Med Surg Nurses: How many patients do you care for?

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Hi all! How many patients are you allowed to care of at a time on your med surg floor during days or nights? In our hospital, on days, we go up to 6 and night shift can take up to 7. Just curious. I work at a hospital near Chicago.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.
I am going to be starting nights, they have 5-6 patients/nurse and no PCT...I am a wee bit nervous, No PCT on nights is that common and doable?
Well, it really depends... all it takes is one serious 'sundowner' to eat up buckets of your time... and lots of patients choose the 0300-0400 time to crump...

You'll come to rely on your fellow nurses... you'll only survive working as a team.

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Specializes in 1 PACU,11 ICU, 9 ER.

I work in NZ and our ratio in ED is 1:4 or 1:1 if they are in resus or really sick. In the US I worked various ED's and it was normally 1:4 or occassionally 1:5. I cannot imagine working a floor and having 4-7 pts!

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Specializes in FNP/FPMHNP-BC.

Well one night I had 18 patients on a med/surg floor. NYC. Usual was 8 and above.

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I work in med surge/ acute care and I have 17 patients days with 2 cna. And same for 3-11. We have wound care galore, Iv, wound vac, admissions and discharges. Most have a drain of some sort etc. they all go to therapy daily. But I manage. This is in New Jersey

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Specializes in SICU.

at my high accuity hospital even 4 is too much. 3 is tolerable.....

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Specializes in LTC, Acute care.

6 patients, 7 only when we're short and Float pool has nobody. 6 is difficult enough especially when they all think they are your only patient, I'm giving med-surg another year and half and I'm out!

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Specializes in Acute Care, CM, School Nursing.

At the hospital I left last year (in NY), a typical med/surg floor would operate like this: One RN on each end of the hall, and an LPN in the middle. Each RN would have 6 of her own patients. The LPN in the middle would also have 6 patients.

HOWEVER, this hospital didn't "allow" LPNs to do a lot of things. According to some LPNs that worked there for years, the hospital had only recently started this "LPNs aren't allowed to do anything" business. In the past they had done lots of things. I'm not very familiar with the LPN scope of practice, but apparently there were things that LPNs were qualified to do, that this hospital still would not allow!

Anyway, the LPN's assignment would be split between the 2 RNs to "oversee". The RN was responsible for anything the LPN wasn't allowed to do, which was basically everything except meds (Unless there were IVP or something). The RN was responsible for doing any documentation, assessments of any kind, making/answering any necessary phone calls (LPNs were not allowed to speak with doctors, lab, etc on the phone), taking/giving report, etc. So, as an RN on a med/surg floor, you were actually responsible for 9 patients! It was so stressful. Rarely, there would be an RN in the middle, and that was a huge gift! No disrespect to the LPNs, but it was just human nature to be grateful to "only" have your 6 patients. Many of the LPNs there are so experienced and knowledgeable. What a waste of their skills! :(

I thank God every single day that I no longer work there.

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I am a new nurse, just graduated in may, and I was 4 weeks into a 12 week orientation taking 6 patients on med/surg with little help from anyone. It is very difficult because I felt like I was being neglectful in a way-not knowing enough about patients and then having to give report on them made me feel ashamed, I felt like I wasnt being the nurse I wanted to be-not thinking, not making smart decisions, just following orders like a robot as quickly as I could with all this pent up anxiety. I almost walked out one time when i heard that I was going to have 7 patients, I would have to assess 4 other patients assigned to LPNs, and I had no aide for the totals yet I had aides for the walkie/talkies-gee, real helpful. I laughed at my preceptor when she told me all this and I really felt like I had had enough. I was seeing that everyday each RN would never have no less than 6 patients-even 7 or 8 if someone called out. I dreaded going in knowing that I would always be taking care of 6 patients and thinking I will never feel like I am doing a competent job. So I quit and will be on a unit that will have 4-5 pts.

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I'm not a nurse yet; I graduate this summer in Maryland, but I am so glad you all are talking about this. It's interesting to hear your perspectives on how many patients are too many!!

Make sure you ask hospitals what the nurse to patient ratio is in the interview because 6 all the time is exhausting and you will dread it!

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I work within the military system on a mixed hem/onc med surg overflow ward. We are allowed 4 hem/onc-ers at a time (which is a MESS if you're giving lots of chemo) and 5 med-surger-ers at a time (which is also a mess if you've got complete care patients). The standards down the hall on the pure med/surg wards is 5 patients each, but most of the time, nurses have 3-4 patients. I know that our ratios are much better in the military than they are out in civilian nursing. And even though the military has its own set of unique problems, I thank God I'm in this system and not on the outside!

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7-8 on a med/surg floor in NJ

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Usually 6 med surg here in GA and I gotta tell you, most days its so overwhelming you don't know whether to cry or laugh hysterically.

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