Most Patients during a shift?

[PinkFuzz]

What's the most patients you've had during a shift?

What sort of unit and shift?

I just finished school and would like to work on a med/surg unit, the only think that scares me at times is the idea that I could be given an unlimited amount of clients with no say in the matter.

During clinicals the most clients I had to take on was 8 on a med/surg unit. (Without my primary nurse backing me up, I would have totally died.) They wanted to give me a 9th, but thank goodness we were off the floor in the next 15mins. One of my classmates told me she got 10 on the same floor and it was crazy. I think 10 on a med/surg floor during the day is crazy, experienced or not. Thank God for Med Nurses!!!

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

Four. I :redbeathe the NICU. Heck, even those four don't add up to one adult, weight-wise. Doesn't mean I don't run my @ss off, though, whether I have one or four. But I'd still rather have one sick, crashing ECMO baby than four cranky feeders.

[medsurgrnco, BSN, RN]

Patient:nurse ratios was covered in a thread in the last month or so - I think regarding med/surg so you might do a search for that. A research article I read recently said the average # of med/surg patients was 8. I worked in med/surg and typically had 5-6, occasionally had 7, no way I could handle anymore. Suggest you ask when interviewing for new grad positions how many patients nurses have, and if they go easy on new grads for awhile. I know of hospitals where nurses have 4-5 on med/surg units, and other hospitals where new grads are limited to 4-5. If your area of the country typically had a high number of patients, you may need to consider relocating to have a more manageable number of patients.

[medsurgrnco, BSN, RN]

I forgot to say I worked night shift.

[AprilRNhere]

I can't even imagine. Those that have 8-10 pts'...do you work in teams? Do you have LPN's and CNA's to help? The MOST we'll take on nights is 7...and then it's hectic enough for me and we fill out unsafe staffing reports. Normal is 6. We don't have any CNA's where I work.

[nyapa, RN]

Night shift? Nine! And no we don't have CNAs. Day shift, 7 (I have had 10, but that was many many many years ago). The average is 5 - 6 on a morning, 6 on an afternoon, and 8 at night.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I can't even imagine. Those that have 8-10 pts'...do you work in teams? Do you have LPN's and CNA's to help? The MOST we'll take on nights is 7...and then it's hectic enough for me and we fill out unsafe staffing reports. Normal is 6. We don't have any CNA's where I work.

On a really good night, it's 7, most nights it's 8-10. 10 isn't odd, actually. We have CNAs to help, but each nurse is responsible for that patient load. And no, they don't expect to see any unsafe staffing reports filed for those numbers, no matter WHAT we think.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

20-floor had 40. Other RN had 20. We shared an LPN who did bedpans, etc. never gave meds, did treatments or charted.

[NurseCard, ADN]

Night shift? Nine! And no we don't have CNAs. Day shift, 7 (I have had 10, but that was many many many years ago). The average is 5 - 6 on a morning, 6 on an afternoon, and 8 at night.

See, I just cannot IMAGINE that. That is absolutely ridiculous to me and I would never work somewhere like that. Where I work, we generally have 5-6 on night shift, though sometimes we will go up to 7-8, AND we have CNA's, however some nights one CNA will have 24 patients and so except for vital signs, the nurses are practically doing primary care on their patients. But at least we DO have SOME CNA help. I just could not ever imagine having to take care of 7, 8, 9 patients and having NO CNA help. Ridiculous.

[imanedrn]

Med/Surg/Tele - we have 4 units (each w/ 36 pts split along 3 halls/pods). All have 6:1 ratio for RNs on days, 12:1 for CNAs (2 RNs per pod, 1 CNA per pod). On nights, the RN ratio is the same, but there is only 1 CNA for each unit.

Sometimes, 6 seems like too much, but I've heard it's way low compared to others where 8 or 10 is the norm... so I must say I'm thankful, in that regard!

If we're short 1 nurse (they couldn't replace her for whatever reason: called in too late, no agency, no one else willing to come in, etc.), then the 5 RNs split the 36 pts which means 4 of the RNs have 7 pts and the 5th has 8. I haven't experienced this personally yet (been on my own for 1 1/2 months now), but it happened 2 or 3 times while I was precepting. Instead of my preceptor helping me, she took the extra patients.

Since I haven't experienced this yet, I'm actually quite terrified of it! Yes, it's only ONE more patient, but (depending on the acuity of the pts) this can be VERY demanding -- esp. for those nurses whose patients are SPLIT between the pods.

Since this is important to you (as it should be for any RN who believes nurse to patient ratios affect healthcare delivery!), when you start searching for hospitals, make sure this is one of the FIRST questions you ask. It actually was a prime reason I picked my hospital over some of the others.

Good luck!

[GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN]

4-5 on days, 5-6 eves- 7-9 noc w/pct's altho not every pt is assisgned one, the PCT's carry 6 on days, 8 on eve's. 10 on nocs, do vs, lab draws, empty and d/c foleys, drains, ngt's. total I and O's, ambulate,( and am care on days)- very helpful

[preemieRNkate, RN]

I work in NICU. The most patients I ever had was 5. They were all bottle feeders, no meds, eating 3-4 hours. I also had an aide with me to help feed (after I did vitals and assessed the baby). It wasn't fun, but the shift went really fast!

But I'd still rather have one sick, crashing ECMO baby than four cranky feeders.

Ditto. Except we don't do ECMO. I'll take a sick 1:1 over feeders any day though!