nurse/pt ratio?

Specialties Urology

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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????

Our chronic unit is staffed with 1 Rn and 3 technicians. Rn has 1 primary pt - techs - 4. Dayturn shift reports for work at 4:30am ,first pt on by 5:15am. We have 13 chairs- all filled by 6:30 am. Dayturn works 2 shifts of pts and are finished by 3pm. Afternoon-turn begins at 1:30pm same ratio - 2 shifts of pts and finishes at midnight. When we were changing over to this ratio (VERY FAST PACED) we questioned whether other chronic facilities were working like this and were assured that we were LUCKY! That other units were working the technicians 5:1 or more with the RN responsible for 5 put-ons/ take-offs. This forum has been VERY enlightening. Thanks! :)

theresa

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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????

1 RN - 13 pts. Only rn in the building. 3 technicians and a reuse technicins for dialyxers.

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At the hospital where I work the ratio is 1 nurse for 2 patients and 1 tech for up to 8 patients.

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who did you travel with? i am going to start.

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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?

i would love an all RN staff. sorry techs

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i would love an all RN staff. sorry techs

Just curious as to why? The techs at our center do everything the nurses do except for giving medications and care plans. The techs pick up the workload when the nurses need time to do their primaries, which really helps the nurses out.

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I absolutely agree. Our technicians are a blessing! We are extremely fortunate to have a staff of techs that are true professionals and I shudder to think how our unit would function without them. In Ohio, dialysis technicians must be BONET certified. However, I know that when I worked in Pa., no such certification was required, and we would get folks off the street with minimal training, and no clue as to what to report to the RN or how to handle a minor crisis ( hypotensive crashes, chills etc...). The turnover rate was horrendous.

Theresa

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it can be frightning when you are doing charge in arkansas and the clinic just pulls people in with no training. they don't even know enough to know what they don't know. many times when they get the hang of it a little bit then they start thinking that they know it all but their knowledge base is narrow. the most frightning caregiver whether it a nurse or a tech is one that thinks they know it all. i guess i was just thinking at the time that it would be nice to just worry about my patients and not have to worry about what was going on all over the unit. maybe i was feeling a little lazy. i know that techs are tremendously valuable. just with that administration would provide adequate training prior to pt. care. hope i didn't offend anyone

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