Inpatient hospital: Role of the nurse

Inpatient hospital care is a type of service that provides skilled, acute care to patients that cannot be provided in their home, in an outpatient clinic, or in a long-term care facility.

As the nurse, you'll provide patient-centered care for individuals in an inpatient hospital setting. Now, the purpose of inpatient hospital care is to provide care beyond what can be provided in an outpatient primary care setting, which focuses on preventative care, health maintenance, and diagnostics.

Inpatient hospitals provide secondary care for patients needing specialized treatment for serious, acute illnesses, or trauma not available in primary care settings, as well as tertiary care, where care is even more specialized, such as burn treatment and care following complex surgeries, including cardiothoracic or neurologic surgery, and organ transplantation.

The types of inpatient services offered at a hospital can depend on factors like the hospital's size and location. Smaller hospitals, like those in less populated or rural areas, typically provide basic, secondary, acute care.

These are often designated as critical access hospitals, which ensure residents in these communities have access to basic emergency and inpatient care.

There are also regional hospitals that are typically located in small urban areas. These hospitals offer a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, and often act as referral centers for smaller hospitals throughout a large geographic area.

In contrast, large urban medical centers have state of the art diagnostic services and offer a wide array of specialized tertiary services.

These hospitals are often academic centers that conduct research and train healthcare professionals. When caring for your patients in the hospital, your goals of care include providing safe, high-quality patient care through assessment, intervention, collaboration, education, and documentation.

Beginning with assessment. You'll gather information on your patient's status by taking vital signs, performing physical assessments, and reviewing recent laboratory and imaging results.

You'll also gather information about symptoms like pain, nausea, anxiety level, and fatigue, and compare your findings to previous assessments to determine if your patient's condition is improving, remaining the same, or worsening.

Intervention includes following the current plan of care, as well as using assessment findings to determine when additional actions are needed.

Using clinical decision-making skills, you'll prioritize care by caring for patients with the most immediate and time-sensitive needs first.

You'll contact the healthcare provider to report certain assessment findings and lab results, and to obtain any new orders if needed.

You'll also collaborate with other members of an interdisciplinary team to develop and carry out each patient's plan of care, and work with other nurses and unlicensed assistive personnel to delegate care activities.

Additionally, you'll obtain referrals for other services within the hospital as needed, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition consultations, or social services.

Lastly, you'll engage in discharge planning activities by identifying patient needs, coordinating services, and providing clear discharge instructions for each patient.

Now, as the nurse, you'll play an important role in patient education. By developing a therapeutic relationship with your patients and using effective communication, you can promote learning by teaching your patient about their condition.

You can help them understand the care you provide by including them in the care process, explaining procedures and laboratory test results, and keeping them updated about any changes in their plan of care.

You'll also teach them how to care for themselves, to the level they are able, and include them in shared decision making when possible.

Finally, you'll document all of your care activities and communications in the patient's medical record, ensuring timely and accurate documentation to keep all members of the healthcare team apprised of your patient's status.

This promotes continuity of care from shift to shift as nursing and other staff change, and is crucial for other reasons such as legal protection, facility reimbursement, and ongoing quality improvement efforts.

All right, as a quick recap. Inpatient hospital care is a type of service that provides skilled, acute care to patients that cannot be provided in their home, in an outpatient clinic, or in a long-term care facility.

When caring for your patients in the hospital, your goals of care include providing safe, high-quality patient care through assessment, intervention, collaboration, education, and documentation.