[sistasoul]

Thank you to all who have replied. It seems it depends on the part of the country you live in for the amount of patients you get.

I just got back from pinning tonight. I am still looking for my first job in med-surge here in NH. Seems the nursing shortage is not as bad in the Northeast.

Thank you again

Heather

[rc11201]

Move to California or do some travel nursing here. We are union which means we have ratio laws. No more than 5:1 for non tele patients. The salary is much higher here than in the most of the country and the weather is great! There are so many hospitals in such a small area you can move around alot until you find your ideal unit. Good Luck. I Love my Union.

[blinks]

I work on a surgical unit (primarily G-I patients). We average 3-4 days and evenings and 5-6 nights. 2 CNAs days and eves and 1 CNA on nights. I think this is a reasonable load for us.

[abundantjoy07]

I work nights and we typicall have 6 patients. However, at times we do have 7, or 8 as the "norm." I remember a few times where we had 9 a piece...including the charge nurse!

But I'd say 7 average for staff nurses. 5-6 average for the charge nurse.

[NurseKatie08]

Nurses on our medical floor seem to have 5-8 patients, depending on the shift.

Usually days is 6-7 nurses (including a charge nurse with a full load) and three techs
Eves is 6-7 nurses with 2-3 techs (3 is optimal, but doesn't always happen)
Nights is 5-6 nurses with 0-2 techs (I'm a tech now, and worked one night where there was three techs...we were so thrilled we didn't know what to do with ourselves!)

[sweetspirit]

1:6 - this is the normal ratio for my hospital. Everyone in a while - we might get seven - but only if the other 6 are "low care" - which might I add is a joke!

[omeg]

Peds: 3 - 4:1 On nights we have no aide so we do everything ourselves.

[Kohern]

Yuck! I feel sorry for you girls. In our hospital it's 4:1 on days, occasionally 5 if we are in a pinch! 5-6 patients on nights. I think I'm spoiled!

[nbnurse95]

I work on a surgical floor. We have 4 teams of 7 pt's each. Each team has one RN and one LPN. One RN in charge without pts. We have a secretary from 0730 - 1530, another from 1000 - 1800, and another from 1400 - 2200. We also have a "concentrated care" room for 3 pts and one RN. This is the staff when we're REALLY lucky. Often our charge nurse ends up with a team, or 3 RN's often split the 4th team so that one RN can staff our concentrated care room. This has been the norm recently.

[Danielle LPN]

I work on a med/surg floor and I have up to 8 patients at a time, no less than 5. However, when you consider discharges and new admits, I've actually taken up to 10 in a shift (just not all at once). Funny thing is, sometimes it feels like 5 patients is harder than 15, depending on the patients.