Time Saving Strategies of the Admissions Nurse

Purpose:
Time involved in obtaining a thorough nursing history of each admitted patient.

Significance:
Moving the patient along the continuum (from the emergency room to the nursing unit) in a timely manner. The second issue was ensuring that the nursing history of each patient is done as soon as the patient is admitted.

Strategy and Implementation:
The nursing admission history provides the foundation for caring for the patient. Nursing histories document previous illnesses, hospitalizations, current medication, advanced directive desires, social histories and other components. An initiative to move patients out of the Emergency department quickly after they are admitted created a conflict with the staff on the nursing units who are already struggling to get all of the tasks associated with patient care accomplished. When asked what the primary issues were that made them bulk at accepting the new patient, there was an overwhelming agreement that the primary issue was the time it takes to get a thorough nursing history from the patient. Consideration of options resulted in the innovative creation and trial of a designated “admissions” nurse. This designated nurse does all of the collection of data necessary for each individual patient's admitting history,initializes the Kardex and enters a plan of care into the computer.

Evaluation:
The positive embracing of the Admissions Nurse by the nursing staff led to the position being placed in a permanent status. The documentation is accomplished well within the parameters set for this task.

Implications for Practice:
With the implementation of the Admissions Nurse, the staff nurse assigned to the patient has more time to devote to caring for the patient. It is estimated that through using the Admissions Nurse, the admitting process on the unit is decreased by a minimum of one hour.