How do you cover sick calls and staffing ratios

[staplin]

I am the technical advisor to the nursing department in a charity hospital in Cambodia. We provide free medical training to health care professionals while providing high-quality free care to the poor of Cambodia. We have been in existance for nine years and our nurses have reached a level that they are ready to take on more patients. BUT change is difficult. I am from America so my experience is based on that system. We are trying to find solutions to cover for nurses who are sick and also find a realistic patient/nurse ratio. WE have very little technology as the country has not yet recovered from the horrible atrosities of the Pol Pot Regime (the country lost one fourth of its population due to starvation, torture and murder. Most medical people were killed and all educational materials were destroyed as well as all religious material and the majority of their monks were killed. Most educated people were also killed). I have read the responses about staffing issues, but see very little response from other countries besides US. If there are nurses working in other countries it would be helpful to know your nurse ratios. Otherwise...my question is what does your hospital do in the event of nurses calling in sick. Do you have education days, do you have call and how does it work at your hospital. What do you like or dislike about it. Thank you so much for your help.

[talaxandra]

Welcome to allnurses :)

Wow, that's huge. I work in Victoria, where we have mandated ratios, which vary depending on the acuity of the hospital. In tertiary acute care it's 1:4 during the day, 1:8 at night on the wards, and 1:1 in ICU.

The wards have an availability list, where ward staff can indicate that they are prepared to work extra shifts. Great in theory, rarely utilised in practice.

My hospital has pool of nurses who function as an in-house agency and are the first port of call when there's a short fall.

Failing that we use agency. If there are no agency staff and it's a weekday morning shift the charge nurse acts as resource. Sometimes the PM staff are called and asked if they can come in for the morning instead, but this is strictly voluntary. If nobody can work then we work over ratio for a couple of hous until beds can be closed, either by transferring patients out of the unit or closing beds after discharge. We never work over the ratio for more than a shift.