awesome nurse pt ratios

[sassy_cassie]

Does anyone have awesome nurse pt ratios. At my PRN job the staffing is great. It is med-surg. although it is a small hospital so we have swing, peds, and hospice on medsurg. We don't have an IV team or pharmacy after 1800. We have a nurse and an aid for every 6 pts, but if census is close to 6pts per nurse they won't low census anyone. Last time I worked we had 12 pts, 3 nurses 3 CNA's and a unit secretary. We also have a house supervisor to help out dismisals, transfers, and any problems we have. Since it is such a small hospital the house supervisor helps out quite a bit, becasue there are only a couple of units and the med-surg is the biggest.

[I_love_my_job]

Sounds like great ratios to me! If we had 12 patients on our medical tele floor then we'd have 3 licensed nurses, 1 CNA, 1 secretary. We are the largest floor as well, only 98-bed hospital. The house super has started a few IVs and that's about it. No IV team here either.

[ParvulusPuella]

I'm in the CCU. We have 20 beds, but try to keep the census at 16. for 16 pts, we'd have 4 RNs, 3-4 aids, and 2 unit coordinators. If we had some really difficult patients, we can get a float nurse to come help (like for 1:1s, etc)

[Quidam]

I have never had more than 4 patients. LOVE IT!!!

[grateful2010, LPN, LVN]

I have never had more than 4 patients. LOVE IT!!!

Which unit do you work on?

A friend of mine has four patients per shift, she works with patients on vents.

[HappyNurse2005, RN]

well, when i was on labor and delivery, it was often 1:1. now im in community health/case management, so i have a lot more!

[AlynnSN]

Was just talking to an aide today at clinical on the med/surg floor and the hospital just had a new company take over and they are making their lives hell she said.

1 aide per 10pts from now on (they do 12 hr shifts and might have to go to split 6 hr shifts so everybody can keep their job)

16 patients today with 2 RNs

New company thinks there are 131 full time employees too many in the whole hospital with 12 of them being in med/surg

Boo!!

[BraeRN]

I work nights in a small hospital too. Our med/surg floor is also the telemetry and peds floor and I think we have around 32 beds on the unit. At night we can get up to 7 patients per nurse. If it isn't too full we may start out with 4 or 5 and those of us who do get those low numbers will be the first ones to get an admission. If the census is still "low" by 2300 then we will downsize and send a nurse home, "splitting up" their patient load among the remaining nurses. We usually have a unit secretary and 2 CNAs but if the census drops really low then the secretary and one of the CNAs will be sent home.

I miss the unit I was on for my second med/surg clinical rotation..Only 4 patients for each nurse.

[WhiteScrubs]

Children's hospital in my area has max staffing policy of 4 patients / nurse, with fewer in high acuity areas (PICU & NICU are generally 2:1).

Based on discussions with current nurses there, they almost never have to stay past shift end to finish work/documenting. Not the case at most other local hospitals.

[AprilRNurse]

We have incredible staffing according to what I've read on this site. Med surg generally has 4 pt's if they work alone, or 5-6 on an LPN/RN team. Our CCU staffing is never worse than 1:2, and our vent pt's are ALWAYS 1:1, and our DKA's usually are too.

I'm looking at moving states, and I worry about finding another job I'll love. Compared to what I'm used to, sounds like nursing conditions are horrible most places.

[Flipper911]

I had a VP of Nursing tell me once that if the med/surg floor is short the nurses there should be able to handle up to 16 patients. The she wondered why pt satisfaction was so low on that unit.

[soon2begrad2010]

Well I live in Florida and the hospital where I work at will give nurses up to 13 patients at times.