another agency adventure

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Went to a hospital for agency gig today that I have never been to before. Got assigned to 7 rooms. Does that seem like a little much? Even med-surg nurses usually have only 6, right?

Almost kept up. The staff was helpful, but a couple of nurses said that agency nurses almost never come back.

Do you think that 7 is a little much?

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Specializes in LTC, med-surg.

Are you talking about 7 patients orseven rooms with 2 beds each?

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I am working med surg right now and the pt. load here is usually 5-6 patients with a CNA.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

six rooms with one room being able to hold 2 patients, so a total of 7 patients. These are not fast track rooms either. You can get anything.

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Mom doesn't work agency, but she is a med-surg staff nurse and she occasionally has 10-12 patients on the nights they are short.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

California has a law that mandates nurse:patient ratios. I believe ER nurses can take no more than 4 patients. 7 sounds like a lot to me. How many did the other nurses there have?

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Specializes in Emergency.

How many patients did the other nurses have?

And let me tell you something about the California ratios: It's good in theory, but not all hospitals obey the law. The penalty is so minimal that it's cheaper to pay the fine than to hire the extra nurses that it would take to stay in ratio.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma.

7 rooms by yourself or with a team? We do have assignments of 8-11 pts, but they are staffed at a minimum of 1 RN, 1 LPN, and a tech. Any of our assignments that are staffed with only one RN are capped at 4 pts max.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

The first four hours there was a float nurse, but she was floating for 15 rooms. Also a couple of techs for the whole ER. The other nurses had 4 rooms each. They told me that the "team" I had was bad, but I didn't have the guts to say "why give it to me then"

A couple of nurses did say that agency almost never comes back after their first trip there.

It wasn't the worst place I've ever been, but I'm miffed that they gave me the "worst" team.

Probably did it to see if I could handle it.

Every where else I have been it was 4 pts only.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Hey Gonzo - seven rooms for an ER is way too much much. ENA states 4:1 ratio at most and then you must factor in acuity. I used to do agency in Chicago and I would get five rooms but they were considered the "minor" rooms. I was lucky.

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It is common for personnel to assign the bad assignments to agency nurses. These mgmt personnel do not use their heads. They are well aware that agency nurses won't come back to a place where they are treated poorly. They also know that agency nurses get a good look at their facility and form opinions on whether they would care to work there as permanent staff. They are also aware that they go back to their agency and tell the agency staff how they were treated and what working conditions are like. So why do they do this to agency nurses? It probably has something to do with why they are shortstaffed to begin with. Facilities that treat their employees well, through word of mouth, are pretty much well staffed without having to go to staffing agencies.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.

Expected to have 7 patients (at one time) in the ED I now work. Left the old place because of the patient loads and now have it worse. Guess I'm going to have to start looking again. No, you shouldn't be expected to have 7-It is way too dangerous for the patients and your license. I don't know about you; but, I am expected to take care of the ICU & high need patients in that mix of 7 (no matter how many of them turn out to be critically ill).

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