medsurg nurses, how many admits/discharges on a typical shift?

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Hello all, m/s nurses out there, how many pt admit and discharges on your typical shift? And just curious what state r you in. Thnx.

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

This is really going to very heavily on what type of med-surg floor it is. For example, when I work neuro med-surg, I may have no discharges all day, and maybe just 1 admission. Whereas when I work on the general medicine floor I may have 2-3 discharges and just as many admission. There really is no standard.

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I work med/surg in VA. We are called a surgical floor, but we do get a fair amount of medical patients as well. The turnover really depends heavily on the day and surgical schedule. Typically, I come in and take 5-6 patients. Most days I'll have 1 or 2 discharges and then take a couple of post-op or ED admissions after those patients have left. I've had days with no discharges/admissions, however, and some crazy days where I've discharged all of my patients and gotten a whole new set of them by the end of the day.

I guess the moral of this story is that there really is no such thing as a typical day on med/surg... :-)

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

I work during night shift on a general medical floor. I'd say 3 admissions is an good average but many times we get more. I work in SC.

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Rural Central TX. It's been several years, but the heaviest admission day (a Friday) we got 9 admissions (only 20 beds to start with :D)- and I was the only RN w/3 LVNs. Discharges? Maybe 2-3 (evening shift).

I made the mistake of telling the doc who had gotten stuck with the ED admits that I thought it had gone fairly smoothly compared to how it could have been- he looked at me like I'd just thrown gas on a fire. He said "Well NOW you've done it" :eek: It kind of startled me. He was always very calm, and fun. He went on "I'm on call this weekend, and it's gonna sxxk now that you've said THAT". On Monday, he came up to me and said "I want you to know that I had the worst on-call weekend of my life" and walked off :D He got over it :up:

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Specializes in Family Medicine.

I work the 3-1130 shift.

Sometimes, I start with 6. Discharge 2. Admit 2. Really frustrating if the discharges were "held onto" by day shift (and none of the paper work is done).

Other times, I start with 5, get an admission during shift change (ED or PACU will be calling report while I'm still in report with the day shift nurse). Could still have to discharge and might get another admission.

If you start with 4, it's really scary because this means you will be slammed with admissions.

Fridays usually suck. One time I came in and had to discharge 4/6 patients. The charge nurse gave me the first admission (during shift change before I even discharged anyone) because I was discharging so many patients. So, I went up to 7 and then had to bust my balls to discharge 4 and admit 1 while not neglecting the other 2. The charge didn't help me at all.

Wow, med/surg sucks.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

night shift, telemetry, 1-3 admissions, no discharges (of course!)

ETA: you wanted M/S only...oops.

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Specializes in Med Surg.

I've walked on shift with 2 admits waiting on me and ED trying to call report before I can even get report from the previous shift. Of course I have 4 other patients as well and just when I think I can finally catch my breath, I get another admit. Since I work nights there are generally no discharges. I work med/surg/telemetry in Indiana. And Noyesno, you are correct. Med/Surg does suck! I have to believe that not all nursing is this way. My goal is to find a new position by the end of the year!

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WOW! I feel bad for you guys! I work on a Tele/post open heart unit and I have 3-4 pts. 1/2 the time i discharge one and admit one. When I admit 2 it's a bad day! Never admitted more than 2 in a shift. I work 7a-7p in Georgia.

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have had days where every patient is discharged and all their beds where filled up before i left. very rough. (5 patients)

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Cardiac.

Yeah, I've had days when I discharged all 5 of my patients and got 5 new ones too, but that's not common. Today I discharged 1 and admitted none. Usually somewhere in between. We're cardiology with a lot of general med-surg patients too.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
Hello all, m/s nurses out there, how many pt admit and discharges on your typical shift? And just curious what state r you in. Thnx.

MN. On evenings, it is not rare to have 2 d/c and admits. Makes for a hectic night.

Days I might have one d/c and one admit in a shift. Common to have none.

NOC: Rare admit.

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