead of 8. That and the fact that they are making us work short on UAPs/supplies becasue of "budget concerns" (we are a not-for-profit hospital). But, the thing that kills us is that they are building a new hospital (there are several in our system) AND they just broke ground for a new Outpt center. Hmmmmm....so anyway, we have all been waitng for something terrible to happen for them to see that this isn't working very well, 'cause they sure as heck aren't listening to us. Productivity goes up, Press Ganey goes down, and it's suddenly a huge crisis and we have to figure out how to make the pts happy. I have an idea...give them a nurse that isn't stretched waaaay too thin, who actually has time to talk to them and show up in their room once in awhile...I'm thinking that would help.

SCRN1, good luck! What they are doing to you sounds like a terrible idea. What are the CCTs going to do if something crazy does happen with someone on a monitor? It'll take 20 minutes to get someones leads back on!

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What are the CCTs going to do if something crazy does happen with someone on a monitor? It'll take 20 minutes to get someones leads back on!

That's something else I'm wondering about. Also, replacing batteries. It seems like the CCT on our floor is constantly having to ask a nurse to go put someone's leads back on or put in some new batteries. I can't imagine two CCTs having to do this for the whole floor, plus calling to alert us to someone with an arrhythmia. I don't know if they're going to have them call us for things such as leads & batteries and sometimes, the CCT on the floor now is the only one at the nurses station. They'll probably make it where at least one nurse has to be there at all times. That's going to be hard!

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wow, just wow. When are hospitals going to get it? when?

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