Leadership Presentation: Volunteer Services and PACU

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Leadership Presentation Volunteer Services and
PACU

• Meg Tiongco
• December 2, 2008

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Preceptors

• Manager Preceptor R.C.
• Director of Guest Services/Director of Volunteer
  Services/Planetree Coordinator
• Clinical Preceptor M.B.
• Charge Nurse in Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU)

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Roles of Preceptors R.C.

• Director of Guest Services
• Logs and investigates guests compliments and
  complaints
• Listens to each complaint and speaks with staff
  on the appropriate unit about each case.
• Delegates to appropriate nurse manager, billing
  department, etc. as necessary to resolve the
  issue.
• Follows up with patient and/or family about the
  complaint with a letter or phone call.
• Arranges for free lodging, Kroger gift cards,
  meal vouchers and billing adjustments as needed.

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Roles of Preceptors R.C.

• Director of Volunteer Services
• Recruits Volunteers to various positions,
  including the information desks, gift shop,
  visiting patients, Emergency Room assistants and
  administrative support.
• Coordinates volunteer training and appreciation
  activities.

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Roles of Preceptors R.C.

• Planetree Coordinator
• Model of healthcare that focuses on healing and
  nurturing body, mind and spirit.
• Patient-centered care provide a more home-like
  environment with personalized, compassionate care
• Other services include music and art therapy and
  complementary and alternative medical therapy
  such as therapeutic massage, meditation, and
  acupuncture
• Goal is to increase patient and staff satisfaction

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Roles of Preceptors M.B.

• Post Anesthesia Care Unit
• PACU is a 19 bed unit
• Patient population is a variety of post operative
  patients including cardiovascular, orthopedic and
  neurological patients.
• Nurse to patient ratio 11 or 12
• Patients stay in the PACU an average of 1-2 hours
  before transferring up to the floors
• Primary goal of unit is to make sure patient is
  stabilized and not experiencing complications
  from surgery

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Roles of Preceptors M.B.

• Charge Nurse of PACU
• Assigns each patient to an RN as they are
  admitted to the PACU
• Determine adequate staffing ratios to cover
  patient census
• Acts as a mentor for other RNs in the PACU

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Leadership Project Volunteer Recruitment Brochure

• Volunteer Board meeting
• Discussed how to recruit and retain quality
  volunteers
• Each board member was asked how they came to be a
  volunteer at the hospital
• Most board members said they had begun
  volunteering after a family member or friend had
  been a patient at the hospital and they had
  wanted to give something back to the hospital.

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Leadership Project Objectives

• Create a brochure to be placed in the main family
  waiting room at the hospital to recruit new
  volunteers
• Describe the volunteer tradition at the hospital
• Communicate that there are a wide
• variety of opportunities for volunteers
• Explain the requirements of the
• volunteer program and how to sign up
• for the program

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Most Unique Aspect of Preceptor Experience

• Guest Services
• Interesting to hear the variety of compliments
  and complaints patients and families had about
  the hospital
• Learned a lot about how to deal with angry or
  upset patients

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Strengths

• Guest Services
• R.C. is very skilled at listening to patients
  concerns and resolving difficult situations
• Provides needed assistance to patients and
  families, such as free lodging and free meals
• Volunteer Services
• Volunteers provide added services to patients,
  such as visiting and reading books, that regular
  staff is not able to provide
• Planetree
• Focuses on providing holistic care to patients
• Improves patient and employee satisfaction

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Strengths

• PACU
• Nurses work very well together as a team
• Nurses have many years of experience and are very
  knowledgeable about how to care for their
  patients

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Areas for Improvement

• Guest Services/Volunteer Services/Planetree
• R.C. is very busy and is often unable to respond
  to complaints as quickly as she would like
• Required by JCAHO to respond to complaints within
  7 days
• PACU
• Often did not follow Contact Precautions for
  patients with MRSA
• Did not always wear gowns when caring for contact
  isolation patients
• Did not always use separate equipment for contact
  isolation patients

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Recommendation for Improvement

• Add Staff to R.C.s department
• Create separate positions for Director of Guest
  Services, Director of Volunteer Services and
  Planetree Coordinator instead having it all
  handled by one person
• Additional staff will be able to provide faster
  and more efficient service to patients and staff
  and increase patient and employee satisfaction
  and retention, which will save money in the long
  run

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Recommendations for Improvement

• PACU
• Review guidelines for contact precautions,
  droplet precautions and airborne precautions
• Have separate equipment available for isolation
  patients

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PICO Question

• In post-op total knee replacement patients , does
  the use of an autotranfuser for an autologous
  blood transfusion reduce the need for a
  homologous transfusion, compared with using a
  hemovac or other type of drain?