Being in charge and having patients

Posted in: Off duty | Discussion and debate

in charge, management, manager, pressure, stress

28-Jun-2011 6:57 pm

Location: Brighton
Posts: 1

Hi

I am a band 5 nurse working on a 34 bedded Trauma & Orthopedic unit. It is a very busy ward. The manager will assign a nurse to be in charge and if we are fully staffed, we don't take a bay of patients in the morning, but take them in the afternoon.. However, if we are a nurse down you are expected to be in charge of the ward and have a bay of patients - inculding admissions/ discharges and dementia patients..I find this very dfificult and extremely stressful as the manager will expect you to chase things up and make sure other nurses are completing all their tasks as well as taking phone calls from relatives/doctors/ clinical site managers etc. I find that I cannot spent as much time with my patients as I think I need and as such I feel things get missed...my concern is that legally & professionally my first priority it to my patients and that in these situations the manager should step in a be in charge....but they don't. To add to the pressure the managers sometimes walk around a check up on paperwork etc when thay can clearly see we are struggling. I enjoy the ward but what should I do? Should I refuse to be in charge? What's my legal standing to refuse? Lots of questions, sorry!!! I'm just a bit annoyed that we don't seem to get help but are criticised if things aren't right!!....

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mike

Posts: 65

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3-Jul-2011 11:59 pm

This is such a common problem and it happens to everyone.

Personally in the past, I have made sure first and foremost my patients are looked after on shift, the paperwork was completed (to cover myself legally) and everything else management wise was handed over and an incident form completed stating why (ie no staff). That way you are covered legally and professionally, and if things do not get done and management have a problem with it, then that is their problem to sort out by getting more staff. They will still probably try and blame you, most likely with that old chestnut (ie bunch of crap) of 'managing your time better', but tell them to stick it and do their job, because you are covered. You will not be popular, but you can't be everything.

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Anonymous

5-Jul-2011 8:58 am

'managing your time better'

oh, in the UK as well? this is also used by managers in a European hospital where I worked. must be a universal manager mantra. they swanned around from ward to ward and picked up on anything which had not been done, no matter if you had to drop everything for a resus, urgent attention for a patient, working out dosages, preparing and administering a complex chemo regime which had to be done on time, an unannounced emergency admission or you were working on a shift on your own (where suddenly several patients want a bed pan at the same time or it is already too late) and on a ward where the staff had suddenly been reduced to half by the new administration for the same number of acute patients!
sometimes a word of praise, finding assistance or rolling up their own sleeves might have been more helpful for the patients. The best way to dodge this comment was to try not to appear stressed!

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Anonymous

6-Jul-2011 3:28 pm

Thank you - very interesting posts! It's helpful to know that I'm not on my own here!!

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Daza153

Posts: 3

25-Oct-2012 4:54 pm

Your manager is blinking lucky if they can swan about and do sod all. I'm counted in the numbers on a daily basis. I manage a 20 bedded ortho ward and a 3 bedded HDU. Patient care and safety is paramount and that as a band 5 should be your main concern. If they are supervisory then they can do all the admin / management stuff. Safeguard your registration as nobody else will!!

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