Who designs the layouts of these hospitals anyway??!!

[Forest2]

It has occurred to me that hospitals are often not designed with the nurse in mind. I have worked on units where the medications were kept on another unit. I have worked where you had to prepare your medications on a keyboard (no joke) because there was no other place to do it. I have worked where you had to walk long distances to get to the nurses station and break rooms are on the other side of the building. I have worked where everything that you need from medications, to trash, to needle boxes, to light switches are located differently in each room. Absolutely no consistency at all. Why don't they create ways for nurses to conserve energy so that we are more able to function at peak levels? So what gives?

Manufacturing seems to have accomplished the task of helping workers become as efficient as possible by creating atmospheres where less energy is required to accomplish more. Why hasn't this taken place in nursing and the design of hospitals? Is it because many hospitals are designed piecemeal with each addition? What about new hospitals? A relative complained that the new hospital where they were employed was "horrible" and "you just walk your legs off". What do you think about it?

[morte, LPN, LVN]

On ‎4‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 9:08 AM, Forest2 said:

That is so funny. I would like to see people like that be financially responsible for their dumb ideas.

BUT, someone in the hospital signed off on that design!

[The Incredible Nurse, ASN, BSN]

22 hours ago, Ruby Vee said:

And many of those nurse managers or nurse educators or, in one case, nurse practitioners have spent so little time at the bedside that they have no idea what the job entails. One manager I knew who was on the design team went direction from school to being "head nurse" in a LTC facility. Then she became manager of CCU . . . HR was so proud of recruiting her because she was "such a successful manager." She never worked a single day at the bedside.

I feel that being a nurse manager should require at least some experience in the area you will be managing. This experience will give you a firsthand appreciation of what the staff does and will make you a better advocate for your patients and staff members. I cant believe they hired someone without CCU experience! Was there really no one from that unit that wanted a promotion.