How many patients?

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Hello all,

I am currently an aide on a telemetry unit and when I graduate in May I am hoping to work on the med surge unit in my hospital. I did a clinical rotation there and one of the nurses there told me she usually gets 5 patients. I would like to hear from other RN's how many patients they usually take care of. Five seems like a low number from posts I have been reading.

Thanks to all who respond

I don't think nurses should to pay a price in regards to ratios & staffing just to live somewhere sunny. anyways, there's plenty of sunshine in CO, just no beaches! :)

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Specializes in MICU, neuro, orthotrauma.

Ortho/MedSurg floor. 1:4-5 with a tech taking no more than 8.

Only once have we stretched to 1:6, and that was due to the flu that recently swept through the hospital.

I am moving to another state (PA) and am concerned about the ratios I see listed in threads like this. It's unsafe for have more than 5 on a typical MedSurg floor. Tele should never have more than 4, and StepDown should be 3-4. With techs, of course.

In Houston, I worked a neurotrauma floor and our load was 1:7 with one tech taking up to 12 patients. It was extremely dangerous. It was my first job so I had no idea how bad it was until I was given the ability to do an excellent job caring for my patients at my current place of employment.

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5pts to 1 nurse but our max is 6pts.no secretaries at night.you have to arrange your charts if you have admissions.

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Specializes in Med/surg, pediatrics, gi, gu,stepdown un.

We are now told by our DON that we are going to go to team nursing no matter what you want to call it. I imagine we will have to take up to 12 patients with 2 nurses and 1 tech. It is going to be unsafe again.

Communication is the key but when you are very busy with transferring patients or giving blood transfusions I am afraid we will be overwelmed.

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Specializes in Medical surgical, women's health,tele..

I work 4-midnight on a med-surgical tele floor and usually have 7-10 patients.We may have 1 or 2 aides to work with 28 patients. Another RN and LPN to pass meds. A unit clerk until 7.Here lately, I have been doing med passes as well as patient care. I have been a nurse for a year and it is very overwhelming. It seems this is the norm in most hospitals. I love taking care of people but not when I feel I can't do it safely because lack of staff. A few of the other older nurses have said you just have to deal with it. Not sure how to take that.In school they talked about protecting your license and let the supervisor know when you need help. I have found out this often falls on deaf ears. If this is the norm I need to know how other people make it through without risking their license and juggling all the mess.

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Specializes in Med/surg, pediatrics, gi, gu,stepdown un.

It is very hard to manage that many patients. That is not safe staffing.

The hospitals sure want to take peoples money but do not supply the appropriate staff. You may want to find another hospital work at if you can because chances are it will not change. Sorry!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Urg Care, LTC, Rehab.

I work in a "smaller" hospital, a regional medical center which is in an outer-lying suburb of a metropolitan area. '

On days we have typically 4 patients, evenings 4 patients, and nights 6 patients. If staffing is tight, add one more to these numbers. If staffing is good, subtract one, but bet you're first up for an admission.

I know these numbers seem so good, I know it sounds lame.... But we run our tuchas's off. We do our own IV starts, do our own admissions, and since it's a general med/surg floor, we have a huge variety of patients. Usually a rule out MI, hip fracture from a fall/dementia, colon resection, and an etoh withdrawal--some crazy mix like that. We never have enough nursing assistants. Our supplies are often not stocked. And our patients are often spread down two or three very long hallways.

Why does a load of four patients seem like such a huge load???

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Specializes in med/surg.

I work nights on a med/surg unit with 40 beds. We can get anywhere from 6-10 pts/per nurse... days/PMs usually tries to assign no more than 5, but it varies with staffing...they often have students, though...

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Specializes in med surg.

I think that some of our staffing is due to being in a magnet hospital because the hospitals I worked in for clinicals has much worse nurse to pt ratios that we have.

During days the usual is 1:5 and 1:6 on nights.

They try to have a charge nurse out of staffing, and MR and we always have a monitor tech. Tues-Friday we have a discharge nurse which is so nice!

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Specializes in med-surg.

Usually 5-7 on days and anywhere from 6-8 on nights. Have had up to 10 pts one night with no charge nurse....

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Specializes in ED/trauma.

6:1 on days AND nights

There are 4 med/surg/tele units, each with 3 pods that have 12 patients each, so 2 RNs to a pod. (We have a few LPNs who will share the pod with an RN and share pt loads depending on tasks.) On days, each pod has a CNA. On nights, all 3 pods have 0, 1, or 2 CNAs.

On short days... 4 nurses have 7 pts & 1 has 8 pts. Nurses 1, 3, & 5 are on a single pod, while nurses 2 & 4 are split amongst the pods:

Nurse1 has 7 pts on A pod,

Nurse2 has 5 pts on A pod & 2 pts on B pod,

Nurse3 has 7 pts on B pod,

Nurse4 has 3 pts on B pod & 4 pts on C pod, and finally,

Nurse5 has the remaining 8 pts on C pod.

It's a nightmare having to go back and forth between pods... :no:

If we have hall beds, the nurse on that side of the pod takes the pt, so s/he may end up with 7 pts on a "normal" day.

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Specializes in ED/trauma.
I work in a "smaller" hospital, a regional medical center which is in an outer-lying suburb of a metropolitan area. '

On days we have typically 4 patients, evenings 4 patients, and nights 6 patients. If staffing is tight, add one more to these numbers. If staffing is good, subtract one, but bet you're first up for an admission.

I know these numbers seem so good, I know it sounds lame.... But we run our tuchas's off. We do our own IV starts, do our own admissions, and since it's a general med/surg floor, we have a huge variety of patients. Usually a rule out MI, hip fracture from a fall/dementia, colon resection, and an etoh withdrawal--some crazy mix like that. We never have enough nursing assistants. Our supplies are often not stocked. And our patients are often spread down two or three very long hallways.

Why does a load of four patients seem like such a huge load???

When I saw you only had 4, I thought, "I wish!" We also do our own IVs and admissions, so I was still wondering what the problem is! Your mix of pts, not enough CNAs, and supply issues explains the "huge load" though.

Our med/tele pts are relatively stable (I know this is a loose term in nursing/healthcare...). Many are gero and confused or severely HOH which can be frustrating, though, our mix seems a little less acute than yours.

Also, I work in a suburban/community hospital in a upper middle class part of town. Much different mix than those in the center of town!

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