Nurse Patient ratio in NJ

i believe they do save money that way. also i think its easier for staffing, ex-like a day lpn can not follow a night lpn. so that an assessment (fall) gets done once a day by an RN. and also they can only have one LPN on a unit at a time. i don't know theres a lot of political B.S. in hospitals. plus i heard that in the next year or two they are only hiring BSN and not ADN's. i have my ADN but am going back for my MSN in an excellerated online program possibly next yr. but if i didn't i think i would be grandfathered in. in fact i think a lot of hospitals are now requiring BSN's only so no associates degree RN's are even considered and def not LPN's. most LPN's working in nursing homes in my area

Somehow we as nurses have to push toward better staffing ratios. I work in a subacute facility where it is common for a floor of 32 high-acuity patients(PEGs, trachs, IV ABTs, wound vacs, life vests) to be staffed with 2 nurses and 2-3 CNAs. We have no secretary and no charge nurse. All we have is one supervisor over the whole house(4 units). We do our own admissions also. Since our manager likes to hire new RNs, I frequently find myself (an LPN) basically keeping track of all the patients on the floor. I do everything the RNs do except mix TPN and d/c PICCS. And that house supervisor- is an LPN on the weekends. When we ask about better staffing we get told that two nurses is perfectly legal and then we get reamed out for asking. The patients and families complain constantly and what can we do? We're so busy we never get breaks much less have time to explain facility policies. I can't believe that national nursing organizations aren't on this and trying to make changes. It's unsafe and a lot of days my coworkers and I look at each other and ask why we got into this. And- get this- we're supposed to be one of the better facilities. New Jersey- pay attention and improve health care in this state!

the state of NJ is too busy increasing our property taxes.