7 months in, is anyone else's med/surg floor this way? HELP

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Specializes in anything that I had my clinicals in.

it's just a really hard floor. I work graveyard and start off with 5 pt. Then between 8pm and 2am i get my 6th pt. Our floor is the only floor in which the charge nurse has 4-5 pt. The majority of my pt are bipolar, have dementia, depression, and/or are narc seakers. The MRSA and C-diff really are not a problem for me. I just feel like i am doing a whole lot of pysch nursing...not even the pt's that i had at the state mental hospital for clinical rotations were as bad as some of the pt i get on this floor. Is it this way for all med-surg floors? I know that i am not the only one with a problem on this floor. The new grads won't even stay around and even a couple older nurses are leaving as well. altogether we have 5 nurses who are leaving, and two that already have in the course of 4 months. I know it is good experience for me but I am not happy. I talked to some nurses on the tele floor in which their charge nurse dosen't take any pt and they start off with four pt; the nurses stated that they did not like working for the med/surg floor. What should i do; stick it out for the rest of the year? Is anyone else's med/surg floor this way? Some say it might be the location as well as to why the pt are more acute then other area's of the state. Most come in through the ER because they have no insurance so they come in when they're at their worst. Anyone have simular problems on their floor? :no:

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Specializes in Med-Surg, HH, Tele, Geriatrics, Psych.

We start out with 7-10 patients each with a "free charge". We are a med-surg, very acute floor with lots of confused pts, some psych, lots of MRSA, C-Diff, VRE, every 2 hr pain med pushes. Lots going on!!! I do not know a Med-Surg floor anywhere that does not have it's share of heavy patient load.

I have come to the conclusion that as long as I stay a med surg nurse, I will work my tail off. Luckily, I have a good floor manager, and good night shift house supes that try to understand our plight. The staffing ratios on these floors needs to change, but I don't think it will anytime soon.

Believe it or not, one of our specialists told me the other day that he felt that we were understaffed and it made him uncomfortable because he knew we were doing the best we could do. I just smiled and said, "Thank you. We try."

Although I respect this doctor (that's saying a lot coming from me) and I felt that he was being sincere, I have learned that the walls have ears and "spies" are everywhere, so I did not feel that the conversation needed to go any further than that.

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Specializes in med/surg.

I work NOCs in a smaller hospital, we usually have 3 nurses & 1 or 2 aides & we carry anywhere from 6& up... we tend to average 8-10, this includes our "charge"... many nights there is no charge. We too have everything you could imagine, infectious, neutro, CA, GI, cardiac, resp, pain control I could go on & on...most tend to be elderly with sundowners/dementia, etc...& since our other hospital in town no longer takes those without insurance & we have no psych floor, we get our fair share of those, too...There seems to be good NOCs & really beat you down like a dog NOCs... I just feel fortunate that our supervisors appreciate & help as they can & that I work with the most awesome bunch of nurses & aides EVER! :yeah:I still enjoy going to work, simply because I love the people I work with...now if that ever changes... I just don't know, but for now I'm content.

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This is what my floor is like. We have 25 patients on our floor. One charge nurse, 4 RNs, 1 LVN, 1 PCA. This gives us 5 patients each. Our floor is more of a surgical floor so typically our patients are very acute and more than likely we will have at least one fresh post op if not more. That being said I really like my floor and probably wouldn't work anywhere else. We have a wide range of patients and I am able to see much more than on the typical med/surg floor. We do get our fair share of psych patients and unfortunately the state hospital in our area no longer provides a sitter unless the patient is suicidal.

As for your situation. It is no secret that med/surg nurses work their butts off. That won't change if you go somewhere else. You need to take into account if the current staffing is jeopardizing the care that you are providing. A charge nurse taking on a heavy patient load is not going to be able to do the duties of a charge nurse. This is a huge safety issue not only because you are a new nurse and

need supervision but also due to the fact that you are on a floor of acute patients. I would bring these concerns to your supervisor. Personally I would try to stick it out for the first year. I think it would look better on your resume that you gave it a chance but it wasn't right for you. However if you are put in a situation where your license is compromised look for work elsewhere.

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Specializes in ICU.

i'm on a telemetry floor, and we have eight pt's - and our charge nurse, for the most part, has a district - we tend to have quite a bit of psych also; ordinarily, i don't mind as we have some interesting cases, but it can be frustrating when a pt needs one to one, and they take your aid......grrr.....:banghead:

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

I honestly think that MOST patients have some sort of underlying psych dx's....just the way it works around the hospital...

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i'm on a telemetry floor, and we have eight pt's - and our charge nurse, for the most part, has a district - we tend to have quite a bit of psych also; ordinarily, i don't mind as we have some interesting cases, but it can be frustrating when a pt needs one to one, and they take your aid......grrr.....:banghead:

this is our floor! i usually have 1-2 post op hearts in my mix, and then we have a new surgical dr that does different types of esophagectomys that requested are floor. so 1 -2 of those, also. the workload can be stressful for me, but what is really stressful is our house policy of checking the lpn's charts after they do. if there are 6 of us on and 3 lpn's there's no sharing of this duty.

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Specializes in anything that I had my clinicals in.

Thank you for your suggestions, that is what i needed. It does seem to get better with time. I can't imagine how some of the people who commented me have anywhere from 8-10 pt per night. If I get 6 people when I first come in I usually get all the meds out by 10pm and then all the chart checks and documentation.... how is anyone getting any of these things done with TEN PT!!!!!!! Wow, good time management I suppose.:) Thanks to everyone who has commented so far.:)

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