Staffing levels

Nurses General Nursing

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Yoo Hoo:kiss

Does anyone out there have any formulas for working out staffing levels per unocccupied bed. We are looking at our present levels and need all the help we can get

Specializes in Med-Surg.

We are not allowed to "staff for admissions", meaning expecting empty beds to fill up. However sometimes we can get a nurse to come in for a partial shift to help at the time that most of the admissions are expected. But of course I think we should be able to staff the empty beds when you know they will be filled(and always are).

good luck

For my unit we are told we have 31 beds and they will stay filled, so we take it all from peds and ortho to med to gyn no questions just deal with it and if we are short on staff then the ratio of staff to pt. goes out the window bottom line is how many can you get out the door we have pt.'s in PACU and the ED we have had pt.'s in the hall waiting for the pt. to be discharged for the bed

Our turnover on pt.'s is insane out of 31 beds M-F we will empty 10-12 beds daily and fill them back up in less than 12 hours on most occasions.

OK sorry for that run on I guess what I want to say is that we have no set staffing level or formula.

Peace............Billy

We staff for admissions. Each floor has 32 beds with 4 pods of 8 on each pod. Depending on acuity we staff 4 nurses on each pod or 5 if acuity is high. If there are 5 RN's on a pod then there are two one to one patients. Otherwise it is 2 to 1. Rarely do we have an empty bed for a full shift but if we do we still will have 4 nurses. The extra nurses just helps everyone out. We are very lucky staffing wise but we get hit often. Being a level I trauma and teaching center.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

No staffing for admissions in my unit. We are staffed for present acuity and either eat the difference or beg and (occasionally get) help. But this is an OB unit and things are a bit different here. When it gets really hairy and scary is when said admission is a sick neonate and we haveno nurse to care for him/her.

Specializes in ER, ICU, Nursing Education, LTC, and HHC.

We staff according to current census. There is the minimal required based on the census, and if an admit comes then others wiliing tohelp out. When alot of admits are expected an extra nurse will be scheduled. Ratio can be up to 40 patiens per nurse, but generally have 22-25 each. CNA can have up to 15 patients but have more like 10 -15

Monica, 40 patients per nurse???? That's just impossible! Is this a hospital, nursing home or what? How can you possibly take care of that many? You can't! If you value your license, you'd better get out of there! That's just plain wrong!

40 pts per nurse? Are you sure about that?

It is perfectly obvious that different institutions are handling staffing in such a wide variety of ways that some of them must be doing it wrong. On the other hand some must be doing it right. If they don't straighten up and start following somesort of guidelines it is inevitable that the law is going to step in and make them all fall in line. Right now the standard is that there is no standard. Up until now when bad things happen due to bad staffing they just blamed the individual nurse and went their merry way. Nowdays they are not getting away with it.

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