Med Surg Staffing Standards - Are there any?

[Ginger35]

Hi,

I am fairly new to management. I manage a 27 bed Med Surg floor and I feel like I can never achieve a "balance" between being overstaffed vs understaffed. I have a good idea and have come up with my own staffing matrix - but wonder if there is any literature or group or organization that gives their perspective on staffing ratios on the Med Surg floor.

I belong to the Med Surg Nurses organization (AMSN) - however, when I go to look up staffing standards, all I get is a "position statement". ~ This is very frustrating.

I know that acuity will come into play, however - I would just want some sort of direction to go that is fair and safe for my patients, nurses, and fair to my department as a whole.

I really hope someone here can guide me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Ginger

[ajessrn, BSN, RN]

No standards that I am aware of. Depends largely on your patient population. I work on a med-surg floor that sometimes feels more like a step down unit, so our patients can be pretty acute and require a lot of time. our night shift ratio is 5:1 and 6:1 on a bad night. Even been known to take 7:1 in really bad circumstances, but those nights i feel like i want to quit and go back to waitressing or some other job i had while in nursing school and so do all my co-workers. but then we come back in and have a good night some where down the road and it is all better again. until the next time . It has been a long time since I've had a night that bad thankfully. The group of nurses that currently are on my floor are awesome at teamwork and we all pitch in when someone is drowning.

So I agree about getting your staffs input and keeping them informed of what is required of you. They might surprise you with their resourcefullness and teamwork towards the goals you have to acheive together. Because you do have to achieve it together. No one person can do it alone.

Good luck.