How many patients per day in US?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Dear colleagues,

Could you tell me what is the average number of patients that a US nurse has to take care of, per day?

Thank You, :D

Vincent

(Paris)

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

What type of nursing are you working in or interested in? I work ICU and have 1-2 patients per day, with the occasional 3 patients. 3 patients is rare for us.

When I worked med surg I would average 6-8 patinets. 8 being rare.

The first hospital I worked for we had 8 on evenings and up to 11 on midnights. This was a med surg unit with some tele thrown in. I could have up to 6 patients on monitors (we only had 8 monitors out of 32 beds). So we weren't a complete tele unit and we had crappy staffing and it was totally unsafe so I left.

California is the only state I know of with mandated ratios. I am not sure what the max amount of patients is for them and different specialties.

So you will receive varying responses from all across the US and specialties.

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

That answer can very greatly based on if you work med-surg or ICU, what section of the country, etc

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Depends on the area...My best friend works med-surg and she has anywhere from 11-114 pts. a day...Holy cow...

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

I work Neonatal ICU, and care for 1-4 pts per shift depending on acuity.

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Completely depends on state (California has laws regarding number of patients), area of specialty, and profit or nonporofit facility.

ICUs can be 1:1 or 1;3-4. Medsurg can be 1:4 or getting as high as 1:8-10. For profit facilities usually have higher ratios.

Places offering bonuses or significantly higher salaries usually have higher ratios or there is something else that is causing them to be unable to attract and retain staff.

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I work on a tele unit and day shift nurses have 4-5 pts, nights 5-6.

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Specializes in ER/ICU, CCL, EP.

1:1-3 in ICU

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Specializes in Oncology.

1-4 with 1 and 4 both being rare in BMT unit.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

At a nursing home (elder care facility), I have cared for 70 patients.

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At a nursing home (elder care facility), I have cared for 70 patients.

Holey Moley! And I thought that the 1:33 ratio was bad at the NH I worked in. Where did you buy your supernurse cape to be able to do that?

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