nurse/pt ratio?

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What is the nurse/pt ratio at your centers??? How many pts do you take care of at one time on machines????

What is the nurse/pt ratio at your centers??? How many pts do you take care of at one time on machines????
we are responsible for setting up and monitoring 4 patients at a time in between doing assessments on all 10-20 patients plus all medications on 20 patients , plus help anybody who might need help with their patients. By the way I am an LVN at a 21 chair dialysis unit. We usually work with a charge nurse who is an LVN and 4 techs and then me. Today was a day from hell I dont know how they expect us to truly take care of these patients with so little staff. Our turn around started at 9:30 am and the last patient was put on at 1:00pm, the day started at 5:30 with the first patients coming on at 6:00am and ended with last one off at 4:30 pm .

:uhoh21:

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Hi, and thanks for the reply. When we have a sick call the nursing supervisor tries to fill it by calling off nurses in. Usually we all cover each other if we can. However, there was a time last week when we wound up with only 2 RN's and 2 techs for the normal load of patients. This occurence has spurred me on the look into what is safe and what is not. We have been told by my nurse mgr for ever that we need 3 RN's on at a time, but all of a sudden on that day last week it was ok to have 2 RN's on and 2 techs. I have not been able to find any standard form of staffing. Especially in NYS.:p

Hi & Welcome. I don't believe that you are overstaffed. If you can still maintain a 3:1 ratio even when the on-call nurse is out of the unit doing an acute, I think you are fine. I believe it is your hospital affiliation that must mandate an RN providing care rather than technicians. With the nurses providing treatments, giving meds, charting, etc, they do have a full plate.

I think you feel you are not normal due to the fact that many of the other posters work for one or another of the dialysis chains. The ratios that the chains run are much higher than a private or non-profit unit. I think 4:1 is the norm (what happens when there is a sick call??)

After 4 yrs, I am sure you will stay in dialysis a while and love it.

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Does anyone have any guidelines to use to study for the CDN? I have purchased the CNN review guide thinking this would cover just about everything I need for the CDN. A couple of us want to take it but we need some guidance on how to study. Any suggestions would be great.

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I am new to this website. Would like to post general question about pt ratio in Ohio. Please advise.

Unit about to expand and techs are asking for advice. Aware of the 4:1 ratio. Understood it to be 4pt/1tech ratio. Recently asked DON, her reply was 4pt/1staff. That would include our RN's on the floor and they do not take assignment. By my count we are understaffed and by DON's interpretation, we are fine until we expand. Just want the facts. Please advise.

By the way, I like this website. Was browsing through and was very interested in the similarities of other units and RN's. Glad this is here.

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

4:1 ratio where I work. And that includes the RNs.

ALL our staff take patients, 4:1, two shifts. 12 stations.

Yes, with meds, etc., it does make it a tad hectic for the nurses, as we also have to do initial pt. assessments for the techs, etc. (we only have one tech... 2 LPNs, 3 RNs...one of whom is our NM/DON)

Usually, we have 3 staff on the floor, plus one doing "water/bicarb,etc" ( no patients for whoever does "water" that day... but DOES assisit in setting up and tearng down machines, bringing patients in, taking patients off the machine when things are really hectic, etc.)

Then, USUALLY, the NM is there as well, but we don't count her a a "floor staff" as she has so much other work of her own to keep up with. She does come and help out on the floor if it gets too crazy, and during turnover, etc.

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3:1 at our unit. Ours is broken up into sections, A, B and C...then each section has its assigned staff, usually 1 RN and 2-3 techs per section.

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Specializes in Renal, Haemo and Peritoneal.

I have been reading everyone's posts with great interest! I work in a large public hospital which covers a health district area which would swallow many European countries!

I have worked in all facets of our Health Service Districts's renal dialysis services. The patient ratio differs with each.

The acute facility (main hospital, haemo), the preferred ratio is 1 nurse to 2 patients, often 1:1 for a complex pt.

The satellite facilities (1:4) (stable patients), Peritoneal Dialysis 3:45.

We do not have any technicians. All attendant staff are Registered Nurses who are responsible for the wholistic care of their primary patients.

I think I would be grey within a couple of hours if I had the workload and responsiblity that some of you folk have!

Our "norm" for dialysis is 4-5 hrs 3X a week. What about you?

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I'd say the majority of our patients come in 3x a week for treatments that last anywhere from 3-4.5 hours. We use primarily high-flux dialyzers in our facility.

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Compared to what I have been told on job interviews. I went to a Gambro facility this week and was told the nurse to patient ratio is 1:10. I was very interested in going into dialysis because it seems very interesting and I like the continuity of care. I also thought dialysis nursing was less stressfull than working in a hospital on a med surg floor, NICU, or even a postpartum unit. However with these ratios I am getting discouraged. The most patients I have taken care of is in postpartum where I had 4 couplets, but these are usually healthy moms and babies with no chronic conditions. And even with these well patients in postpartum, sometimes I still struggled with being caught up in the A.M and ready to give report to the oncoming nurse.

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Compared to what I have been told on job interviews. I went to a Gambro facility this week and was told the nurse to patient ratio is 1:10.

Holy cow. That is a high ratio. Are they including techs in that ratio? Our nurses usually have 8 pts in their section during each shift, but also included in the section are usually 3 other techs or LPNs, so it works out to a ratio of about 1:2-3.

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greetings from porto

over here in the central hospital's (main) it's a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio

we also do not have any technicians. All attendant staff are Registered Nurses who are responsible for the wholistic care of their primary patients.

Our "norm" for dialysis is 4hrs 3X a week.

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greetings from porto

over here in the central hospital's (main) it's a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio

we also do not have any technicians. All attendant staff are Registered Nurses who are responsible for the wholistic care of their primary patients.

Our "norm" for dialysis is 4hrs 3X a week.

That's a real good ratio.

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