Hospital nurses can never be accused of having too much time on their hands. They have a task-oriented routine which keeps them busy from the moment they sign in until the moment the nurse on the next shift arrives to take over.
During the day shift, a nurse is typically responsible for as many as five to seven patients. During a night shift, this number may increase to ten to twelve patients. The exception to this rule is nurses who work in the intensive care unit, who are assigned only one or two patients at a time.
Routine nursing duties include making sure each patient gets his or her medication on time, performing wound care and doing regular assessments of patients with injuries or patients whose conditions are changing. Although the nurse is not personally responsible for checking vital signs–nursing assistants typically take on that task–the nurse does receive a report on any patient whose vital signs are outside normal limits, and the nurse is responsible for notifying the doctor of any changes and initiating any interventions the doctor orders.
Another of the important nursing duties is acting as a liaison between the patient and his or her doctor. For instance, if a patient complains of pain, the nurse makes an assessment, checks current medications, and calls the doctor to ask for new orders such as initiating or increasing an analgesic.
The nurse also helps prepare patients for upcoming procedures by administering the correct medications and monitoring food and fluid intake.
If a patient transfers to another floor in the hospital or another facility like a rehabilitation center or a skilled nursing facility, the nurse telephones the nurse who will be receiving the patient to give a report on the patient’s needs and condition. If a patient is being discharged home, the nurse gives him or her any written prescriptions and goes over the doctor’s final discharge instructions.
The nurse may also be called away from his or her routine at any time to help with emergencies, such as a patient who has become extremely agitated or gone into cardiac arrest.
Finally, before leaving at the end of the shift, the nurse documents every event that occurred in a patient’s care so that any other healthcare professional who looks at the chart will be able to assess the patient’s condition at a glance.
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