Hi all, do you know a hospital that is practicing what is being preached. Decent ratios so that patients and staff are happy and well cared for? For example, anyone here have 1 RN to 4 pt ratios?? On their general med/surg floors??? How about 1:5??? Is it all RN or mixed with LPN???
I heard that Kaiser Permanante had advertised at one time this. Is it still true????
Do you believe that if ratios were practiced like this that more nurses would come back to hospital nursing?
In my area there are none of those good ratios for staffing and that is why I got out of hospital nursing and went to correctional nursing. We have a lot of inmates that we see on a daily basis but we don't do direct patient care like you do in the hospital. If our inmates are that sick then we will send them to the hospital where they belong.......
I remember the 1:4 ratio -- and miss those days. Nurses will FLOCK to facilities with ratios like this. Nurses leave the bedside for two major reasons -- staffing & benefits.
My hospital has 1:3-4 on days and 1:4-5 on nights as it's goal and just recently filled it's last position for M/S. I think there is an opening for ICU or OB but not sure. Anyway, when we guaranteed hours and got a good ratio the nursing shortage became much less of a problem.
I wish staffing ratios were not such a problem. I think I might enjoy med/surg if I was assured only to have 4 pts. Typically, in this area I see med/surg nurses who are overworked and burning out extremely quickly!
RN alone can take up to 6, RN/LPN team takes up to 10.
This is NIGHTS on Peds med/surg.
As the LPN I actually feel bad having to team because even though there are two people responsible for 10, each FEELS responsible for 10. I think RN-4, RN/LPN team-8 would be great.
It really bothers me to have to 'ignore' pt requests because I am too busy with so many others. I would leave in a heartbeat if staffing ratios were better elsewhere
I work days on a cardiac stepdown/telemetry unit and the ratio is 1:4, if you have tpc it is 1:3. Some days are good, others are too busy. Lately it seems like ICU, with no time to eat, breath etc..
Specializes in medical oncology and outpatient surgery.
I live 7 minutes from a small county hospital, dont know what their ratios are, people say why do you drive 30min to Indy to work when you live so close to county hospital? Because ratios are 4:1 days, 5:1 eves, 7:2 for pods, 6-7max :1 for nights(no pods) . Its a good thing!!!!
psychonurse
291 Posts
In my area there are none of those good ratios for staffing and that is why I got out of hospital nursing and went to correctional nursing. We have a lot of inmates that we see on a daily basis but we don't do direct patient care like you do in the hospital. If our inmates are that sick then we will send them to the hospital where they belong.......