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I am a student writing a paper on the ratio of staffing in nursing home...patient to nurse. I am having difficulty finding out information. Is there any practice guidelines or laws on how many nurses compared to patients.

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Specializes in CVSICU, Cardiac Cath Lab.

I'm just a student, too, but I would check your state BON. They should have some info.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Critical Care; LTC.

You also might want to look at the CMS center for medicare/medicaid they have information about staffing levels in every nursing home. Also look at the department of health website for information. Good luck

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele.

Also, you could try looking on your state's department of public health website, you should be able to find something there

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

call a nursing home and ask who are their governing bodies.

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

Most, if not maybe all nsg homes??, do not have mandated ratios. It wouldn't do any good to call the BON in my area, because the anwer is staffing must be sufficient to care for the residents needs. In my facility we have a 3.0 PPD. Meaning each resident is allotted 3 hours of hands on care per day. This involves ALL hands on care, ie: CNA's and nurses time. Most facilities in my area use a comparable PPD ratio, but it is up to the specific building how they chose to break up their staffing.

Example - You have 25 residents.

25 X's 3 = 75 hours. You know you have to have an 8 hour nurse for all 3 shifts, so 75 - 24 = 51. Now you have 51 hours left to schedule CNA's. Consider that 11-7 typically requires less time than days or evenings & most CNA's work 7.5 hours.

51/7.5 = 6.8 CNA's to schedule to cover a 24 hour period.

Do I really believe 3.0 is sufficient? Well that's a whole other thread to start :uhoh3:

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Specializes in LTC, ER, ICU, Psych, Med-surg...etc....

There is no mandated staffing ratios according to CMS that I am aware of (in my area). There may be some states that have them, but as a general rule the facilities set their own staffing and it goes by hours/full time equavilents/PPD's- whatever they call them. There can be 2 CNA's and one Nurse for 60 patients- or 10 CNA's and 4 nurses- depends on the facility ratio that they assign and of course it all goes back to money and reimbursement. Staffing is not cited as deficient practice in my area because there is no mandated ratio, also you have to prove that because of low staffing there was a negative outcome for the residents. That is hard to do because most nurses care so much about their residents that they get everything done and take good care of their people.....

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.
That is hard to do because most nurses care so much about their residents that they get everything done and take good care of their people.....

And that is why LTC will continue to stay understaffed in my opinion. If we can get it all done, why would they hire more people....but, I can't imagine ever letting someone suffer just to prove my point.

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We have an average of 9-10 high-acuity patients to a nurse on nights on Med/Surg. We can't refuse admissions even when there are 10 patients to a nurse, and two of them were admissions on the shift.

And we're just lobbying for a staffing 'disclosure' law according to this article: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=916990

Is disclosure without regulation going to improve conditions for nurses and patients?

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