Calling all Surgical/GI Colo Rectal Nurses!!???

Published

Hello RNs.

I would like to get some feedback from any nurses that are working on surgical/GI Colo Rectal units.

I am particularly interested in the patient to nurse ratio and Nurse aid to patient ratios. Tell me a little about your aid responsibilities, do they draw labs, ekgs etc? Do you have IV teams, Lab teams, PICC teams? How is patient acuity measured?

Why do I ask?

I'm working on a surgical floor with vascular/plastics/gi colo-rectal pts. Our floor used to be vascular/plastics and recently inherited the gi pts. The workload has increased dramatically and I'd like to hear how other RNs feel about their staffing resources and what works. Heres how we are running...

RNs- responsible for IVs, PICC maintenance etc. All meds.

Aids -Responsible for all pt care, Lab draws, EKGs.

Nurse to patient ratio 1:5 days

Aid to patient 1:10

All feedback welcome....I want to make my floor a better and happier place!!:cry:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in peds and med/surg.
Hello RNs.

I would like to get some feedback from any nurses that are working on surgical/GI Colo Rectal units.

I am particularly interested in the patient to nurse ratio and Nurse aid to patient ratios. Tell me a little about your aid responsibilities, do they draw labs, ekgs etc? Do you have IV teams, Lab teams, PICC teams? How is patient acuity measured?

Why do I ask?

I'm working on a surgical floor with vascular/plastics/gi colo-rectal pts. Our floor used to be vascular/plastics and recently inherited the gi pts. The workload has increased dramatically and I'd like to hear how other RNs feel about their staffing resources and what works. Heres how we are running...

RNs- responsible for IVs, PICC maintenance etc. All meds.

Aids -Responsible for all pt care, Lab draws, EKGs.

Nurse to patient ratio 1:5 days

Aid to patient 1:10

All feedback welcome....I want to make my floor a better and happier place!!:cry:

Hi,

We have all the pt populations you listed plus gyn surgery, breast/soft tissue/endocrine, and oral surgery...plus the occasional neuro overflow and several medicines.

Our RN's are responsible for IV's, PICC maint etc and (any blood draws for central line pts), all meds...but we also do labs at night when the lab is closed, our aides can't do that or EKG's. Our Nurse to patient ratios is 1:6 and our aides have anywhere from 10 to all 36...depending on staffing. We have lab til 10pm and an IV nurse weekdays until 11pm, however we have to try before we can call her, b/c there is only one of her and our hospital has 11 floors.

Hope this helps!

Angel

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Progressive Care.

Unit =colocrectal, gyn onc, uro onc (just about all are surg pts)

ratio=4:1

aides 10ish:1

RN's do assessment, meds, PICC line maintenance,IV starts, the occasional EKG, and a great deal of teaching, especially with new ostomies

Aides do most pt care

Phlebotomist draws most labs

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I would like to get some feedback from any nurses that are working on surgical/GI Colo Rectal units.

I am particularly interested in the patient to nurse ratio and Nurse aid to patient ratios. Tell me a little about your aid responsibilities, do they draw labs, ekgs etc? Do you have IV teams, Lab teams, PICC teams? How is patient acuity measured?

Why do I ask?

I'm working on a surgical floor with vascular/plastics/gi colo-rectal pts. Our floor used to be vascular/plastics and recently inherited the gi pts. The workload has increased dramatically and I'd like to hear how other RNs feel about their staffing resources and what works. Heres how we are running...

RNs- responsible for IVs, PICC maintenance etc. All meds.

Aids -Responsible for all pt care, Lab draws, EKGs.

Nurse to patient ratio 1:5 days

Aid to patient 1:10

Our floor is very similar to yours except we have telemetry as well, and we do get other surgeries such as TURPs, ENT, etc. But the majority of our surgeries are GI/Colo/Rectal.

Our ratio for days is typically 5:1, Eves 5:1 and nights can be as high as 7:1 for RNs. We usually have 2 Aides scheduled for days and eves (10:1) overnights it can be just one aide for the whole floor. Aides do not do any lab draws or EKGs. If the pt has a PICC and is an RN draw, the RN draws blood, otherwise the phlebotomist from labs does lab draws. We don't do EKGs, they send someone up to do this as needed. We do have an IV/PICC team.

Your ratio sounds right about on target. It can be a very heavy/busy floor, especially when you have several brand new post op admissions.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion