How many patients?

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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

Specializes in Float.

I've been a nurse for a year on a tele floor. Everyone has some cardiac issue although sometimes it's not their 'current' issue. We get GI bleed, stroke, etc. But majority are CHF, CP, things like post pacemaker, post thoracic surgery, etc. 95% of the time I have 7 patients..occasionally 8. Here lately the charge is taking the same load.

I usually start 1-2 IVs every night, if there is an admit I have to put in their hx and have them sign some paperwork, list their meds etc. The secretary puts in the orders. We have 1:20 CNA ratio..so they do what they can. Here lately we've only had 1 CNA for 40 patients at night ... so we do a lot of our own toileting, etc. If we only have 1 CNA we do our own I/Os. We always do our own VS... q4.

Sometimes I feel whiny taking this load....but I do think this is wayyyy too heavy. I can't do as good a job on charting... because I try to put the patient care first.

Sadly - days is getting this same load more often than not..they have have a few more CNAs.

I can handle 5 patients no problem...stay caught up, chart properly, look up all labs, etc. Those extra 2 just slam me :(

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

I agree 7 patients is too much to handle. The CNA are also over worked and we have such a turn over of CNA's on our med/peds floor because they have to take care of to many patients too. We sure can take our patients money but can not provide the care. I hope that medicare finds out about this and does something but they probably don't care either. The whole healthcare industry is going south.

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I work on a 44 bed Med/Onc floor. We typically have 4-5 pts on a day shift and 5-6 on a night shift. Day shift has 4-6 Patient care tech and Nights has 2 PCT's with a 3rd coming in at 4:00 a.m. to help us with lab draws etc.

We are very vocal about pt acuity. It doesn't happen often but if we have a pt requiring an exceptional amount of care we do let the charges know and the rest of the assignment is adjusted when possible.

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Specializes in Med/surg;correctional;nursing homes;OR.

when I worked in NC hospitals, The nurse Patient ratio is 1 to 7 on the acute care Med/surg units. When I was in California the nurse patient ratio was 1 to 5. Now...you may say... 5 patients is a light assignment, sometimes it's not, because you may have all heavy patients.Five heavy patients feels like having 8 patients.

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

Thank you to all who have replied. It seems it depends on the part of the country you live in for the amount of patients you get.

I just got back from pinning tonight. I am still looking for my first job in med-surge here in NH. Seems the nursing shortage is not as bad in the Northeast.

Thank you again

Heather

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Specializes in ER,PLASTICS,OR,TELE.

Move to California or do some travel nursing here. We are union which means we have ratio laws. No more than 5:1 for non tele patients. The salary is much higher here than in the most of the country and the weather is great! There are so many hospitals in such a small area you can move around alot until you find your ideal unit. Good Luck. I Love my Union.

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Specializes in Pain Mgmt.

I work on a surgical unit (primarily G-I patients). We average 3-4 days and evenings and 5-6 nights. 2 CNAs days and eves and 1 CNA on nights. I think this is a reasonable load for us.

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Specializes in ER, Medicine.

I work nights and we typicall have 6 patients. However, at times we do have 7, or 8 as the "norm." I remember a few times where we had 9 a piece...including the charge nurse!:bluecry1:

But I'd say 7 average for staff nurses. 5-6 average for the charge nurse.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Transplant, Education.

Nurses on our medical floor seem to have 5-8 patients, depending on the shift.

Usually days is 6-7 nurses (including a charge nurse with a full load) and three techs

Eves is 6-7 nurses with 2-3 techs (3 is optimal, but doesn't always happen)

Nights is 5-6 nurses with 0-2 techs (I'm a tech now, and worked one night where there was three techs...we were so thrilled we didn't know what to do with ourselves!)

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Specializes in Med-Surg, ICU.

1:6 - this is the normal ratio for my hospital. Everyone in a while - we might get seven - but only if the other 6 are "low care" - which might I add is a joke!

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Peds: 3 - 4:1 On nights we have no aide so we do everything ourselves.

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Yuck! I feel sorry for you girls. In our hospital it's 4:1 on days, occasionally 5 if we are in a pinch! 5-6 patients on nights. I think I'm spoiled!

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