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How Many People Are Involved in Patient Care?

Featured Author:

Brittney Wilson, RN

Brittney Wilson is a Registered Nurse with a passion for technology and innovation. As the resident nerd and nurse at TheNerdyNurse.com, she has the desire to inspire nurses to get excited about technology and the ways it can improve patient care. She is also currently a Senior Editor at MyRealityTech.com, and makes contributions to various other healthcare and technology blogs. Be sure to follow her on Twitter! A former victim of lateral violence, Brittney believes that nurses must support each other in order to progress professionally. 

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My clinical experience has been very eye-opening.

I feel like I have learned so much about how a hospital functions, and yet know I have so much more to learn. To be embraced and invited into the executive meetings and to see the processes that occur to make change withing the organization with patient care as the the bottom line has been so refreshing. I know that the grass is always greener, and it may just be because I am looking over the fence, but I am impressed with their transparency in their practices.

Today when my preceptor was showing me a report for infection control, it made me realize just how many people are involved in the care of every patient that walks through the doors of a hospital. We know that as nurses on the that we can’t take care of our patients all by ourselves. We need the help of doctors, aids, other nurses, and other departments. What I don’t think most nurses think about is just how much goes on behind the scenes to make sure that the patient care is able to take place.

As nurses, we are on the front line of healthcare. But, do any of us any any idea of just how many people are involved in the care of our patient. How many people are involved in the charting processes alone? If you think about just the people in your hospital, and not even about software developers and equipment manufactures, how may people play a roll in the care of your patient.

I couldn’t even begin to quantify the number, but it just goes to show that the care of a patient is bigger than just the nurse, the doctor and the patient. I’ll try to start a tiny list of the people that I know of that are a link in the chain, and lets just assume that in this particular encounter, the patient has presented to the ER with complaints of abdominal pain.

Starting in the ER:

• Admissions in ER
• Triage Nurse in ER
• Nurse(s) in ER
• Patient Care Tech(s) in the ER
• Doctor in the ER
• Secretary
• Security
• X-Ray and CT Technicians
• Radiologist
• Pharmacist(s)
• Pharmacy Tech(s)
• Transporter(s)
• Registration