nursing hospitalised patients

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Chippet — Fri, 27 May 2011 23:17:55 GMT

Hi Katherine, what times do your nurses start and finish work? As this is the closest setup to what I'm looking for. Except we would struggle with just having a prep and theatre nurse, think I'd change that to 2 in theatre. Also do you do weeks of these shifts or alternate days? Xx

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Anonymous — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:39:52 GMT

We have 4 nurses on generally too, although they all come at slightly different times. I don't know if this will help but this is how we work it. They all have anarea of responsiblilty for that day one would be on 'kennels' and take care of the inpatients and monitor patient's after surgery, then a 'prep' nurse that preps all patient's for surgery, then a 'theatre' nurse that monitors patients during surgery and discharges them after, then a 'consult nurse' that does the nurse consults, (as we have them every day).

Good luck

xxxx

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Selena Carnell — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:52:05 GMT

If you have inpatients you need continuity, at my past practice we did a week on kennels, and a week on ops, a week on kennel assistant and a week on float (general, admit, restock, etc) there were 8 of us though. It worked well as the nurse got to know the inpatients and could tell if they were perking up or getting worse which was more helpful for the vet. The kennel nurse was responsible for doing morning rounds with vets, following up medications, blood tests, etc, then the kennel assistant would come in at say 10am and then she would help feed, and walk or sort the animal etc. Hope this helps.

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Chippet — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:33:39 GMT

2 of us currently start at 8.15am til 4.45pm and the other two start at 10.30 til 7pm. We work a full week on one shift and then a full week on the other etc.

At the moment we work one day a week consulting and doing the repeat prescriptions, regardless of what shift we are on. But this would be flexible, depending on what would work better for combining the new rota.

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Susan Jackson — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:58:44 GMT

I usually find it's shift dependent, for example, you don't want the person on ops having a half day or a late. Morning and late shifts tend to be good as the staff overlap and there's time for communication and transfere of patients.

If your staff alter the shifts during the week I would consider altering the duties involved. Then get a lovely laminated timetable up in the kennels for all to see.

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Eira Davies — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:54:16 GMT

The way we work it in practice is whoever worked the weekend would be in at 8 on the Monday and in charge of the inpatients. Once the 11 starts came in, the inpatients would then be handed over to one of those nurses, but who was also on an early start the following day (hope that makes sence). That nurse would then be in charge of the inpatients the following morning also, and will be handing over to the 11 starts etc etc... This in turn was supposed to ensure continuum of care and everyone got their share in ward duty :) works well untill there are any holidays or sick days! xx

Edit: Sorry i forgot to mention that our shifts are 8-4:30 or 11-7. The head nurse is in from 8:15-5:15

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Chippet — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:27:51 GMT

Hi. Sorry been really busy moving house and forgot i'd posted on here. Thanks for your replies. Thats why i'm ken to have a named person do it, so theres none of the 'oh i thought so-and-so was doing it'

Do you think its better to have one person doing it all week, or alternate day by day. As am also having to fit it around nursing doing repeat prescriptions and consults.

Thanks agin

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Susan Jackson — Sat, 14 May 2011 17:42:57 GMT

In my last practice we did the same as Vicki, worked really well. The problem was usually during the time after that. Each cat would get cleaned out and given meds then not checked again till whenever someone had free moment. So put up a board to summerise what patiented needed checking and when. Worked really well and encourgaged TPR's but only works if everyone does it..... that's the more difficult part.

Re: nursing hospitalised patients

Vickipr — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:21:16 GMT

In a previous practice, we had the same sort of set up, i.e 2 nurses doing 8 - 4.30, 1 doing 8.30 to 5 and 2 doing 11am to 7.30. The way we used to work it was the 2 nurses on an early would have one nurse doing ops and the other would then do all the in-patients, the theatre nurse would admit from 8 - 8.30, and the in-patient nurse would do the in-patient work, although to be honest we didn't have a lot of in-patients as we didn't have overnight care and most things went to Vets Now but we used to have some in-patients now and again, the 8.30 nurse would then help out where-ever needed and the other nurses came in at 11 and helped out as needed, and at the end of the day the in-patients would be handed over to one of the late nurses.

I don't know if that is any help what so ever? I think it just helps to dedicate the responsibility to one person every day so that nothing gets missed, like you said!

Vicki x