6 patients on days on a med/surge floor too much

[sweet sunshine]

I recently started a new job. We get 6 patients on days and nights gets 6 patients as well. Makes no sense. Everywhere I ever worked days got less patients as so much more is going on during the day. I work for 13 hours straight, I can barely take a break and can go 13 hours without even getting a drink. The hospital talks about evidence based practices, but it is also evidenced based that having less patients save lives and outcomes are better. They ignore that part, but will implement practices that are time consuming when you have 6 patients. I do get it, but how about giving us less patients so we can give better care.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

Of course they will preach about providing evidenced based care but the reality is they want you to do that in a way that still makes them profitable.I would caution you and your co-workers not to rescue them.You should not forfeit any breaks especially meal breaks.You may think you are being more productive by skipping breaks but its simply not true.You need to cover for each other and if by the end of the shift you all have overtime then your odds of the problem being apparent are much greater. Let the problem happen.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

too much. I work on an intermediate ortho floor. 4-5 pts max days. 5 on nights. you can't be safe with that many pts.

[NuGuyNurse2b]

That's what our floor/hospital culture is like. They think 6/7/8 pts per nurse on day shift is acceptable. It's simply not. Then they implement all these evidence based practices and expect us to follow it.

[13grad71]

Typical hospital horse manure. That's why I moved to the ER 4 to 1, DOU 3 to 1 and ICU 2 to 1. Life is easier in these departments

[Crush]

When I started out as a new grad we had 5-6 pts on a med-surg floor on days and nights would have 7-8 pts. I don't miss that. Right now the most we take is 4 pts on days and 5 pts on nights. Of course, ICU and ER are staffed differently based on acuity. Our staffing model says we can take 5pts on days but I have yet to see that happen.