[Maria]

You probably know that an RN is more highly educated than a Nursing Assistant and a Licensed Vocational/Practical Nurse so if you were communicating to the nursing staff ahead of time that you hired an RN for your care then it could go two ways depending on hospital policy and that is that the RN does your total care (is hired for this) and/or the RN is there just for observation and as a 2nd in terms of should there be things that need to be communicated and taken care to the nursing staff.

An experienced LVN/LPN is often extremely knowlegable as is an NA as well when they have been working far longer than the RN so it often depends on what someone's overall experience is however the RN is the one who should techically be able to observe more and do more under nursing abilities.

This is all something you might want to actually call the hospital admin about and find out what the policy is for the hospital re privately contracted nurses (private duty).

When I had my first spine surgery the surgeon liked to put his patient in intensive care for several days as he knew we would get turned as frequently as needed, cath care or bedpan given as needed, feeding assisted if needed, hygiene and so forth and pain meds given as soon as required. He wanted us to have the RN to 2 patient ratio of care back then in 1989.. it was a good deal at least the first day as the pain was excrutiating post open discectomy at L5S1 back in *the day*...

You might want to also ask your surgeon what he thinks of this idea and if you would need this.

Usually post operative patients that are just out of recovery and back on the floor are given high priority for monitoring and care however sometimes at nights if there is short staff (already skeletan staff and someone calls in sick) then maybe an additional body/set of eyes/assistant would be helpful.