Does your floor have an RN to patient ratio?

Specialties Med-Surg

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

Our absolute top limit is RN to 6 patients and they strive for 5. I appreciate my employer sticking to the ratio no matter the cost. They will call nurses in and offer double pay to get us covered, also we have regular agency nurses that we can call if we need to. Our nurse manager has worked the floor more than once to keep our ratios in line.

There are studies proving that understaffing causes more med errors and there are deaths directly attributed to high RN to patient ratios. One large hospital close to me has an RN to 7/8 patient ratio. Yikes that's scary! eh? They couldn't pay me enough. My license is too precious to me not to mention the patients safety. Any opinions?

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i think that is great! we do not have any standard ratio. i have worked eve's with 24 patents with 2 RN's and 1 LPN. during that time we had 2 d/c's and 2 admits so suring the shift i had 9 patients. i have never in 5 years seen my nurse manager work the floor. it's sad to think that she would jeopordize our licenses and our patients safety.

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
i think that is great! we do not have any standard ratio. i have worked eve's with 24 patents with 2 RN's and 1 LPN. during that time we had 2 d/c's and 2 admits so suring the shift i had 9 patients. i have never in 5 years seen my nurse manager work the floor. it's sad to think that she would jeopordize our licenses and our patients safety.

Very sad indeed. I think our NM is awesome. We don't do team nursing. The patient is all ours. We tried team nursing several times and it just didn't work out. Curiosity is killing me, does the LPN pass the meds? What do the RN's do? Where I work everyone is equal except that the LPN's cannot do admission assessments which is so dumb, they are just as capable and some of them more so.

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

Our med/surg has no limit. I already had 15 with a few tele pts thrown in the mix. (30 total pts.) had one CNA per 30 pts. The ICU can have up to 4 patients. (However there are no vents)

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
Our med/surg has no limit. I already had 15 with a few tele pts thrown in the mix. (30 total pts.) had one CNA per 30 pts. The ICU can have up to 4 patients. (However there are no vents)

I hope I am never a patient in NE Pennsylvania. Do you care for that many patients by yourself or with a team? It sounds criminal to me.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

Ortho-Neuro Med Surg here:

Full census--> 24

Full staff calls for 3 RNs, 3 LPNs, and 2 Aides.

My heart goes out to you.

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Specializes in Trauma/ED.

We are usually 6-7 per nurse...never more than 7 and if you start out with 5 you can count on at least one maybe two admits. We work with a CNA and the charge nurse signs off all the MD orders. Charge nurse takes two easy patients with her duties.

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I would love to just have five patients. A typical day could be anywhere from six to eight to start. However, I saw myself go through 14 pts. one day. Don't ask me what any of their names were!

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I am an RN on long Island in NY- a community hospital- we can have no more than 8 patients.. And I can tell you that is enough!! I work 7a to 7 pm and it's like roller coaster ride from the time I get there till I go. phewww

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Six patients, on day shift, are too many, unless they are all 'walkie-talkies' who can perform most of their own ADLs and have few meds........and how often do you see THAT on med/surg??

For me, things started heading down the toilet when TPTB took pt. acuity out of the staffing matrix and started going just by the numbers. You could have four confused, incontinent, tube-fed, C. diff-positive patients and still get a post-op or a new admission, even if the nurse next to you had five stable A&O patients and was in fact sitting at the desk playing on the computer, because "it's your turn". Or, in my case, I'd have three or four brand-new patients whom I was admitting, transferring, doing post-op care on, or otherwise handling all their orders and paperwork, and I'd get another admission because "everyone else has four or five patients already and you don't have as many".:uhoh3:

God help all of you who have to care for 7, 8, or even more patients......I honestly don't know how you do it safely. I had enough trouble trying to manage 5 or 6, and that was with an aide!!! :angryfire

It frightens me to think of growing old in this country, because the elderly are often the ones who use acute care services the most, and hospitals where ratios are less than 5:1 are becoming more rare. And that will only get worse as we Baby Boomers age and the nursing shortage becomes more desperate.......something has GOT to change.

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I work on a 27 bed floor. I usually have 3 or 4 pts., sometimes 5. We are total care, no CNAs or techs. Our new CEO is about to change staffing to 6-7pts per nurse with no CNAs or techs...I think that I might have to think about changing jobs with that. I can't imagine having 6/7 pts. that are confused, incontinent....I worked too hard for my license!!

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ratio is why i got out of med surg...i would have 14 patients some times, some fresh out of surgery..it was scary when you didn't see your patient until hours into the shift b/c you always have that "one" that keeps your time occupied...i would have to tell my LPN to go check on my patients b/c i couldn't...sad ...

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