Nurse to Patient Ratio

[Qui_BSN16]

What is the legal RN to patient ratio for Nursing homes in NJ? I recently received my RN in January 2016 and was hired at a local nursing home 2 wks ago. After just 10 days of orientation I am being assigned to a floor with 68 beds currently 64 patients. This is an 11p-7a shift I will be the only RN on the floor with 2-3 CNAs. There is a RN Supervisor on staff for the entire building (3 floors total 176 beds). Is this normal? Im just not comfortable with this many patients on my own with only 2wks of experience.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

There are no legally mandated nurse : patient ratios with the exception of CA and in ICU staffing in MA. The only legislation passed by NJ is that hospitals must disclose and/or publicly report staffing ratios.

[rnaria]

That's quite high although there is no law stating what ratio is legal. Our LTC unit has around 60 beds with each nurse handling 30.

There are three PCAs and one supervisor for the entire building (around 150 beds)

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Do you work in LTC/SNF or in an LTAC? The ratio should be different since in theory, patients in LTACs have much higher acuity. We had a 60 bed long term unit in our SNF. Night shift had one nurse and 3 CNAs. These were all long term residents, mostly clinically stable. Busy for sure but doable since I moved the majority of meds and treatments off the night shift so the residents could sleep.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

All long term care facilities in Massachusetts must post the daily staffing ratios daily in a public place. The form must contain the number of residents in the building, the number of RNs per shift, LPNs per shift and CNAs per shift. We are not allowed to count 'management type' nurses like the DNS, MDS nurse, or Staff Development Nurse.

[AlwaysLearning247, BSN]

When I worked in a nursing home I had 15-20 patients, I did 7A-7P. When I worked in an LTAC (long term acute care) I had 5-7 patients at the most, as they were on vents, needed blood transfusions, etc. I wouldn't feel safe with 60+ patients personally.

[djh123]

I think that is insane unless the acuity level is quite low. That's a ridiculously low number of CNA's as well, unless, again, the acuity level is low. In my facility nurses have 20-34 residents, with 1 CNA for each 10 residents (unless we're short, which is all too often..).