M/S nurse/pt ratio?

The patient ratio for MedSurg in California is 5:1 per licensed nurse. A licensed nurse is defined as RN, LVN, & Psych Tech. Certified Nursing Assistants are not licensed, therefore cannot be included in the ratio.

Many hospitals in California will assign a RN and LVN together as a team. This team will then be assigned 10 patients total, keeping with 5 patients per licensed nurse ratio.

Unfortunately, there's a number of hospitals that will give a RN, LVN team greater than 10 patients, breaking the law.