What is a "sitter"?

z's playa · Feb 8, 2005

I'm indeed a nursing student on her way to a BSN degree but I'm still naiive when it comes to certain terms. I'm just wondering what a "sitter" is? Can anyone give me a brief explanation as to what it is, what kind of training one receives to become one, and so on and so forth. All I know is that "sitters" are lower that techs which makes me wonder...
Thanks for any comments! I appreciate the help.

A sitter is someone who takes training for about 4 weeks (may vary from agency to agency) in order to sit with pts who need supervision for one reason or another. ie: pts who are restrained and have NG tubes in place, pts who are on suicide watch, pts who are delirious, have a form of dementia, anorexics, pts with bulimia etc. Any pt who needs 24 hour supervision. This is shift work and usually on an on call basis. In case of emergency on your shift you would call for help. Hope this helps.

germain · Feb 8, 2005

I'm indeed a nursing student on her way to a BSN degree but I'm still naiive when it comes to certain terms. I'm just wondering what a "sitter" is? Can anyone give me a brief explanation as to what it is, what kind of training one receives to become one, and so on and so forth. All I know is that "sitters" are lower that techs which makes me wonder...
Thanks for any comments! I appreciate the help.

At my hospital sitters are called constant observers, and when I work as one I am in the room with the patient to make sure they dont' pull thier lines or get out of bed, or less often, commit suicide. Most of the people I work with are very confused, etoh, stroke, whatever. I also work as an aide, all the sitters where I am are trained CNA's- and for the record, all workers in the hospital play an important role, and we are hardly "lower than" techs, who OFTEN have less patient experience than we do.

azzurra29 · Feb 8, 2005

At my hospital sitters are called constant observers, and when I work as one I am in the room with the patient to make sure they dont' pull thier lines or get out of bed, or less often, commit suicide. Most of the people I work with are very confused, etoh, stroke, whatever. I also work as an aide, all the sitters where I am are trained CNA's- and for the record, all workers in the hospital play an important role, and we are hardly "lower than" techs, who OFTEN have less patient experience than we do.

Thanks for the input. Forgive me for not being more selective in my words.. I didn't mean to put down sitters. I really appreciate your help.

azzurra29 · Feb 8, 2005

A sitter is someone who takes training for about 4 weeks (may vary from agency to agency) in order to sit with pts who need supervision for one reason or another. ie: pts who are restrained and have NG tubes in place pts who are on suicide watch, pts who are delirious, have a form of dementia, anorexics, pts with bulimia etc. Any pt who needs 24 hour supervision. This is shift work and usually on an on call basis. In case of emergency on your shift you would call for help. Hope this helps.[/quote']
Thanks. That really helps. Now I finally understand the bigger picture.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2005

Our hospital uses sitters, but they aren't qualified to do patient care. So they just sit which casuses a lot of animosity because sometimes the patients they sit with requires a CNA sitter. For instance, I had two patients that had an order for a sitter. One was a 16 year old suicide watch, perfectly appropriate for a "sitter". The other in the same room was a head injured patient, restless, with a tube feeding, and incontinent. So she sat at watched the patient pull out his tube feeding because "I'm just a sitter, I don't touch patients."

lapappey · Feb 8, 2005

Wow. I would have lost it at this comment ... at least on the inside. That mentality, I have no tolerance for. You're a better man than I am if you took that well.

Our hospital uses sitters, but they aren't qualified to do patient care. So they just sit which casuses a lot of animosity because sometimes the patients they sit with requires a CNA sitter. For instance, I had two patients that had an order for a sitter. One was a 16 year old suicide watch, perfectly appropriate for a "sitter". The other in the same room was a head injured patient, restless, with a tube feeding, and incontinent. So she sat at watched the patient pull out his tube feeding because "I'm just a sitter, I don't touch patients."

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2005

Wow. I would have lost it at this comment ... at least on the inside. That mentality, I have no tolerance for. You're a better man than I am if you took that well.

I don't blame them, I blame the insitution for hiring minimum wage workers to sit without any training. They also allow secretaries, housekeepers, dietary works to work overtime sitting. We beg nursing office on these kinds of patients to send a cna and not a sitter, but "this is all we have available". So you have a sitter, sitting with head injured, confused trached and incontinent patients, pulling things out while they just sit there.

You shouldn't have gotten me started. LOL

apaisRN, RN, CRNA · Feb 8, 2005

What's the use of a sitter if they don't at least call the nurse when the patient is pulling at things? I guess I'd have to restrain a confused pt in that setting, even with a sitter present. Hardly the "least restrictive" option. Seems like most of our sitters are LNAs, nursing students, or sitters who've done this forever and feel comfortable holding the patient's hand away from the tubes while they call me. There are a few who are more trouble than the patients, calling for me every time the patient twitches.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2005

For many years (until the facility closed) I worked on call shifts as an RN sitter at a psych hospital. I'd 1:1 at risk patients on nights. I had a regular nursing job elsewhere but I did this as an extra job. I loved it and the pay was fabulous. Point being, the staff called me a "sitter" and that was how I showed up on their duty roster.

FarmgrrlRN · Feb 8, 2005

I worked as a "sitter" (safety partner was our official title) after I finished my second semester of school for 6 months. The requirements for the job were they preferred one to have 6 months of pt care experience, but told us during training they would hire someone with a minimum of a high school diploma. I received one 10 hour day of training and one day with a preceptor (since I had experience as a student?). I felt perfectly comfortable with that training but I know there were others that needed more (they have since made it two 8 hr days of training). In that 10 hours we went over policies, how to make a bed, how to bathe a pt, how to feed a pt, how to wash our hands, and how to apply restraints. On the job, I provided 1:1 pt care and could only leave the room when someone came to relieve me. We were resented by the assistive nursing personnel on pretty much every floor I floated to (they wouldn't say hello when in the room to do v/s and if I stuck my head out the door and made eye contact to ask a question, they would ignore me and turn the other way). I had to pretty much sweet talk them into coming into the room to give me my lunch break (30 mins). Usually this didn't happen until 1330 or 1400 (on a 0700-1530 shift). Nevertheless, it got to be very frustrating. The patients I took care of were mentally ill, confused, had dementia, or (very rarely, on suicide watch). If they tried to pull at their tubes, I held their hands back, I changed them if they were incontinent, I washed and bathed them, I changed their sheets, I helped feed them, I emptied their foleys, I kept their I&O sheets up to date.

I was however able to study while my patients were sleeping, but the idea of being stuck in a room for 8-12 hours holds very little appeal to me, especially since I've found a new job as a nursing aide and I only have 3 months of school left :) .

*PICURN* · Feb 8, 2005

when i worked during nursing school, as a CNA type position, i was part of the in-house registry and every shift we were floated to a new part of the hospital and sometimes we would be the nurse's aide and other times we were "sitters".

While I was in school, being a sitter was FABULOUS! I would take vitals q4h, bathe the patient and change the linen, and 9/10 there really would be NO need for me. Sometimes the patient pays for a sitter b/c they want someone to talk to or just get them something whenever they wanted it. It was awesome b/c I could get SO much studying done. One hospital actually uses sitters for all "fall precaution patients"....pretty stupid if you ask me. I think there are much better ways of taking care of fall precautions than paying for a full time sitter. Teach the patient how to use the call light, use siderails, etc. Of course there are times when a sitter is warranted. (suicide, extreme confusion, etc).

SO, our sitters were CNA's (or CNA type position if you were in nursing school). They were in charge of the vitals, I/O's, bath, linen change, and watching the patient for whatever they need "sitting" for.