I know this is a hot topic, but I am interested is some debate as well as healthy discussion on nurse to patient ratios on a general mixed medical & surgical unit.
As most of you know, I am a nurse manager and my unit is 40 beds. We have a total of 20 surgical beds and 20 medical beds. Most of the time, the medical census remains pretty stable, while the surgical census fluctuates all the time.
We have a general nurse to patient ratio of 1:5-6 on days and 1:7-8 on nights ..... with this we also have a secretary and nursing assistants with a CNA to patient ratio of 1:12 on days and 1:16 on nights. I think these are pretty decent staffing ratios and am interested in getting some feedback on what your med-surg unit is doing.
Thanks!