Floor nursing vs ICU nursing

Specialties MICU

Published

Do you think ICU nursing is as STRESSFUL (crazy, hectic, etc) as med/surg floor nursing? I realize ICU nursing takes a great deal of knowledge and the patients are more critical, . . . .I need an opinion on med/surg patient ratio of 8 patient to 1 nurse as opposed to 2 or 3 patients to a nurse.

What does it really take to be an ICU (MICU, SICU) nurse?

Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

I have worked ED, Psych, ICU, day surgery, recovery. My busiest job was ED. It was a county hospital with 350 visits per day, so we had no down time. I work med surg now and it is VERY BUSY. We maintain a 5:1 ratio on my floor. As you would expect the majority of our patients are elderly, falls, confusion, pneumonia, wounds, etc. There is just no down time. The nurses are hopping all the time. When I was first a nurse 30 years ago I started out in med surg for 1 year on a 42 bed floor staffed with 2 RN's and 2 CNA's but that was way before all the documentation and equipment requirements that we have now. I would say that med surg is one of the most challenging jobs that I have ever had.

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Specializes in CNA/ ALF & Hospital.

Hey gals! I was tolod that there will be 1 RN per 2 pts. and there is an 8-10 bed ICU. That would/should mean there would be 4 CNA's to 4 or 5 pts. ? This is for Neuro ICU floor and if this is true, then that sounds whewwwww, alot better to me that if I were to go back to reg. med/surg floor. But then again, I'm just a CNA for a PCT (Patient Care Tech)

Kim

Certified Nurse Assistant

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Specializes in ICU, Research, Corrections.
Hey gals! I was tolod that there will be 1 RN per 2 pts. and there is an 8-10 bed ICU. That would/should mean there would be 4 CNA's to 4 or 5 pts. ? This is for Neuro ICU floor and if this is true, then that sounds whewwwww, alot better to me that if I were to go back to reg. med/surg floor. But then again, I'm just a CNA for a PCT (Patient Care Tech)

Kim

Certified Nurse Assistant

Unfortunately, Kim, most ICUs don't have any PCT or NA. If a unit does, the

ratio is more like 20:1. Sometimes there isn't even an unit clerk at night.

I am not following your logic in the above post for 4 CNAs to 4 or 5 patients.

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4-5 care partners for 8-10 patients? Riiight. Maybe on the eve of December 21, 2012.

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Specializes in CNA/ ALF & Hospital.
Unfortunately, Kim, most ICUs don't have any PCT or NA. If a unit does, the

ratio is more like 20:1. Sometimes there isn't even an unit clerk at night.

I am not following your logic in the above post for 4 CNAs to 4 or 5 patients.

Erlanger has PCT's which is a CNA & they Do work in ICU units there alongside the RN's. the unit I will have is an 8 bed unit and there will be 2 techs (cna's) per 4 patients and each RN has 2 pts.on that shift for that unit so....that means ea. tech will have 2 RN's to work alongside with on their shift!

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Oh i love ICU regarless of how stressful it might seem. It's far better than having six patients that i i might even find difficult remebering all their names and which is which when the docs come in..lol

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

I'll take my 3 ICU patients ANY day over 8-12 floor pt's at night! At my hospital there is no respiratory therapist in the building so I have to draw my own ABG's, do my own vent checks q 2 hrs, administer nebulizer tx through the vent and to the pt's not on a vent but still needing q 4 hr Duoneb treatments. We also have NO housekeeping on night shift so if I gotta move a pt out to get another one in,I gotta clean the room myself! No unit secretary in my ICU at ALL!

Night shift is the only shift in my ICU that has a unit secretary/nurses aide, although she is pretty slow at entering orders, I can do it SO much faster so I usually do it myself! We need a unit sec/NA for days and evening shifts but they won't hire us one! Even so, I'd much rather work in my ICU than out on the med-surg floor.

And I would definitely take the med-surg unit over the detox unit patients. I got pulled there at the beginning of the month and those patients are just MEAN, rude and nasty!!! Look, I didn't shoot you up with coke, or make you drink a gallon of vodka a day...YOU DID! SO don't treat me like I'm your personal slave telling me what you do and don't want. It's a voluntary unit so if you don't like it you can leave now..let me show you the way out!!

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Whoop!..lol....that sure sounds busyyyie. You are basically multitasked. Doing both tech, resp, and nursing jobs...I prefer ICU but not this type.... have not seen it that way b/4...lol

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Specializes in CNA/ ALF & Hospital.

What I mean is, there is 8 patients in the ICU Unit. each tech has 4 patients. That means that there are 1 RN per every two patients. If I have 4 patients, that means that I have 2 RN's for the shift and the other tech has 4 patients with 2 RN's as well. Oh.....did I mention that this is a night shift 730 pm-8am?

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Specializes in ICU, Research, Corrections.
I'll take my 3 ICU patients ANY day over 8-12 floor pt's at night! At my hospital there is no respiratory therapist in the building so I have to draw my own ABG's, do my own vent checks q 2 hrs, administer nebulizer tx through the vent and to the pt's not on a vent but still needing q 4 hr Duoneb treatments. We also have NO housekeeping on night shift so if I gotta move a pt out to get another one in,I gotta clean the room myself! No unit secretary in my ICU at ALL!

Night shift is the only shift in my ICU that has a unit secretary/nurses aide, although she is pretty slow at entering orders, I can do it SO much faster so I usually do it myself! We need a unit sec/NA for days and evening shifts but they won't hire us one! Even so, I'd much rather work in my ICU than out on the med-surg floor.

Geez Nurse-Lou, that is horrible. The next thing you know, they will make you

insert central lines and intubate (JK).

I can count on one hand the number of times I have had to take 3 ICU patients

this year. It really is an exceptional circumstance in my part of the country,

(southwest), for ratios to be 1:3. I always have at least ONE RT for a 20 bed

unit.

Is it standard for your hospital to routinely do 1:3 staffing? Your post made me

tired just thinking of all you have to do.

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Specializes in CNA/ ALF & Hospital.

The problem today is, there are not enough male nurses whether it be CNA,LPN,or RN. bcuz of when you have patients on your floor that are 190+ in weight and it feels like dead weight to a CNA that is only 121 lbs. herself. It dowes not matter if its a MED/SURG floor, Ortho, or a stroke patient. I hold VERY HIGH praise for male nurses!

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Specializes in CVICU.

I can't imagine what goes through the mind of med surg nurses that enjoy their job. This is not meant as a disrespect in any way I just don't see anything enjoyable about it whatsoever. The days where I have 3 not so sick patients on their call light every 5 minutes while trying to get all the other tasks, meds, labs, and assessments done on time makes me want to smash my head into a wall. I always volunteer for the super sick IABP or the fresh open heart. I love using my mind to think about "how I'm going to get this cardic output up?" or "how should I proceed with the vent weaning?" or "What does this change in VS mean and what am I gonna do about it?". When I'm scrambling between several not sick patients I leave work feeling VERY unsatisfied. I am amazed about the job floor nurses do and I'm glad we have people out there who thrive off that kind of stress.

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