Staffing #'s for Days and Nights....

AngelGirl · Mar 9, 2003

Sarah,

How many patients do you see on average in 24 hours? Do you have a "Fastrack" clinic? Do you have LVN's and /or ER tech's? Do you have a clerk to answer phones and enter orders into the computer? How many MD/PA-Cs do you have?

I find it a little easier to think in terms of numbers of patients I'm responsible for at one time and how much 'floating staff' I have available.

In our ER, which is quite busy, I have 3 patients at any given time, occasionally 4. There is usually one ER tech present to help all of us in our 14 bed ER plus 6 room clinic. Our LVNs take a full patient load, depending on the charge nurse to give IV meds and assist with procedures beyond their scope of practice. We all try to shared the load.

Days and nights are often staffed nearly the same, minus one RN at night. The Charge nurse must, then take patients as well as run the show. We often lack a clerk, which slows EVERYTHING down. Our MD/PA-C staff drops down from three to one after 2 a.m. There are fewer orders being written, but just as many emergencies to treat.

Ah, nursing in the ER! You gotta love it or leave it!!

Hope that helps.

TazziRN, RN · Apr 6, 2003

I work in a rural ER (6 beds). "Busy" is anything more than 12-15 pts in a 12-hour shift. We run one RN and one tech from 7-7 days and nights, with an overlap RN from 11a-11p.

debbyed · Apr 7, 2003

I work in a 38 bed ER but not all the beds are always open (in theory of course).

From 7a - 11a there are (supposed to be) 25 beds open (Including 4 Psyc. seclusion rooms). with 7 RN's, 2 techs, 2 Acc's (Unit CLerks) and 1 doc (2nd doc comes in at 9)

From 11a - 11p there are all 38 beds open (including an 8 bed fast tract) with 11 RN's, 4 techs, 3 acc's, 2 docs, 1 PA and either a peditrician or a Ped's NP.

From 11p - 3 a there are 33 beds open with 7 RN's, 3 techs, 1 ACC, 2 doc's and 1 PA

And from 3a - 7a there are 25 beds open with 6 RN's, 2 techs, 1 ACC, 1 Doc and 1 PA.

The shift that usually gets screwed is night shift because you can't always closed the beds you are supposed to close when you are supposed to close them. And the nurse that gets screwed the most is the charge nurse who doesn't get paid extra but ends up doing charge, triage and usually psyc. We are lucky in the fact that our night shift works well together including our many agency nurses (Thank God for them) and we get through it.