week 3

This week instead of being with my preceptor I was with the Baylor University Medical Center Dallas (BUMC) house suporvisor .First we recieved report from the off going shift . The house suporviser coordinates staffing and,bed availabily for the whole hospital .The main focus was to keep ICU, and ED beds open and staffed .This was done by having a house wide meeting with the nurse manager's over each floor in the daily operations meeting. Each manager is asked what thier staffing needs are for the next 24 hours. With call in this was a juggeling act .During the day we visited each ICU at least 3 times,checking on pt. status to see if thier condition improved or declined.If a pt. worsened and became 1:1 care, expired or improved this would change the number of nurses needed and bed availability. Patients comming in with ILI(influenza like illness ) had to be placed in respiratory issolation preferably in a room with negative pressure air flow .The staff on the 2 floors that were taking care of pt with ILI were dropping like flies. 4 call in s on one floor and 3 on another medicine floor .This ment fewer transfers out of ICU because of staffing restraints . Along with taking care of staffing we spoke to a family on a floor who had become verbally abussive to the staff .Of coarse by the time we arrived the family was calm and able to express thier concerns in a civil manner .We also went to a in house emergency a employee had fainted he was transported by security and accompanied by MD's to the ED .The day flew by .I was with her for 8 hours and it seemed like we were going non stop .