Inpatient Practice Areas

UCSF provides both adult and pediatric acute and transitional care management at our Parnassus, Mission Bay, and Mount Zion campuses.

Inpatient Acute and Transitional care services at Parnassus, Mission Bay, and Mount Zion include General Medical-Surgical Care, Mother/Baby and Fetal Surgery (Mission Bay only), Medical and Surgical management of patients with Cardiac and Neurologic diseases, Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant, Solid Organ Transplant (Heart, Lung, Liver, Renal, and Pancreas), Orthopaedics/Spine, Plastic Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Acute Care for the Elderly (Parnassus only).

All nurses are required to have Life Support Certifications germane to their area of practice.  In order to provide competent care in emergency situations, both adult and pediatric nurses participate in mock code programs.  Additionally, many of our nurses hold certifications within their area of specialty and maintain a variety of advanced competencies including telemetry monitoring, management of IV Prostacyclines, ventricular assist devices, complex drain management, and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. 

Our nurses participate in a variety of councils to improve patient care and further nursing practice and research, provide professional development for their staff, as well as support the diverse needs of their patient populations and families. In each unit, the nurses at UCSF are an integral part of the interdisciplinary team that, in conjunction with the patient and family, develop and provide an individualized and safe passage through the UCSF medical system.

UCSF provides critical care services for neonatal, pediatric and adult patients at each of its three medical campuses, and emergency services at Parnassus, Mission Bay, and Mount Zion.

Inpatient critical care services at Mission Bay and Parnassus include Cardiac, Neurologic, Medical Surgical, and Neonatal intensive care units. These units provide care for patients undergoing cardiac surgery, organ transplantation, thoracic surgery, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgical surgery, general surgery, or patients requiring complex medical management.

UCSF critical care nurses are ACLS certified, and provide critical care therapies such as mechanical ventilation, hemodynamic monitoring, invasive line monitoring, and management of vasoactive drugs. Many critical care nurses hold critical care specialty certifications, and maintain a variety of advanced competencies such as comprehensive stroke management, extra-corporeal life support, continuous renal replacement therapy, left ventricular assist devices, prostacyclin therapies, and organ transplantation etc. Critical Care nurses participate in a variety of councils to improve patient care, further nursing practice and research, the professional development of their staff, as well as support the diverse needs of our patient populations and their families. 

UCSF has two Emergency Departments. One at Parnassus that provides care for adults and one a Mission Bay that is the only free-standing children’s emergency in San Francisco. The Parnassus ED is designated as a prehospital stroke and STEMI receiving center for San Francisco. It contains a 64-slice CT scanner, two state-of-the-art resuscitation rooms, and bedside ultrasound. It also has four additional beds for Fast Track and eight beds for a Clinical Decision Unit. The Benioff Children’s Hospital Pediatric ED (BCH) is the pediatric critical care receiving hospital for San Francisco.

At Parnassus Emergency, staff include Nurses, mid-level practitioners, Physicians, a Clinical Nurse Specialist, unit-based Pharmacists, Social workers and Emergency Department Medical Residents.  The Mission Bay Children’s Emergency, is staffed by Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physicians and Pediatric  Nurses and Child Life Specialists. These highly trained personnel deliver best-practice care for adults and children with complex diseases in emergent situations, offering interventions that can only be found at an academic, tertiary care medical center.

At Parnassus, over 40% of Registered Nurses are Certified Emergency Nurses and 20% have advanced degrees. At Mission Bay 29% are Certified Emergency or Pediatric Emergency Nurses and 12% have advanced degrees. ED nurses participate in unit-based and hospital-wide councils to improve patient care, nursing practice, and professional development of staff. 

All UCSF Emergency Nurses place high value on service excellence, critical thinking, and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced clinical environment. All are Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certified and provide critical care therapies such as mechanical ventilation, hemodynamic monitoring, invasive line monitoring, and management of vasoactive drugs.

UCSF provides neonatal and pediatric surgical services at its Mission Bay campus and surgical services for adults at all three campuses: Mission Bay, Mount Zion, and Parnassus.

Pediatric/Neonate surgical services at Mission Bay include: cardiac, thoracic, vascular, orthopaedic, spine, otolaryngology head and neck surgery (OHNS), oralmaxilla, plastic, general, gynecological, genitourinary, neurological, kidney and liver transplant, and fetal surgery. Mission Bay adult surgical services specialize in oncology and include:  orthopaedic, OHNS, oralmaxilla, plastic, general surgery, gynecology, and genitourinary.

The Mount Zion campus serves adults (18 years or older) receiving outpatient procedures. Surgical services performed at Mount Zion include: OHNS, endocrine, plastics, breast, colorectal, radiation oncology, neurosurgery, and gynecological.

The Parnassus campus provides adult surgical services including: cardiac, thoracic, vascular, OHNS, oralmaxilla, opthalmologic, plastic, orthopaedic, neurological, general surgery, genitourinary, and transplantation of hearts, lungs, kidneys, and livers.

The Orthopaedic Institute Perioperative program is home to the continuum of out-patient musculoskeletal surgery.  The Orthopaedic Institute surgery program encompasses Prepare, Preoperative, Operating Room (OR), Procedure Rooms, Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) and Sterile Processing Department (SPD).  Out-patient surgical procedures include sports medicine, hand and upper extremity, foot and ankle, spine, pain injections and cold trauma.

UCSF surgical nurses are trained specialists in the procedures in which they assist. They have gone through advanced training in their surgical specialties, so they are equipped to provide the best possible patient care. Many of these nurses have specialty certifications and advanced competencies to care for complex patient such as those under-going complex cardiac and transplant procedures.

All UCSF perianesthesia (preoperative and postanesthesia care areas) nurses are Critical Care Nurses who specialize in pain management and the care of surgical patients recovering from the effects of anesthetic drugs. They are all Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certified and, if they care for children, are also Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certified. Many of these nurses have additional specialty certifications.

Surgical and Perianesthesia nurses participate in a variety of councils to improve patient care, further nursing practice and research, the professional development of their staff, as well as support the diverse needs of our patient populations and their families. 

UCSF provides neonatal, pediatric and adult procedures at all three campuses: Mission Bay, Mount Zion, and Parnassus.