med surge staffing ratios

[findingmywayRN]

Hi,

I just found out about a rural hospital med surge unit that is 11 patients per nurse on all shifts. Each nurse has an aide, though not sure about nights. Some aides can do vitals. The pt population includes peds. What do you think about this staffing? Thanks.

[SarasotaRN2b]

Oh my God! On my med/surg floor nurses have usually four patients during the day, maybe five if we are short, and the charge nurse will pick up a patient. Patient care is the most important in our hospital. And with our CEO being a nurse, she is very attentive to the fact that nurses be able to care properly for their patients. If I heard about a 11 :1 ratio, I'd be out of there in a NY minute.

Our nurses are busy enough with the patient load that they do have. Patients these days are coming in so much sicker than in the past. We also are the respiratory portion of the hospital, and many of our patients require Oxygen. There is always a few patients with pneumonia.

[dqbanrn]

We all know there is a nursing shortage and the schools are not graduating enough students to meet the demand. It is likely the ratios will stay high or move higher. At some point, I hope the ANA and nursings other governing bodies publish limits for these ratios. There is nothing in the nurse practice act stating specifically that 11:1 is unsafe and until there is, until it is simply illegal to do so, i believe we will continue to see these numbers. Im not sure what the solution is to graduating enough nurses, but thats an issue for a different thread.