How many patients is too many?

[remotefuse]

I gave report to a travel nurse today on a med surg floor. She had 6 pts total. Upon hearing this, she was very upset. Her first question was to ask how many pts every other nurse had, then why she had 6 and others had 5. During report (which took over 1.5hrs) she kept asking if I could do things that are assigned to day shift, like changing the tube feeding, and a picc dressing change. It's already an hour and a half of talking to her, so just I flat out told her no. I don't think it was a ridiculous load, but she seemed to. Any input is greatly appreciated!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

How many patients is too many? It depends on the acuity of the floor or unit.

Five years ago I was offered a floor nursing position on a med/surg floor with oncology overflow at a small town community hospital. It was for night shift, and the nurse/patient ratio would have been 1:7 to 1:8. I did not accept the offer.

California is the only state with nurse/patient ratios for hospitals. In any other state, 1:6 is a common med/surg nurse/patient ratio. I personally will not work at a place that expects me to take 7 or 8 patients on a med/surg floor.

In addition, since the facility is paying more for travel nurses, agency and PRN staff, the scheduler tends to assign them the extra patient at many hospitals. Since these nurses earn the bigger bucks, they also get the slightly larger patient load.