Transport in the hospital.

1 Working at a county hospital I have been overworked. Today I had to transport my own pt. On call to IR, transport one pt to X-ray, and then another to cardiac rehab. Later on that sane day I had to transport my pt. To CT after he drank his contrast. Really? How much worse can it get??? Not only passing meds, assessments, bathing and transport too! Today was a day from hell and I thank God I only do it once or twice a month! How can we keep competent staff by overworking them??!?!
I feel your pain!! And I think itʻs only going to get worse. Transport is gone... whatʻs next? Housekeeping? Weʻll have to clean and sanitize the rooms before the next admission. And then dietary... weʻll have to take custom meal orders and prepare and serve them ourselves. Itʻs getting ridiculous.

I hate those 'road trips'!!! ICU patients are even worse - rolling along with cardiac & hemodynamic monitors, chest tubes, portable suction, O2tanks, ambu bag, 3 IV poles, portable ventilator... then having to arrange it all again and remain close at hand so the patient can have that CT scan while providing constant nursing care -- yeesh. No picnic even with a posse of helpers. And no one is ever concerned about us (nurses) wearing radiation badges - I wonder what the cumulative dose was? I ran across an article about an organization that wanted the nursing staff to bake cookies in the afternoon - to give to patients/families in an effort to improve satisfaction. Vanderbilt nurses are already having to clean patient rooms. I haven't heard of anyone having to do the valet parking yet . . . but you never know.

Wasn't there a thread not too long ago about the nurses being assigned to shovel the parking lot and side-walks when it snowed?

When I worked in the hospital, we didn't have a transport team. I transported my own patients at least 90% of the time. Some patients HAD to be accompanied by a nurse if they went off the floor and, for the others, it was faster/easier to just transport them yourself than it was to track down an aide and argue with her about doing it.

At night, I have to transport my own patients but usually the rad tech will bring them back which is nice.