how many patients

Nursing Students Technicians

Published

I have been hired at a floor where it is way short staffed, and the ratios are horrible,,I am new to the hospital experience and wanted to know what ratios you all have

I am a PCT on Tele floor and I am responsible for 17 patients!!

How many do you guys have?? What floor??

yup!!those wards with 14+ patients IS hell!!!and you can NOT do your job properly. It's just not fair to the patient.

This sounds horrible! Eek! Lol i work in a rehab unit 30 bed unit 5 RNS and 5PCTs on the floor 6 -8 max ratio

yours sounds wonderful!!! :up:

The ratio was 1:15 at the SNF I was at during school. Many people were taking short cuts and, in my opinion, giving less than mediocre care.

I know how you feel! When I first started on my floor over a year ago, we were so understaffed that there would be days I would have 22 patients and be expected to train a new PCT on an extremely heavy med/surg floor. Keep in mind that this was my very first job as a CNA ever. Now things have gotten a lot better, and at worst I will have 10 patients. It is not safe for our patients though. I was constantly talking to managers about how dangerous this was when I would have this many patients! Nothing happened for months, but after some management changes things changed for the better. Hope the same happens for you!

In the ICU I usually have 10-12 patients. When I floated I found it varied from unit to unit, it also varies depending on the shift. Day shift has less than night shift, or evening if you have that shift. Some units you were going to have 12-16 patients automatically every shift, other units it was 8-12.

I've been doing this long enough and in enough different settings now to know anything more than 12 is unsafe if you are responsible for things like vitals and glucose checks, drains, I/O, etc. More than 12 I usually just adhere to a policy of CYA. In other words when there was stuff I needed to get done, I let the RNs handle the call lights. Trying to be the hero and get call all the call lights while trying to get through vitals and other stuff is a great way to miss something or take too long and have it come back to haunt you. If the RNs don't like it, they can press management for an extra tech.

OUCH! I am in women and infants post partum. We are short staffed as well. On average I may have 12 patients at the most. The most patients I've had on a given assignment was 15. I couldn't imagine having 17 patients I would be a crazier person LOL.

I usually have 10

THANKS!! I am so glad you can understand!

Ha!! So true!! having this many patients is crazy!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO true, unfortunately our RNs have selective hearing and NEVER answer the lights. We get a "call light report" after our shift and it tells how many lights were over a minute. if it says 8 or so all that means is NOONE HELPED US!!! One PCT can't meet then eeds of 17 patients properly.

I have learned CYA----OH yes!!

I can just see them saying well, the good news is your call light report was great, no call lights went over a minute. The bad news is it took you 2 1/2 hours to get through one round of vitals. One of your patients colostomy bags burst because it was so full, you were late repositioning half your q2 turns, missed a glucose check on a patient whose blood sugar turned out to be 32, and one of your patients ended up having a rapid response called on them because it took you so long to get their vitals and reveal they were going septic.

But hey, you did manage to shut off a bunch of call lights for patients who wanted something you had to get the RN for anyway.

+ Add a Comment