What's the nurse-patient ratio in your unit?

Nurses General Nursing

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I wanted to get a poll on nurse patient ratio. I know its different in every unit. So if you can indicate what unit you work in, that would be great! Thank you.

I work in a neuro tele unit and we get 5 patients.

I work on what I would call a mix of step down and med surg patients. My floor gets vent patients, renal failure patients, kidney transplants and kidney/pancreas transplants, urology patients, and everything in between. On day shift, the ratio is 3-4:1. If a nurse has a vent patient, they try to keep that nurse at 3:1 with no admits. At night, the ratio is 5-6:1, even with a vent, although effort is made to keep a nurse with a vent at 5:1. Although I like working night shift, I wish more effort was made to keep day shift ratios even at night. If I have a vent patient, I spend a lot of time with that patient, and I can't have 4-5 other patients that are trying to climb out of bed or pull at their lines. That's typically my load. 6 patients with a vent would be more doable if most of the patients were alert and oriented, and trying to sleep. Otherwise it's unsafe.

I work on PP and we can have up to 5 mother/baby couplets which is 10 patients.

Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

I work in a Level I Trauma ED, we have 3-4:1 depending on the time of day and staff available.

Specializes in Home Health, Podiatry, Neurology, Case Mgmt.

my friend works med-surg/neuro at a magnet hospital in town she is 6-7 patients per nurse...I worked there for 8 wks and hated it so I quit...now i'm case management and I am 200:1 =) at least all my patients aren't sick nor need any "skilled" care it's all patient teaching and referrals LOL

Specializes in Palliative.

4-5:1. I work on medicine/renal and we have two nurses for each team of 8 patients on both days and nights (though on days we have a charge nurse in addition to the team nurses). There will usually be two overcapacity patients on the unit also. If we are required to take any more, extra staff has to be brought in.

dayshift 4-5:1 nights 6:1 - neuro/ortho

Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

ICU Stepdown/tele. 8:1 is for both days and nights, although days slip usually 6:1. We admit and discharge more than any other floor. We are insanely busy and should have better ratios. We get blamed for when someone says we weren't in the room long enough or when something gets overlooked. We can't keep staff and everyone is new and not too eager to learn or help. No raises and the pay is subpar at best. I need a new job I think.

Specializes in med surge, PCU, Tele.

I work a busy med surge floor and our ratio is 7:1.

Specializes in Psychiatric/ Mental Health.

Psych unit I worked on, would usually have 5-6 pts, but Ive had 16 pts plus two techs when I was short an RN.

Specializes in ER.

I work in ER at night in a level 3 trauma center ... ratio is 4:1

Sometimes if we stuff people in the hall if the poo hits the fan we get 5. If someone gets bogged down with a critical patients the charge usually keeps their other room(s) empty or other coworkers take on more of less critical patients in your room. It's pretty reasonable. I feel bad because we only have one doc after midnight until 7 am and on busy nights they get really bogged down.

Specializes in Psychiatric nursing.

I work on an inpatient acute adult psych unit located in a medical hospital. 30 bed unit and I work 1500 to 2330 shift. On my shift I can get anywhere from 5 to 8 patients. One particular horrendous shift I had nine patients. We do get MHWs but they don't do more than safety checks and running groups. We also occasionally get things like IVs and feeding tubes and such.

Specializes in Acute Care - Adult, Med Surg, Neuro.

Medical-surgical, 4-6:1

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