Word Spy - hit-and-run nursing

hit-and-run nursing n. An aspect of managed health care in which nurses attend to a greater number of patients and attempt to speed those patients through the system by performing tasks—such as drawing blood—previously assigned to specialists.

Example Citation:

Registered nurses say working conditions are so bad in some hospital medical-surgical units that many RNs are looking for non-nursing jobs or downgrading to part-time status if they can.

Some RNs refer to their work now as "drive-by" or "hit-and-run" nursing, a cutting reference to the lack of time they have to spend providing quality care to patients.
—Sarah A. Webster, "Weary nurses find jobs, joy in other professions," The Detroit News, November 18, 2001

Earliest Citation:

They worry that managed care, without restraints, leads to what they call hit-and-run nursing and to mistakes, abuses and oversights. ...

The accusation of hit-and-run nursing arises from the shift among health maintenance organizations from relying for most care on registered nurses, who have completed two to four years of college, to using what the organizations call team nursing, with nurses supervising workers with less expertise.
—Peter T. Kilborn, "Nurses Put on Fast Forward In Rush for Cost Efficiency," The New York Times, April 9, 1998

Notes:

Hit-and-run nursing is also known as drive-by nursing (2000) and accelerated-care nursing (1998).