How many residents is too many residents for one nurse to safely and adequately take care of? Where I work, the nurse has anywhere from 15-25 or 30 residents, depending on what floor/hall they are on. There is two nurses per floor (each floor has the potential to house 55 residents total) on days and afternoons, however on midnights (which is what my regular shift is supposed to be starting tuesday) there is one nurse per floor and 2-3 CNAs. Now, on midnights there isnt as many meds to pass until the 6am med pass, there aren't that many sugars to check, and there aren't a huge number of medicare patients to specifically chart on (the facility's protocol is chart by exception except for medicare patients, patients on antibiotics, patients who have fallen or new admits, and any other condition that requires frequent documentation... which should be all patients in my opinion as there's a reason they are there!). So, I will have, depending on the census, up to 55 patients to myself along with 2-3 CNAs... How on earth can that be safe??? What if one patients begins to decline and I am tied up with them and another one starts to decline... there isn't two of me, and the other nurses in the building wont be able to leave their floor because they are the only ones on their floor too... Granted 911 is a call away and literally 2 minutes up the road, and the hospital is 5 minutes the other direction, but STILL - that's too many patients for one nurse to safely take care of in my opinion. Is it like this is most LTC/SNF facilities? am I being unreasonable?
