how many patients?

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I just wondered how many patients other nurses in the uk are expected to look after on a shift? I'm not so much interested in ItU but more wards. I feel our nurse to patient ratio is unsafe, if I have patients I look after 14 on a shift. I work on a busy orthopedic ward, which is trauma, so a high percentage of elderly confused sick patients. Other wards I have worked your usual is 8 patients but when you are short shift (maybe about once a month) you may have a work load like this but this is every shift.

There is a reason behind this, & I have on several occassion address the nurse/ patient ratio to the ward manager, where I've been told we used to do it like that but we don't have the staff to have few patients, which I can see that point but rather then covering with band 5 bank staff we are covering the shift with band 2 band staff & not just using band 2 when we cant' get band 5 cover. Back to my reason for posting, today came on shift my ward manager was on so I didn't have to be in charge (I'm one of the ward sisters) I was allocated my 14 patients the other nurse on is newly qualifed, has a pin & this is her 3rd week on the ward & 1st week not being supernumery. The ward manager then says this am that she has a meeting & I have to oversee the other nurse as well as look after my own patients, which 2 of which were sick, plus 2 discharges & 1 admission. One of the patients came back infected so had to be transfered to the infection control ward, which the other nurse didn't know what to do, so rather than have the time to show her what needs to be done, I had to sort it out. So in reality I didn't document on the other 14 patients I was in effect looking after them. This is an awful day, but quite normal for the ward. I love being a sister & have been in post between this ward & my last ward where I was acting for a year now, but I can't cope with the patient ratio, & feel like I'm giving poor care & poor standards of documentation & am worried for my career.

These ratios might be the normal in many places & need to know if maybe I can't cope with nursing any more. Also if anyone has advice on how to handle this situation then I'd be grateful.

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Specializes in general medicine.

The nurse patient ratios (on general wards in the UK) are a sick twisted freaking joke. If you go to my profile there is a link to a blog about all this.

If the powers that be will not even admit that you need a certain number of nurses on the ward...well then what can we do but try and educate people.

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i'm just over 6months qualifed

i have 8 on a early and can have 8 if we have 3+1 on a late or 12 2+2 on a late.

The off duty is normally done for the lower ratios but due the sickness if is harder to replace a trained nurse with nhsp.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

On our surgical wards we have 6 - 7 patients on an early and late shift and 9 patients on a night shift.

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Specializes in med/surg/Haematology/MAU.

I have to say I find this on the ortho wards I do bank on too... Although most wards are very understaffed I find the ortho wards the most time consuming and ALWAYS feel as though I haven't done my job properly. I have 13 hips/knees when I do a shift on the ortho ward and the nurse : patient is the same on a late as a night, even if you have lots coming back from theatre. It just makes no sense to me at all. Like you say it's unsafe.

Now if I work on the renal unit I will have 9 patients, general surg usually 8 BUT this depends if I am the only person that can do IV's etc THEN i will have my patient load plus all the iv's.

I wish we could all look after eachother (nurses) better :)

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Specializes in ITU, Surg, District & School Nurse.

I work on a surgical NHS ward and have 9-10 pts on days and 14 on nights, terrible ratios as just about get time to do drugs and hands on care but no time to do care plans and writing

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my last 2 shifts were complete oppisites to each other. both ealrys i had 5 pt with a support worker lots of time for showers baths and to properly engage, deal witha new pt talk to hom/his rel take time with notes do w/e jobs etc, dressing etc.

2nd was with 8pt lots of meds all low slef care with hygiene. got everything done that was needed but meds not finished as timely as the previous shift as most pt had a high number of drugs or less meds and needed assistance to take them and a peg and insluin to adminster. My notes for the 2nd shift i feel suffered due to this. feel like a drive by nurse when things are like that.

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Can I ask, when you say you have 8 patients, does that mean you have to do all of the care for those patients ie obs meds ADL's etc or do you have an unqualified helping you with the ADL's?

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Specializes in general medicine.

On an acute medical/care of the elderly ward we have 25 patients with 2 nurses and 2 care assistants. That is an early shift. So yes you do have some help with ADL's but not enough IMHO.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.
Can I ask, when you say you have 8 patients, does that mean you have to do all of the care for those patients ie obs meds ADL's etc or do you have an unqualified helping you with the ADL's?

On our surgical ward we have health care support workers to help with ADLs as well, usually 2 per 18 patients in addition to the qualified staff

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On an acute medical/care of the elderly ward we have 25 patients with 2 nurses and 2 care assistants. That is an early shift. So yes you do have some help with ADL's but not enough IMHO.

OMG that is ridiculous. On my ward which is for 28 patients (acute medical ward), although sometimes we have 29, we have a shift coordinator, plus 7 nurses, minimum of 3 registered then the rest are made up of enrolled diploma (can give meds) and assistants in nursing (can only do limited obs, adls, no meds, mainly do specials so they are not always counted in numbers, to assist with patients that are requiring more care or at risk of falling etc).

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On an acute medical/care of the elderly ward we have 25 patients with 2 nurses and 2 care assistants. That is an early shift. So yes you do have some help with ADL's but not enough IMHO.

2+2 on a early for 25

we have 4+3, or 3+4 if we don't have enough trained on a early for 24.

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