ICU nurse to pt ratio "norm" on your unit?

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I know typically ICU nurses get 2 patients standard. I'm curious how it is on your MICU unit?

At my hospital I would conservatively estimate that a good number of the MICU staff have 3 patients 65-70% of the time.Staffing is generally the pits.

Specializes in Mixed Level-1 ICU.

Too bad you hadn't called the director after the manager refused.

Now only you guys and the manager are accountable. The big fish are always in the "dark."

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Specializes in Critical Care Baby!!!!!.

I totally agree with you! However.....Thank God I was not working there anymore when this incident happened. Things like this happen all the time though. Things really need to change. As I mentioned before, nurses are patients GREATEST advocates. I know one thing for sure....if I had been working that night I would have called "safe harbor". I worked too hard for my license.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I used to work on a Progressive care unit. On that unit we typically get 3-4 patients. Sometimes I would get two vent patients who could be rather large, drips, all sorts of crap going on. Anyhow, we had this one patient who was trached and he had been on our unit for a while before being discharged. Well, he was discharged but came back because he had too many secretions. The guy pulled his trach out three nights in a row. So on his final day, because yes it was it final day, he got smart and pulled off his leads and then pulled his trach out. The nurse that day was busy with one of her other patients and no one at the desk had looked at the monitor to see that the leads needed to be replaced. Needless to say, after the nurse was done with her other patient she walked into this guys room and he is dead. So what was management's solution? Hire more staff? Nope, they put someone at the monitor who would call the nurse if leads were off...very annoying because they never called the aides. So glad i'm not on that unit anymore.

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Specializes in ICU-my whole life!!.

Where I work is currently 1:1 or 1:2 depending on acuity. Each team has a min of 12-15 RN (days) and 11-13 (nocs) plus some LPNs and techs. This is in a 24 bed ICU. Lately, we been getting the short end of the stick by having to go help the ED or other floors...

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Specializes in ICU, Pedi, Education.

There is NO WAY I would work with true ICU patients with a nurse to patient ratio of greater than 1:2. If we had overflow patients that were less sick...then I would take on more patients as long as patient safety was not compromised.

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Wow, I thought I worked at the cheapest hospital on the planet!

They like to say--often--"we allow for 2:1 nursing when able" but the "budget" is alsaws 3:1, and now that it is pneumonia/COPD season, we are all getting burned out. We have an outbreak of accinobacter, and the whole unit is in reverse isolation, for almost 6 weeks now, making it even more stressful.

one of the most frustrating aspects is that we just got magnet status last year, which all the urses I work with are convinced that status was "bought" and is a joke.

Don't get me wrone..I love my job and the MICU--it's just a VERY stressful time of year right now.

Sorry, had to vent for a minute! :bugeyes:

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Specializes in Mixed Level-1 ICU.

Someone should get up the courage to tell the Magnet Certification people that your ICU is regularly 3:1 and details about your ID restrictions.

No proper ICU that cares about patient outcomes will staff that way...no matter what the "budget" dictates. Maybe it's time to reassess the "budget."

And you're right, all these awards are, in large part, tailored for a win.

Your infection rate may be due to the fact that the nurses are too overloaded and are not likely to practice good hand washing because they're too busy running from room to room.

Do you actually care for three sick vented patients during your shift?

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yes, i agree that someone should notify the magnet council. nurses think the status is just a joke; it means nothing. i don't usually have 3 vents, unless they are all long term gomers. i could have 2 vents and an overdose, or other benign patient. or i could have one bad vent/sepsis with pressors, one long term vent, plus whatever er throws at me as pt number 3. i swear we're not paid enough!

they have yet to find the source of our bug, but i have a hard time believing it is due to the nurses--the infection control nurse is on the unit constantly and running to the unit director if someone so much as hangs a gown on the doorknob while running to get insulin or whatever. it is very strict isolation, unless you are a visitor, lol. people hang out at the desk in their gown and gloves waiting to flag down a nurse, despite being educated 2-3 times!

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Our standard ratio is 1:2 for our 12 bed unit.... but if there is an in house code or an RRT which involves an ICU transfer we have to flex up..... Our ER has had to hold ICU patients because of lack of nurses in the ICU.... I don't know what the best answer is but I Know that putting more stress on the ICU nurses is not it..... It's definitely a pt safety issue

:paw::paw::paw::typing

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Specializes in ICU.

I work in the UK on a general ICU. We currently have one to one nursing for level 3 patients. On the HDU where I used to work we had one nurse to two patients, even if they were unstable and needed lots of input.

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Specializes in SRNA.

1 RN to 2 patients. I haven't seen it deviate from that in the 6 months I've worked in the unit. I work a mixed MICU/SICU.

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All "ICU" patients are 1:1. All "HDU" patients will be 1:2 (what constitutes ICU and HDU is another story) ALL ventilated pt's are 1:1. Always.

Staffing here (like any ward) is an issue but we deal with it as best we can. We do overtime (only if we want to) and have an on-call roster to help cover retrievals. If we cant staff the unit, Nursing Admin will get us staff (sometimes very reluctantly!) or some poor bugger from the ward will get flicked up to us. The casuals/ward staff will have HDU patients and core ICU staff will staff your vents/critically ill patients.

That being said, I work in a public hospital in a regional area in Australia, a very different system to that of the US (from my understanding). Our Management do give a damn (they know its on their head if we cant staff). Just last night (while i was doing my arvo/night double!) i had to forward a call onto the Team Leader from an irate anaesthetist who accused her of putting patients lives in danger by not having a bed for a post-op, and subsequently tried to lecture her on the state of the health care service. Do the maths mate, all 12 beds full = no more space for anyone. We ended up having to push a pt that wasn't really wardable up to the wards at 3am to get this post-op (now you tell me that accepting that ICU patient and therefore pushing the "ward" pt out isn't putting their life at risk?)

needless to say, i don't ever see myself entering into management :nuke:

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