Nurse to Patient Ratios

[andersbri]

What do you believe to be an appropriate, safe, and effective nurse to patient ratio? At my facility, floor nurses have 5 (rarely, 6) patients an assignment. Of course, depending on the load, this can feel overwhelming, or be unsafe. Do you feel this is a comfortable and/or safe ratio? What kind of ratios does your unit see? What kind of ratios would you like to see?

[Triddin]

That's a fairly common ratio, if not a pretty good one. When I was med/ surg, our ratio was 4-5 during days and 5-6 during nights. This was without care aids/ techs

[klone, MSN, RN]

There is no one easy answer, as it depends on the area of nursing and the acuity of the patients. I work in OB, and we follow AWHONN's staffing guidelines. 1:1 for a woman in labor; 1:6 for stable uncomplicated postpartum moms or babies.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

It really depends... When I worked in LTACH I would feel like crying if I got a 5th pt; in traditional med-surg, 5 pts was pretty comfortable (unless I had more than one with a new trach or a lumbar drain which required q1hr emptying/leveling.)

I absolutely cringe when I see people here talk about 4-5 pts in stepdown... that is a FLOOR ratio -- not a stepdown one!