For those of you who are currently working in Massachusetts, how would you say your patient load is on a typical day? Do you feel you are given a manageable number of patients, so you can get your work done within your shift? Or do you feel you're constantly running behind, busy from the time you get there to the time you leave, rarely getting a break and always leaving late?

Please don't say specifically where you work, but general information about where in Massachusetts, what type of setting/floor, what shift you work, etc., might be helpful. I'm just wondering what the working conditions are like around here.

We max at 6/1 on a med floor. Pts can be heavy at times, feeding tubes, NG tubes, trachs, etc. It can be crazy at times with the craziest being the med pass/assessments in the morning and afternoon can get insane with admissions. I would love to keep it to 5/1--it just seems so much more manageable.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association publishes stats on ratios on their web site:

http://www.patientcarelink.org/

The reporting is voluntary, but should give you a good sense of what things are like at different hospitals on different units.

I work in a pediatric hospital. We max at 4:1 on my unit. Rarely on a night shift if theyre very shortstaffed some nurses will get a 5th stable patient, but they try hard not to have that happen. I feel like our ratios are fair. The charge nurse tries to staff based on acuity, which is helpful. The only time I ever usually leave late is if I get a late admission or have a kiddo circle the drain. Overall I love my job. The only thi I could ask for would be to have more techs on the floor.

dtrmnd, that is a great link you posted. Thank you -- what a resource! I only looked at a few floors here and there, and it's hard to tell how busy it actually feels like to work these floors, based on the numbers. But it does seem like staffing ratios in Massachusetts are pretty good, at least at the hospitals.

This is a nice surprise. :)