Nursing Nightmare - Whats's the most number of patients you cared for by yourself?

LTAC = 12 patients on night shift; me and another RN had 25 total. Now and then we had an LPN who passed meds to half of my patients and half of hers.. One CNA for all. Floor expanded and staffing got a bit better for a little while. Then I had my fill one night when I had 9 total care patients; a new admit, a GI bleed, and a dementia patient with an NG were just a few of the " fun " ones in the crowd. Long term care meant 58 residents; was supposed to have a second nurse but that seldom happened. Now I'm at a small facility and the most I've had on nights is 5-6. worked the 4th and had 2....that's right 2....patients who were low acuity and slept all night. I love my job !!

ICU: 4, two on CVVHD, 3 out of 4 on the vent...I quit soon after.

If I didn't stay, there would have been NO one to care for the pts.
I called the manager-on-call, she got me help for 1st rounds, that was it. It never occured to me to refuse assignment.
This was 10 years ago. If it happend today, I'd probably react differently. I've learned how to stand up for myselft and my pts better.

Just wondering what kind of facility do you work at? In what state?

Re: Nursing Nightmare - Whats's the most number of patients you cared for by yourselfLTAC = 12 patients on night shift; me and another RN had 25 total. Now and then we had an LPN who passed meds to half of my patients and half of hers.. One CNA for all. Floor expanded and staffing got a bit better for a little while. Then I had my fill one night when I had 9 total care patients; a new admit, a GI bleed, and a dementia patient with an NG were just a few of the " fun " ones in the crowd. Long term care meant 58 residents; was supposed to have a second nurse but that seldom happened. Now I'm at a small facility and the most I've had on nights is 5-6. worked the 4th and had 2....that's right 2....patients who were low acuity and slept all night. I love my job !!


What kind of facility and what state? do you work in? Just curious!!!

Long term care: 80 residents at one facility. Supposed to have four to six CNAs, but usually had two. At another facility, only licensed staff for 52 residents, including 21 subacute. Supposed to have three CNAs, usually had two, and occasionally only had one. I'm now a lot happier with my one patient at a time in home health.

7 patients as a new grad fresh off orientation in med-surg ortho-neuro floor. My former orienter was livid they did that to me when she found out, esp. bc there were experienced nurses with only 5 pts that day.

turns out I was assigned the addional 2 fresh post-ops by "accident." I was running my butt off but proud that I handled things ok.

The most I ever took care of by myself was 11 on night shift in med surg (first position I ever took as a RN). I could have up to 6 patients on tele, and the aide was only able to do temps and incontinent care and baths.

Second med surg position my max was eight, but aides did VS, accuchecks, and baths. I had the pleasure of working with some awesome aides.

ICU my current position was 3. Sometimes, we have to triple up to keep a pt 1:1. It is a rare occasion. One night we had to have a nurse get pulled and left us short. Our charge nurse took the one pt of hers to MRI and I watched the other pt for her. Her pt coded while in MRI and I took over the other pt. It wasn't too bad since we all helped each other out. We also have some awesome techs as well on nights.

11 - 15 ortho=psych patients (most of the time 1 CNA per dept.)..plus I was the charge rn, and had to assess & document the other LPN's 11-15 patients. My nurse mgr refused to take one single patient cuz she's so busy doing all her paperwork (rolling eyes).Oh, the mgr even refused me and the LPN to work OT to finish our charting..thank god i left that place! - county hospital in houston