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Detailed Needs and Requirements: General Nursing Unit
Patients may bathe and use portable toilet facilities in their rooms.
The environment must encourage the patient to maintain a sense of
personal dignity while providing optimum conditions for medical
diagnosis and treatment.
b. Corridor. Circulation areas on these units are heavily used both by
staff and visitors. In addition they are used for distribution of carts
and wheeled equipment. Noisy or unnecessary traffic should be
minimized. The environment should serve to reduce the sound
transmitted to patient rooms and staff work areas. This is
particularly important in the evening and night hours. Many
conversations of an important or confidential nature occur in
corridors. They should not be overheard by patients or staff.
Finally, nurses and other personnel spend considerable time in
corridors so an interesting and non-institutional character is
desirable for this area. Excessive length should be avoided and
natural light introduced where possible.
c. Staff support area. The staff support zone must have a variety of
environments appropriated to each activity. Activities include
clerical work, conferences, informal discussions, and preparation of
drugs, dressing, etc., storage and cleaning of utensils and
equipment.
2. Organization
The general nursing unit requires a high level of efficiency for routine
task plus the ability to observe and treat those patients who are or
become seriously ill. Efficiency implies primarily the use of skilled
paramedical and medical personnel in an optimum way. For example,
nurse/patient contact hours should be increased, while time devoted to
walking or clerical work is minimized.
The work load on any nursing unit may vary considerably from day to
day depending upon the number of patients assigned to the unit and
the required level of nursing care. There is also a variation in the work
load throughout the course of a day; the highest level of activity
occurring during the daylight hours, diminishing activity during the
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