NICU 101: What's an assignment?

A little something today for the nonmedical readers. I often get email, IM or personal comments from you (although you slackers never leave comments on the actual blog) that some of my terminology sounds a little funny. The term assignment is one that has raised people's ears a little.

You guys are familiar with the word itself. But I'm not referring to homework, to a military operation, or to something out of Mission: Impossible. An assignment is simply the load of patients that a nurse is tasked with taking care of in a given shift.

One of the important components of an assignment is the ratio of babies to the nurse. On the level 3 side of the unit (the sicker kids on ventilators), I generally get two patients. With level 2 babies (kids who are more stable, often former level 3 babies), I'll have three or four. Because of the juggling involved in multitasking for four newborns, a level 2 shift can easily turn busier than a level 3 shift.

You may hear me, on this blog or in real life, use the word assignment with any number of modifiers (some more colorful than others, at times). Examples:

a tight assignment - I don't mean tight as a hip, modern synonym for really great. This means that I was so busy I could barely provide the minimum acceptable level of care to each baby.

an easy assignment - Sometimes you get multiple kids that arent yet feeding or who are feeding by tube. Those save you a lot of time versus caring for their pokey eater counterparts. Why didn't I bring a book? Oh yeah... because all hell breaks loose any time I think to bring a book.

an admission assignment - This is the nurse who probably has the easiest assignment (like three level 2 babies) and will accept the first (second, third, etc) new baby admitted to our unit.

There you have it. Questions?