Growth Stimulates Need for Workstations

When expanding or moving to a new space, it is important to keep initiatives that were created previously so that those benefits continue to be seen. In the Cloverleaf Towers, each unit had one nurses’ station in the middle, which created a dynamic where the nursing team was able to sit next to each other while completing documentation. Staff could easily collaborate with each other and find assistance when needed utilizing this format. When the units moved into the Dennis and Carol Troesh Medical Campus this was no longer possible.

In the new facility, it was discovered that the nursing stations were much further apart, making collaboration between the team members more difficult. While adapting to this change in environment, it was discovered that there were also not enough workstations for every RN and PCA to use when working on the unit. Staff found it difficult to orient new hires and educate students when there were no chairs or workstations for them to use for documentation and to review the medical records of their assigned patients. In addition, other members of the multidisciplinary team also needed workstations to document.

Staff from multiple areas requested that nursing leadership add additional workstations and chairs to each desk, as