What is the maximum number of patients per nurse?

[Info(RN)matics]

Worst Case Scenario:

1. What is the maximum number of patients per nurse on your Medical/Surgical floor?
   
2. Which shift?
   
3. Which state?
   
4. How often do you find yourself in such a situation?
   

Background:

When our nurses explained to our DON that it was not only unrealistic, but also unsafe for one nurse to take care of 12+ patients with minimal help on the night shift, he said that we were much better off than many other hospitals. Is that true?

[jdp949net]

dayshift ratio max 5:1

nightshift ratio max 6:1

2-3 techs for 30 beds

1 floating charge nurse/team leader (myself)

Pennsylvania

[Krista09, BSN]

I'm on a 38 bed general medicine floor

day shift RNs have 4-5 patients with 5 aids on the floor, same for evenings

night shift RNs have 6-7 patients with 3-4 aids on the floor, we never have more than 7 patients at night

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Day and night are both the same on my unit. We have a total of 7 pts each but mostly 6. We also have 5 tech, and a charge (he/she) does not take pts. Charge will do IV's,admissions, discharges etc. We also have a unit secretary for orders until 11:30 every night. We are a 36 bed unit. I am in SC.

We are not a typical med/surg floor tho.. Our pts are renal pts and a huge percent are totals due to BKA's and AKA's etc...

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

Days 1:4-5 (5 max!)

Nights, 1:4-5, but allowed to have a max of 1:6 after 11 if necessary

Charge is typically out of the numbers.

[GoNightingale, BSN, RN]

I work night shift, in Florida and in Med?Surg; Max. pts. I've gotten is 7 and charge nurse took 3 patients. Twelve patients is down right unsafe for the patients and for your license.

Believe me, there are better places to work!

[NuteRN]

Where I work in Maine, the max I get is 7 patients, sometimes less if there is a Vent patient, but not always. I work nights, I think day shift gets 6 pts max, or 3-4 with no CNA.

[nyrn5125]

our med surg telemetry in ny and the ratio is 8:1

pt's on dobutamine and or dopamine gtt less than 5 mcg. cardizem, heparin, post cath's and ablations

2 days post avr's, chf... kinda jealous of the other ratio of 4-6

[Iheartadvice]

21 beds, 5 RNs, 1 floating charge and we're supposed to have 3 but end up with usually just 2 techs... 1 on nights. Ratios with nurses stays pretty much the same between night and day shift.

I also can't believe some of these ratios!

When I'm just 5:1 I don't feel that I'm able to be the nurse I've been hired to do... We're a general medicine step down unit... A mix of everything, lots of needy patients who can't do much for themselves though and if you mix in one or two patients who are critically sick or admissions and discharges, even just 4 patients seems like a heavy load!

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

our med surg telemetry in ny and the ratio is 8:1

pt's on dobutamine and or dopamine gtt less than 5 mcg. cardizem, heparin, post cath's and ablations

2 days post avr's, chf... kinda jealous of the other ratio of 4-6

Your floor sound bascially like cardiac step-down, I can't believe they would allow you to have 8 pts with those kinds of drips and diagnoses!! Scary!

[kayakmary]

12 Pts per nurse w/ no tech. sounds like a travel assignment I did in Memphis, Tn about 7 yrs ago! I was told by the nurse manager of the floor that I was working on that "any less than 15 is considered a good night." I told her that "it's a good night if nobody dies." Many a travel nurse at that hospital backed out of their contracts because of staffing issues. I'm working on a Med/Surg unit now and the average is 4-5 MAYBE 6 but that's rare! We usually have at least 1 tech.

[BluegrassRN]

I work on an acute medical floor in a small community hospital. Our average census is probably in the low 20s. We take tele (but aren't responsible for reading it). The only drips we can have on the floor are heparin and insulin; everything else needs to go to stepdown or ICU.

We have 1-2 aides on nights, depending on our census and the number of nurses. We start out the night with 3-4 patients per nurse, going up to 5 and very occasionally 6. Charge nurses take a full load of patients, but we typically get the less acute, more independent ones.

Days will go up to 5 on occasion, but they like to keep them more at 3-4. Always at least one aide, sometimes up to 3, on the floor, depending upon the acuity of the patients.

[ReWritten]

wow. Reading some of these makes me sooo jealous. 32 bed M/S unit. I typically get 5 pts, the most I've gotten was 7 (talk about feeling overwhelmed!). No secretary after 11pm, and we're lucky to have 1 aid. Only time we had 2 aids was when one was still on orientation. This is in rural Texas.