New Ratios Good or Bad

donahued · Nov 4, 2005

20 views and nobody has responded a simple yes or no????

1996RN · Nov 5, 2005

i'll reply! with both sides of the coin. first, the ratios are obviously a good thing for CA nurses because you are 'guaranteed' not to exceed a certain ratio, and these ratios seem fair. less pts means more time to focus on each one individually and provide more thorough care. on the other hand, hospitals have quickly found a way to get around this. they simply get rid of all of the ancillary staff. there are no more cna's, techs, unit clerks, secretaries, lvn's, phlebotomists, respiratory therapists, ecg techs, etc. you, the nurse, function in all of these roles. sometimes it's way more work having to take care of every single function of pt care. there are also no 'experts' in the hospital, especially at night and weekends. if someone has a respiratory problem simply with the equipment or something, it's just the nurses to figure it out. if we have a hard stick on blood, it's up to the nurses to get it. oh yeah, you get to be housekeeping too.

fergus51 · Nov 5, 2005

Good. Patients don't get turned away, we still have the same number of ancillary staff. We sometimes have to work outside the ratio limits, but at least it isn't all the time. We are much more flexible than I've seen some people try to paint us.