Nursing Home Nurses-Understanding Their Role

Admitting your family member to a nursing home is a scary thing. Trusting complete stranger to care for your someone you care about requires a lot of faith and patience. The gulit of admitting a family member to a nursing home is compounded by the unknown. Because most people are not exposed to these types of facilities until a health crisis makes it necessary, patients don't understand the roles of the many staff members at the nursing facility. Understanding the roles of the nursing home staff can ease your mind and help to create better results for your family member.

This article will focus the role of the nursing home nurse and give you easy tips in getting them to work with you in providing the best outcome possible.

Nursing Homes Nurses are very busy. As a matter of fact they are almost too busy. The nursing home nurse must not only take care of his/her patients but also coordinate several other staff members to assist in the process.

The Nurse at a typical nursing home has anywhere for 12 to 16 patients to take care of at one time. If for some reason the unit is shortstaffed then that number can even double. The Nurse is responsible for passing medications, taking vital signs , changing bandages, starting I.V's, changing tube feedings, cleaning medication ports and tubes, communicating with the Doctor, rounding with the Doctor, taking verbal orders from the Doctor, supervising Nursing Assistants and documenting in the medical record. Some of these patients require more care than others but on a typical shift the nurse can expect to handle all of these duties.

When the nurse isn't rushing from patient room to patient room to complete her duties, she is usually writing in a patient chart or on the phone with the doctor reporting on a patients condition. It can be very challenging trying the get such a busy person to attend to your family members needs in the time frame you require.

Most nurses are good people and care about their profession. They want to take care of your family member as you would take care of them at home. The only thing that stands in their way is the tremendous workload. Here are 5 easy ways you can get your nurse on your side and help create great outcomes for your family member.

1. Voice Your Concerns - Don't assume your nurse knows everything about your family members case off of the top of their head. The care of your family member is often divided up amongst many professionals. If something isn't right don't assume your nurse will notice. Voicing your concerns will let your nurse know something is wrong so she will be able to investigate and then fix it.

2. Learn The Roles Of Other Staff - There are many moving parts in a nursing home and many staff members to keep those parts moving. Your Nurse can't address every concern and quite often delegates responsibility for these concerns to other departments. For example a broken bed is the responsibility of the maintenance department. Cold food is the responsibility of the dietary department. When you discover the department responsible for correcting your concern. Go directly to that department yourself. If you give the concern to your nurse they will just call the the department responsible for correcting it anyway. If you address the concern yourself saving the nurse some time; you also get the opportunity to build relationships with other facility staff.

3. Don't Interrupt Medication Pass - All nursing facilities will tell you that you can interrupt a nurse at anytime. For emergencies this is true but if you have general care questions or a concern that is not emergent try not to interrupt the nurse while she is passing medications. Most patients in nursing homes have multiple medications and some require taking vital signs before administration. Furthermore, some medications need to be given in certain way such as crushed or injected. Medications also must be distributed within a time frame. If at all possible, utilize other staff to address concerns during this time. You will get your concern addressed more quickly and the nurse will have more time for your family member later.

4. Be Polite - Dealing with nursing home staff can be frustrating and sometimes we tend to take that frustration out on the nearest staff member available. Quite often that is the nurse. Unfortunately, she has several other patients and families in her care whose concerns are just as important as yours. If you see something wrong, take a deep breath and calmly approach the nurse to voice your concern. The nurse does not want you to be unhappy and can be your biggest ally when addressing issues. That nurse will also be more willing to help if you approach them professionally and with respect. Try it and you will find your concerns being addressed more quickly. I will summarize this by dusting off the old cliche, you catch more flies with honey. This is true as it relates to the nurse as well.

5. Ask Questions - Like anyone else, nurses provide better service when they know they are being held accountable by the customer. The best way to establish this culture of accountability is to ask questions about your family members care. Find out how they ate their last meal or what kind of a mood they have been in that day. By asking questions you let the nurse know what you expect and you will get better care as a result.

As with every business, there are bad employees. These bad employees not only bother you but often put extra workload on a staff that is already very busy. If your nurse is not doing her job go to the Director of Nursing. Speaking from experience, most family members don't bring concerns to the attention of administration until the problem is so big it takes a lot of time to resolve. If concerns are brought forward right away they can often be resolved quickly and easily. If you have a poorly performing staff member caring for your family, don't let that go. report it immediately. If caught in time most conerns can be addressed without much stress to the employee or family member.

By using the methods outlined in this article you will not only get better results; you will build a team oriented approach to caring for you family. By working with the staff as a team you can build good rapport and thus get better outcomes. In closing treat the staff with respect. Set expectations by asking questions and learn the roles of the other staff. You will find that getting great care for your family member is easier with a little help from your friendly nursing home nurse.