Role-based Groups

Within the large groupings of people, department groups, further sub-division into smaller groups by role/position is possible (and desirable). Not everyone in a department does the same job. These subdivisions are considered role-based groups. The following table provides some examples of role-based groups.

Table 1. Role-based groups

Role-based Group

Description

Common Role-Based Groups

These are sub-groupings of people who have a somewhat specific duty to perform1. Examples of common role-based groups include: nurses, techs (nursing assistants), unit secretaries, and physicians. Each of these sub-groupings of people typically has staff names as members. These groups may have other common role-based groups as members as well. However, they usually do not include managerial role-based groups as members. Common role-based groups can have staff who are always members of the group (static) or can have staff who change frequently as needed (dynamic).

Common role-based groups are usually members of a department group. Avoid getting too granular with your role based groups. As a general rule, if you don’t need to give special permissions or send a message/broadcast to them as a specific grouping of individuals, you don’t need to make a separate group for them.

For example, I C U Nurse, I C U Tech, and I C U Unit Secretary are examples of common role-based groups and would be members of the I C U department group.

Managerial Role-Based Groups

This type of role-based group is also known as a special role-based group. Managerial role-based groups are nested as members of a departmental group. Members of special role-based groups have been promoted or hired into this role and may not want to receive general calls to the “associated” role-based group. Often these special role-based groups are not the correct personnel to respond to the calls anyway or are frequently unavailable due to meeting schedules.

I C U Nurse Manager is an example of a managerial role-based group. I C U Nurse Manager would not typically be a member of the I C U Nurse group and would be a member of the I C U department group.

Room/Bed Role-Based Groups

Room/bed role-based groups are created to facilitate contacting the caregiver(s) responsible for a specific patient. Having a caregiver in a room based group allows other clinicians, doctors, or even patients and patients’ families to contact the caregiver responsible for a particular patient without needing to know the caregiver’s name. Hospitalists are particularly interested in being able to reach the correct nurse for their patient without researching “who” is responsible for the patient on a particular shift. These groups are often established to interact with nurse call or patient monitoring integrations. Room/bed role-based groups generally have dynamic membership that changes from shift to shift.

An example of a room/bed role-based group would be a group named Room 103 A (a patient room in the I C U Department). This room/bed role-based group is used by staff in the I C U department, but it is not nested under the I C U department group.