Nurses General Nursing
Published Nov 16, 2005
So I'm wondering. Are there any laws concerning pt./nurse ratio's?
I think most hospitals use the guidelines from the Board of Nursing.....but is there more to it? Just wondering.....and thanks.
grinnurse, RN
767 Posts
The last day that I worked I had 8 patients, 7a-7p, 3 were total care NH patients, one that was totally incontinent of B&B. Thank goodness I have only 5 days left at this facility. I begin at a new hospital Nov. 28th where the maximum pt load is 5 both day and night.
jessnurse05
73 Posts
The last shift I worked on a mother/baby/peds floor I started with 3; 1 ped, 2 babies, sent ped and 1 baby home and picked up 1 baby. If I just have babies I may have 8, if I have peds then the max is 4 although I've had 5 with 3 admits all at the same time! (Luckily I'm still in training so it was me and my preceptor).
Jessica
grace90, LPN, LVN
763 Posts
Night shift is staffed the same as day.
That's the way it should be! :yelclap:
Tonight, none, it's my night off. Two nights ago, on my own floor, ortho/neuro/surgical, I had 6. Last night, I floated to telemetry and had 4 plus 2 lpn cover patients. Usually on that floor we have 5 or 6 primaries. Days usually has 3-4 primaries plus 2-3 covers and 2nd shift is pretty close to that.
NurseRatchett
34 Posts
106..........no joke.
I work in a residential rehab for adolescents. I pass meds 5 days a week to roughly 25 girls and 30 boys. The rest are okay. Unless someone sneaks drugs in the house and the whole facility starts spinning, including staff.
Am I overworked? :lol
HappyJaxRN
434 Posts
sometimes i had an aide to help me. and if i was really lucky, the aide didn't spend the entire shift sleeping in the break room. yup, i had 15 heme/onc/bmt patients by myself -- each on 3 or 4 iv antibiotics and getting either ampho b or transfused (or both). the bmt patients were in full isolation -- gown, shoe covers, gloves, mask, hair covers and a 60 second hand wash each time you entered their room. oh yes -- we were expected to fetch drinks and snacks for the many visitors who stayed overnight as well. after barely a year in that job, i transferred to micu. ruby (still not willing to fetch for visitors!)
yup, i had 15 heme/onc/bmt patients by myself -- each on 3 or 4 iv antibiotics and getting either ampho b or transfused (or both). the bmt patients were in full isolation -- gown, shoe covers, gloves, mask, hair covers and a 60 second hand wash each time you entered their room.
oh yes -- we were expected to fetch drinks and snacks for the many visitors who stayed overnight as well.
after barely a year in that job, i transferred to micu.
ruby (still not willing to fetch for visitors!)
omgosh. this isn't safe. i do all that...and do fetch stuff for visitors, but i only have 1-4 patients. the only reason i fetch for the visitors is because usually they are staying the entire night and they help the patient....usually, which in turn helps me a lot too. omgosh...why did you have so many patients? was this a one time thing?