What is the usual nurse/patient ratio? What would it be for a full time or part time nurse…hours worked/ week/ number of patients. I also wanted to know if it is a federal requirement to have an on call nurse 24/7?
thanks
Hi Annmary,
I’m told 20 patients per one fulltime RN. This would vary a bit if you were doing a lot of training I imagine or if you were new to the job and needed to do lots of research along the way.
Regarding the on call nurse. I don’t know for sure but I believe you do need one. Our hemo nurses take the call and rarely if ever come in. Our emergency room is equipped with lots of references so they can do almost anything. Basically the hemo nurses get the story from the patient and relay it to the doc. Then relay the doc’s instructions to the patient such as, " bring supplies and go to the emergency room", or " stop dialysis and come into the clinic in the morning."
You could call your state licensing folks - CMS, otherwise known as medicare- and ask them. They’ll probably refer you to their on line manual. Good luck.
Read about reimbursement, read the Conditions for Coverage (current dialysis regulations) and the draft Conditions (proposed regulations).
http://www.homedialysis.org/v1/resources/#Reimbursement
The current regulations do not specify any nurse-to-patient ratio for the in-center clinic or home dialysis. They do not specify on-call at all, but do discuss patient support. Some clincs have nurses on call 24 hours a day for either in-center or home dialysis while others have nurses take care of problem during the day and the nephrologist takes care of problems at night. If you clnic’s policy is that there is a nurse on call 24/7, then a nurse must be on call 24/7. If it’s not stated, then the on-call person could be a nurse or it could be the nephrologist. In my clinics, patients also had the 800 number to the machine/supply company where many got a number of their questions answered.
I am a nephrologist looking for PD nurse, what is the best source, , high pay wuth benifits,
First, you could ask nurses on your staff if they would like to learn how to be a PD nurse. They would need to meet the qualifications that the ESRD regulations require:
From Section 405.2102:
i Nurse responsible for nursing service.
A person who is licensed as a registered nurse by the State in which practicing, and (1) has at least 12 months of experience in clinical nursing, and an additional 6 months of experience in nursing care of the patient with permanent kidney failure or undergoing kidney transplantation, including training in and experience with the dialysis process; or
(2) Has 18 months of experience in nursing care of the patient on maintenance dialysis, or in nursing care of the patient with a kidney transplant, including training in and experience with the dialysis process;
b If the nurse responsible for nursing service is in charge of self-care dialysis training, at least 3 months of the total required ESRD experience is in training patients in self-care.[/b][/i]
If no one on your staff is interested, you might want to contact ANNA to see if they have any way to notify nurses of your job opening. ANNA has a PD special interest group and they might be especially helpful in sharing the word. ANNA’s contact info is:
ANNA National Office:
East Holly Avenue Box 56 Pitman, NJ 08071-0056
888-600-2662
856-256-2320
Fax: 856-589-7463
anna@ajj.com
Here are just a few of the dialysis recruiters:
– Foundation Medical Staffing
http://www.foundationmedicalstaffing.com/
– Dialysis Search Inc.
http://www.dialysissearch.com
– Dialysis Recruiting Specialists/Fortus Group
http://www.dialysisrecruiting.com/
– AMS Renal
http://www.amsrenal.com
I am sure that this is not a comprehensive list of all the nurse recruiters. You can probably find others using Google.
[QUOTE=Anonymous;8098]
I am a nephrologist looking for PD nurse, what is the best source, , high pay wuth benifits, [/QUOTE]
where are you located?
Here is nurse staffing info for Advocate: http://careers.advocatehealth.com/NUR_Staffing.aspx. It covers career choices and faqs.