Help, is it legal to have only 1 licenced person on a surgical floor

[CMILLRN]

Hello, I am in desperate need of advice. I am a new RN, I work on a surgical Floor in where my ratio is 4-5 pt per nurse. The problem I am having is rather than closing our floor which usually runs with 2-3 RN'S. The powers from above pull one nurse and leave only one RN on the floor with a student nurse aide. Is this even legal? I know that each state is different but any opinions would be greatly appreciated

[meandragonbrett]

You would need to call your board of nursing.

[SnowStar4]

It's like that most of the time I work. In fact, right now we have one RN and one SNA (student Nurse associate)

[Argo]

Probably only feels weird because you are a new nurse. A confident experienced RN would likely have no issue caring for 4-5 patients with no one else on the floor but an aide. Need to give blood? Call house supervisor for the second licensed check off. Same goes for other things like this. I personally would love to be alone on my own floor with 4-5 patients rather that have 6-8 with 4 other ahole nurses around gossiping rather than caring for their patients.

[BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Our hospital poliy is 2 RN's always,..even if there is only one pt on the floor. The rational is that if there is an emergency one can call for help one can help the pt. We usually close a floor if possible when the census is that low.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Our policy also is never less than 2 RN's. Never.

One RN on the floor is just too risky - something could happen to the nurse, more than 1 patient could go bad at once.....any number of things could happen.

Either your state's BON or reviewing your hospital's policies and procedures should clarify the matter.

[lkwashington]

Its good to have more than one RN on the unit if the floor started to get busy and where I work the RN have to do the intial assessment. This would too much for one RN to handle. You are a new nurse.

[SanFranSRNA]

I am not sure about having only one RN on the floor. What about breaks? How do you cover breaks with no RN on the floor. There should be at least 2 RN