Cardiac Stepdown unit 5:1 patient ratio...is this normal???

[jaznia15]

I had an interview for a position on a cardiac stepdown unit. The unit receives patients who have undergone cardiac procedures such as open heart, cath lab, and etc. She said a lot of patients come down with drips and what have you and I was quite shocked when she said the patient ratio was 5 patients to 1 nurse. I graduate in May with my BSN and am currently precepting in an ICU in a small rural hospital where the patient ratio is about 1 to 2 maybe 3 sometimes. But usually nurses who receive a drip pt only have two patients to care for that day. I guess things are different at a bigger hospital but I just wanted to ask to be sure. The interviewer did mention they had the highest turnover rate in the hospital for patients with many of them being discharged everyday. I didn't think to ask if these were discharges home or to the floor.

[KBRN15]

I work on a CV Tele/Progressive unit, and on a bad day/night, it'll be 4:1. Most of the time 3:1, but last night I only had 2 patients and an admit” bed that never got filled. We have gtts, chest tubes, etc but no vents and we also can't titrate gtts unless its heparin or insulin.

[nursetawnya07]

I work on a cardiac unit and we can have as many as 5 pts depending on census. 5 is crazy tough with assessments meds ivs drips insulin etc

[marcuchos08]

I work in a neuro step-down unit. We're lucky if we only have 5 pts, a lot of the time we get 6 pts and if we have a discharge we get one admission right away. I've been there for a year and I'm ready to quit but I'm scared I g won't get hired anywhere else because I've only been there for a year.

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

I work on a cardiac stepdown at a large, well known hospital. We get the sickest of the sick from all over. We do not get any post-surgical pts, mainly med only with cath and pacer/ICD pt's.

It is very common for us to be 5:1 (mainly on nights, sometimes on days) and it sucks sometimes. We are a stepdown in name only because we certainly are not treated like one yet management and physicians want all of this work done. It isn't safe. I have done 1 yr already and when I get close to 2 years I am going to transfer to a CICU or CVICU, eff this.