How is your unit staffed?

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Specializes in Adult Acute Psych Inpatient.

I work in adult acute inpatient setting. We get the worst of the worst. We are the only unit that takes ED patients. I work nights. At night, it's 16-20 patients, myself (RN), my LVN, and my MHW/MHT (mental health worker/tech). When census hits below 13, it's just me and an LVN or a MHW.

On days/swings it's 5:1 so there is an RN, LVN, and two MHW's. More staff for a one to one patient of course.

How is your unit staffing set up? Just curious...

Side note: We do not use agency staffing. Everyone is either FT or Pool.

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I work acute adult at a VA hospital. 14 beds on our Pod. I work days. Today we had 3 RN's, a LVN and a tech, plus we had a person in seclusion so we had another staff assigned to him.

At another hospital I worked at we had a total of 28 beds, if we were full we would have 2 to 3 RNs, or 2 RNs and a LVN, and 2 MHT, then they started cutting staff d/t low census, and it became unsafe, somtimes they would leave me alone on the unit with patients - time to go... not losing my license!

Everywhere is different, depending on if its privately owned or a Gov. type job. I know at the State Hospitals in CA, they are cutting staffing, and it is very unsafe at most of them.

Hope this helps.

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I'm in a Dallas suburb and at the facility I work at we have a total of 90 beds. 14 are classified for geriatric's, 34 are classified for adolescents (12 beds as adolescent overflow) and the remaining 42 beds are classified for acute care, a detox unit and high functioning psych patients.

I work nights on the geriatric unit with 1 to 2 tech's depending on the census or the acuity of the patients. If I have a 1:1 patient I may have an extra tech or LVN. All the other units have only 1 nurse and one MHT.

There have been alot of shady things going on here. The unit I worked on last night is usually the kids unit which holds 22 patients, but yesterday they decided to change that since the census for the kids unit was 7. Instead they housed the boys and girls together in one unit (against policy) instead of being separated that way they could admit more adult patients. Two weekends ago they apparently lost count of the census and admitted more patients than they had beds. And to top it off the nurse that was scheduled for the kids unit called in and the ADON requested another nurse from another unit pull the meds for those patients and let the MHT's give the meds!

Needless to say this place is unsafe and I'm in a pickle!!! What should I do???

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Specializes in Psych.

I work in a 14 bed locked unit on the thrid floor of the hospital. Days and eves if above ten, 3 nurses and psych tech, nights 2 nurses and a psych tech. If census falls below 10, no psych tech, and if below 7 two nurses and psych tech. Always have two nurses on nights. Nurses can be combination of RN and LPN, right now we are all RN staff, (the former LPN me has been an RN for three weeks) If we have a 1:1 sometimes on nights we get an extra tech, depends on the rest of the unit.

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The unit I work on is an acute adult (PICU). Max is 22. Staffing matrix used includes MHT's. For 15 or less= 1 RN and 1 MHT days. For 16 or more= 3 staff persons which would be 1 RN and 2 MHT's. I have cared for 21 pt.s with 1 RN (me), 1 LVN (meds) and 1 MHT. Unit consists of ED's, OPC's, detox., potentially agressive patients. This is my first psych job so I don't know what staffing is in other hospitals or if this staffing is adequate or not.

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Specializes in Psychiatric- Detox and ECT.

I work acute inpatient and it depends on the unit. Our geriatric unit for 20 Pt's max- 3 RN's 2 care providers (PCP's). Child/adol unit 4-5 RN's and 5-6 PCP's (usually this unit holds 30ish Pt's), and the other units are about the same as the geriatric psych unit. Plus staffing for acuity and 1:1's/q5 and q10 min checks.

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Specializes in Psychiatric- Detox and ECT.

That is staffing for days and eves. Nights is usually 2 RN's and 1 PCP.

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Specializes in Psych.

Adult general Psych Unit 26 patients Days - 2 RNs - 1 LPN - 2 CNAs

Nights - 2 RNs - 1 LPN - 1 CNA

Adol. Unit houses up to 18 patients Days/Nights 1 RN - 1 LPN ( if census above 13 they try to add a PCA for days)

Geriatric Unit 16 patients Days - 1 RN - 1 LPN - 2 CNAs

Nights - 1 RN - 1 LPN - 1 CNA

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