520
Detailed Needs and Requirements: General Nursing Unit
15. Volunteers
The voluntary service provides non-professional nursing and
administrative assistance. Volunteers will be involved on all general
nursing units.
16. Visitors
Visiting hours on general nursing units are established at each hospital
according to local requirements or policies.
Visitors should not disrupt normal operation of the unit. For this
reason, their activities should be subject to some degree of control by
administrative and nursing personnel. They should be received onto
the unit and directed or conducted to the patient's bedside or to visiting
spaces. Their access to administrative, nursing and support areas
should be restricted. Circulation of visitors through the unit or
conversations with patients should not disturb other patients.
Visitors should have access to toilet facilities and drinking fountains
while on the unit.
522.1.5
Trends
1. Unionization
There is a trend throughout the country toward unionization of nursing
personnel. As unions gain bargaining power their demands will be felt
throughout the health care field. This may have a significant effect on
the staffing patterns in VA hospitals.
Unions are demanding an increase in the staff/patient ratio. This may
bring about an increase in the number of nurses and nursing teams
required to cover the general nursing units in VA hospitals, for
example, a 40-bed unit now staffed with two teams may require three
or four teams in the future. Increased staffing ratios will, in turn, result
in a need to reorganize nursing unit facilities to achieve greater
efficiency.
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