Safe nurse to patient ratio

[2bnurseforce1]

Hi everyone. I have a question I live in VA, and work at a well know hospital here in Med-surg/stepdown. I am wondering how to find or what the state board says about the patient to nurse ratio in medsurg. My manager told me in the interview it would be 1:5 or 1:6 at the most, but I have been hearing talk about 1:7, although she denies that I would ever have 1:7 because its against state board policy, I can't find the policy on the BON website. Maybe I am looking at it wrong, but I want to see it in writing, so I can have something to back me up. Any feedback would be great.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Does Virginia even have it mandated like Cali does? I know my old facility said in med surg we could take up to 8.

[BearishBob]

Only California has state mandated nurse to patient ratios. Most state BON's only require 'safe' staffing levels, which is open to interpretation.

If you havent taken the job and are curious, make a surprise visit to the floor during your shift and look for the staff board, most hospitals have one in the public area by the unit secretary showing what nurse has what room. You can get a pretty honest feel that way.