Medical/Surgical Nursing

Department Patient Population:

The Medical Surgical department is located on the 2nd floor of the main hospital. We are a 33 bed unit and our patient population includes medical, surgical, and telemetry. Our most frequent diagnosis is CHF and pneumonia. Our average length of stay is 3.6 days with an average daily census of 25.12. We receive post op patients of general surgery, gynecology, orthopedics, urology, podiatry, colorectal, and otolaryngology. We provide wound care consults by certified wound care nurses. We provide blood transfusions including autologous. We provide quality end of life care for patients and their families. Patients who are at risk for falling may be assigned a patient safety technician as recommended by nursing/physician.

Physical Characteristics of the Department:

Our unit has 2 wings that meet together at a central nurses station. West Wing has 6 semi-private rooms and the South Wing has 6 private, 7 semi-private rooms and 1 palliative care suite. We have Stryker Secure II beds and a Hospira IV infusion pump for each bedside. The ICU continuously monitors the rhythms for telemetry patients and a viewing-only monitor at the Med/Surg nurses station. We have a Pyxis for storage and dispensing of certain medications and each RN has a computerized medication cart. We have been totally nursing documentation computerized since January 2006.

Staffing Considerations:

Our unit is staffed with RNs, LPNs, CNAs, secretaries, and patient safety techs. We work alongside a group of qualified physicians, PAs, case managers and social workers. Our nurse to patient ratio varies depending upon the acuity of the patient, skills and experience of the nurse with each RN/CNA or LPN caring for a team of 4-5 patients on day shift and each RN/CNA or LPN caring for 5-6 patients on the night shift; as well as a fulltime admission nurse during the week Monday-Friday.

Accomplishment of the Department:

The Med-Surg Department was recognized by VHA Leadership Award for clinical excellence for meeting or exceeding national performance standards in 3 areas: 1.) Pain well controlled, 2.) Patient received help, 3.) Clean patient rooms. Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores consistently score >90% with room cleanliness, friendliness, courtesy of nurses, nurses attitude toward requests and attention to meds. Safe patient handling is a consistent focus of Med/Surg with its recent installation of 3 patient ceiling lifts and additional hovermat, hoverjack, rollerboards, and sit to stand device. Patients are safely lifted and transferred while minimizing staff to manual lifting.