How many Pt do you take care of?

psalm, RN · Jul 19, 2005

I'm in Soutwestern Michigan on a medical/oncology floor that has 50, yes, 50 beds! We are the dumping ground for our hospital. I work 11p-7:30a. On a good night I have 5-6 pts, but usually 7-8 pts per nurse, and we share Nurse Aides...they usually have 9-12 pts. Our floor is more like a mini-step-down unit and the acuity is usually high for 70% of the pts. Oh, we TRY to have the charge nurse take 1-2 pts. less than what the rest of the RNs have. And most nights we have an LPN med nurse who does all meds except IVP. She/he will do tube feeds,CAPS and NG meds. We try to focus on team work, and when everyone is like-minded we can do it. There are nights when I feel like I have so much to do I don't even think about a break, let alone a lunch!

wa-rn · Jul 27, 2005

In Wasington, I work noc shift in a hospital floor of 15 beds, min of 4 pt's max of 8 or 7. Usually 2 RN's with 1 aide (2 aides if census of 14 or more) not bad unless all 7 pt's want to use BSC all at once

Stella-Ohio · Jul 27, 2005

7p-7a Med Surg with Telemetry Beds.

Staffing calls for up to 9 patients per nurse (I have seen that happen) but average is more like 5-7.

STNA's have their own staffing levels. (1 up to 15 patients adn 2 above that)

IRN · Jul 28, 2005

Med/Surg & Orthopedics

Maryland

12 hour night shifts

6-8 patients

1 Patient Care Tech for each patient

If we need to do primary care (for lack of staffing) it is one nurse for 3-4 patients.

The ratios at this floor are much better than places that I have previously worked.

AtlantaRN, RN · Jul 29, 2005

Med/surg unit 6 patients and share a tech with another nurse

fayetteville, GA

Hospital

twin#2 · Jul 29, 2005

We have a 5 pt ratio (I work medical/oncology). This is in California where we have legally mandated ratios; our "Governor" the Terminator has tried everything in his power to overturn this but lost every battle thus far. They fear that as California goes other states will follow. Glad I was born in the Golden State.

perfectbluebuildings, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2005

Peds general medical/infectious disease floor (so many isolation pts! :) ), and it is usually 4-6 pts per nurse. There are 2 CNAs on the floor as well, who do vital signs and I&O and transport patients to tests and to discharge- they work hard! it is very much teamwork from what I have seen so far on my unit. I think I am very lucky in where I am starting out, considering what I read on this thread and have heard from other "old" nurses as to how their first jobs were.

lee22 · Jul 30, 2005

Northern Ontario- On a med-surg unit-we have 4 pts on days, 5 on weekends and 7 @ night. We have no techs, rpns or HCAs. It's manageable. Used to work on a neurotrauma unit (all fresh paras and quads) and we have had nights where there was only 2 of us and each had 18 pts (working short) Can you imagine why I left?

Dave11, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2005

ER in a community hospital in Massachusetts.

the majority of the time no more than 3 or 4 patients. has spiked as high as 8, but those times were due to an unusually high number of high acutiy patients. get patients started and hand them off when others free up.

grace90, LPN, LVN · Aug 19, 2005

What is you Pt to nurse numbers? What state are you in?
Hospital or ECF?

I'm in West Michigan and I'd rather not state my hospital. I work 11-7 on a med-surg floor. We usually 6-7 primaries, occasionally 8 plus we have to cover 2-4 patients for the lpns. Plus we only have one patient care assistant for the whole floor which can hold up to 40 patients. They do the vital signs, and answer some of the lights but they are spread very thin most nights. They really work pretty hard and most of the PCA's run their butts off!

grace90, LPN, LVN · Aug 20, 2005

I'm in a large teaching hospital in MA. The med/surg floor I'm on uses a team nursing model, so each "team" has 8-10 patients, with one RN, one LPN, and one CNA. I think that is pretty good!

That sounds terrific to me! Especially if all 3 work well together as a team. I would love that! :chuckle :rolleyes: :coollook: :) :rotfl:

copnlpn2 · Aug 20, 2005

I work in a long-term/skilled nursing facility where any of our 99 beds can be skilled beds. Last night I had 32 patients under my care and of that number, 21 were skilled patients and 7 were residents with behavior problems related to Alzheimer's disease. I had two patients fall and I sent another two out to the ER in respiratory distress.