What is your nurse to pt ratio....and how many is too many?

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

I work on a surgery floor. We have everything from lap nissens, choles, appys to lung/kidney/hips. You see a lot of different things. If you work on a unit like this....what is your average nurse to pt ratio?

Specializes in Med/Surg, Orthopaedics,.

I work in a private hospital on night shift. Ratio 10:1. Things have changed over the years as it seems our hospitals are focused on the dollar. We seem to be running all night these days and I think people who make decisions about staffing levels forget that patients do not all go to sleep once the lights go out.

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Specializes in midwifery, gen surgical, community.

I work on a 30 bedded ward - surgical. We usually have 14 or 16 patients to each RN with a 2 HCA's to help each RN. On lates we have 1 HCA to help each RN. Nights where evaluated and we now have 2 RN's and 2 HCA's, before we only had 1 HCA.

Our ward has just been given dependency audit and we are 11 nurses short - what a surprise. Still expected to do the work though.

If you want no breaks, exhausted staff and complaning relatives come to the UK to work.....:o

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I'm in the Uk too on a 30 bed gastro/endo ward. Lots of de-toxers, and our trained staff/patient ratio is 3:30 on a good day, though normally 2:30.

We have 4 HCAs/Cnas in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.

Yesterday day however we had 5 trained, 3 untrained and 3 students!!!

Strangly enough yesterday was also the day that the DoN was showing the local newspaper around the hospital, gosh I wonder if the two were any way connected???????????????????????????????:idea: :idea:

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I am on nights on med surg and the average is between 5 and 6. Add admits and call offs it can go to 7 easily. I am ok with 6 but after that I go home with the feeling that I did not give the best care I should have. It is really difficault at times because even though we are a large hospital, we are still on paper charting but computers are in the works for November and should ease the workload somewhat.

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Specializes in Psych, substance abuse, MR-DD.
I can't believe that some of the hospitals don't allow the CNA's to blood sugars, I/O, weights, etc! I work on a medical care unit and we do the blood sugars, the vitals, weights, I/O's, and things for the nurses and it really seems to help them out.

I know!!! We do all that as well as hang feedings and do dressing changes! I can't imagine having the nurse have to do it all!

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In clinicals on the first floor i was on (we just switched) it was 4 patients it was rare to see a 5 patient load though it did happend to one nurse once. I would like to say that I think having students should also come into play with assignments. When you have newer students it slows the whole process down quite a bit at first. ( and only second quarter so nobody flame me) I always feel bad when one nurse gets more than one student. We take longer to pass meds, set up IV's and do a lot of things for quite awhile. It can make the day a lot less organized I have noticed.

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Specializes in Family Practice.

I have had 12-13 pts before. But we had a med nurse and a CNA for my "hall". Not only surgical pts but I also get the pediatric pts. Thank God for the CNA making rounds b/c on days like this I usually only get to see my pts about 2 times the whole shift....dayshift too. Then all the admits and discharges. Whew....Im transferring to OB tomorrow:)

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On days it's usually 3-4 WITHOUT a CNA. If we have a CNA, then it's 5-6.

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i work in a subacute unit and am responsible for 13-14 pts everyday

i run from the time i get in till an hour past time to clock out but i love and have learned alot working med-surg

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I work on a med-surg/ortho floor...we sometimes have team nursing and our ratio is 8:1 (with an LVN and a Tech)..sometimes 1:5 (without and LVN and with 1 tech)...RN's do all the the charting except of vitals and I/O's (this is the tech's responsibiltiy)..The LVN will do all the PO meds, dressing changes/treatment.....Sometimes working without an LVN works better for me.

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is the 4:1 total primary nursing? we have 6 or 7 patients but have techs doing all the adls, we even have advanced techs that can place foleys and do dressing changes... but the unit is always hoppin!

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I work onc and med/surg night shift. we have 4 nurses on the floor total (thats usually 3 RN's and 1 LPN) for 28 patients, so we each get 7. For 28 patients we have 2 patient care techs at most. We (nurses) do all assessments, documentation on paper, dressing changes, all meds. The techs are usually very busy, so we do a lot of getting people up to the bathroom, ambulating them in the halls, etc as well. I dont mind it at all, only when i am so busy that i can't sit down or pee, or eat for 12 hours. We also do our own chart checks.

The most time consuming task, though, is passing meds. we have computerized MAR and usually only 1-2 computers working on the floor so we have to share...takes me at least 2 hours to pass my 9pm meds!

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