Intermediate Care Unit question.

The way my facility defines it (or seems to treat it) ...... It's like a stepdown unit.... Pt acuity isn't enough for the ICU, but is too much for the floor. Staffing is generally 4 patients to 1 nurse. Depending on the size of the facility, each ICU may have their 'own' stepdown. In fact, our neuro stepdown (only 4 beds) just opened 2 weeks ago.

I work in a pediatric IMCU. Mostly our pt load consist of kids with trachs, either on vent/cpap or just trach collar with warm/cold mist. We also get GI kids. Most of the kids come from the NICU or ICU. We only have 6 beds, which seem to always be full, so we staff 2 RNs and a PCA. These are high acuity kids that shouldn't be on a regular floor unit.

Thank you for your input. :) So it's kind of inbetween a regular floor and an ICU? I just wanted to know what kind of unit it was. I'm having trouble finding a job in the Boston area, but I have a friend who can get me a job in Springfield on an Intermediate Care Unit. She said that the nurse-patient ratio was 1:5, rarely 6...I thought the ratio wasn't too bad. Are ratios like this on an IMC the norm? Thanks again! :)