Simultaneous admissions (vent)

1 Okay, so when I'm in charge I know that I am supposed to take admissions. That does not mean EVERY SINGLE admission. That also means that yes, I deserve a lunch break too! It also means, if we get two admissions at once, guess what, you just might have to do your own admission!

Can we please break away from this idea that having a charge nurse means staff RNs are off the hook for admissions?? I work really hard to make everyone's day a little easier but I can't do back-to-back-to-back admissions all day! And especially not two or three admissions at the same time!
On my unit (not for much longer woohoo!), I run charge with a full load of patients....If you are charge nurse, enforce your role and give people admissions. If they don't accept ask if they want to talk to the nurse manager.

Quote from WeepingAngel Can we please break away from this idea that having a charge nurse means staff RNs are off the hook for admissions??

I'm not a real nurse yet, but every floor I've done clinicals on (3 different hospitals) the nurses did their own admissions

When I was charge on a med-surg unit, I had a full load of patients, with 2 LPN's. In my state the LPN cannot give IV push meds, cannot do initial physical assessments, and can't do a skin assessment, can't give anything thru a central line, PICC, can't give any blood products. So, guess who got stuck doing every admission, plus all the other stuff I mentioned. I would end up with 7-8 patients of my own, plus their stuff. Got tired of that real quick.

I always hated mulitple admits too. Used to thik ER had a "Free Beer" sign on their door then saved up a bunch for our unit and sent them all at once. After working in ER a while I learned that is not so, but still----

I don't understand how it would be an expectation for a charge nurse to do that. If I'm busy when they come up, a charge nurse will check on an admission for me and maybe get vitals/weight if we don't have a tech that day, but nothing more.Is this a common practice?

I've heard of facilities where charge nurses did all admissions, but they were considered "resource nurses", and didn't have a patient load.

Quote from WeepingAngelOkay, so when I'm in charge I know that I am supposed to take admissions. That does not mean EVERY SINGLE admission. That also means that yes, I deserve a lunch break too! It also means, if we get two admissions at once, guess what, you just might have to do your own admission!Can we please break away from this idea that having a charge nurse means staff RNs are off the hook for admissions?? I work really hard to make everyone's day a little easier but I can't do back-to-back-to-back admissions all day! And especially not two or three admissions at the same time!

THANK YOU! I was beginning to think I was unreasonable and crazy!! And yes, on our floor it is an unspoken expectation that charge nurse will take all admissions. And then, if the charge nurse doesn't, people gripe about having to do an admission.

We rarely get unscheduled admissions, but if we do, the nurse taking the patient does that admission and if the charge nurse isn't busy she or he may help with the care plan or med req or something like that.

It means you are in control of the flow of the unit.YOU decide how many admissions you can safely process.This is NOT about you, it's about managing the incoming.

Hmmm...I don't really understand this. On my unit, you just take whatever admissions come to your rooms after your original patients are discharged. It can be difficult when you have 2-3 admits in a given shift, but I guess it kind of all evens out across the board after multiple shifts. Our charge nurse doesn't have an assignment (but tries to help out) and no one expects them to "do their admissions."My unit is so large that there is no way a charge nurse can have an assignment and/or take patients - they could be admitting 10-12 patients a day!