[gonzo1]

Went to a hospital for agency gig today that I have never been to before. Got assigned to 7 rooms. Does that seem like a little much? Even med-surg nurses usually have only 6, right?
Almost kept up. The staff was helpful, but a couple of nurses said that agency nurses almost never come back.
Do you think that 7 is a little much?

[Diana,RN]

Are you talking about 7 patients orseven rooms with 2 beds each?

[Diary/Dairy]

I am working med surg right now and the pt. load here is usually 5-6 patients with a CNA.

[gonzo1]

six rooms with one room being able to hold 2 patients, so a total of 7 patients. These are not fast track rooms either. You can get anything.

[Diary/Dairy]

Mom doesn't work agency, but she is a med-surg staff nurse and she occasionally has 10-12 patients on the nights they are short.

[Knoodsen]

California has a law that mandates nurseatient ratios. I believe ER nurses can take no more than 4 patients. 7 sounds like a lot to me. How many did the other nurses there have?

[jojotoo]

How many patients did the other nurses have?

And let me tell you something about the California ratios: It's good in theory, but not all hospitals obey the law. The penalty is so minimal that it's cheaper to pay the fine than to hire the extra nurses that it would take to stay in ratio.

[neneRN]

7 rooms by yourself or with a team? We do have assignments of 8-11 pts, but they are staffed at a minimum of 1 RN, 1 LPN, and a tech. Any of our assignments that are staffed with only one RN are capped at 4 pts max.

[gonzo1]

The first four hours there was a float nurse, but she was floating for 15 rooms. Also a couple of techs for the whole ER. The other nurses had 4 rooms each. They told me that the "team" I had was bad, but I didn't have the guts to say "why give it to me then"
A couple of nurses did say that agency almost never comes back after their first trip there.
It wasn't the worst place I've ever been, but I'm miffed that they gave me the "worst" team.
Probably did it to see if I could handle it.
Every where else I have been it was 4 pts only.

[traumaRUs]

Hey Gonzo - seven rooms for an ER is way too much much. ENA states 4:1 ratio at most and then you must factor in acuity. I used to do agency in Chicago and I would get five rooms but they were considered the "minor" rooms. I was lucky.