Nurse/Patient ratio in the ED?

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I'm looking to go into ED nursing and I was wondering what is the typical nurse to patient ratio on a relatively busy day. The program I interviewed for mentioned 7-8 patients and I thought it was a lot, especially in ED. Is that a lot? Or am I being unrealistic?

Specializes in Emergency Room.

4:1 Max in my ED, but my old ED was poorly run so you could get more than that. Maxed out at 8

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I'm so jealous! I work in a HUGE ER and our ration is 5-8:1. In trauma, there are usually two RN's, but it all depends on staffing.

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Specializes in NICU, Emergency Nursing.

We work 8:1 in Fast Track

4:1 Acute

2-3:1 in Trauma area. But where I work if your patient is critical you get lots of help

even from the Big bosses. Administration responds to a Code 6 (ER not moving), Trauma alert, Code Orange (Stroke). And they help all they can.

We are starting the pod nursing, trying to work out a team nursing plan. It works great for the docs because they know which rooms they will have, which NP and which nurses are on their team. 2 nurses would share 6-8 patients, with a tech. In theory it sounds great but if you work with a "sandbagger" it can be a stressful shift.

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Specializes in Emergency.

We have a 4:1 ratio on acute side and it can be 6:1 in Fast Track. There are times though when we may be short-staffed or really busy and we'll have to go up by a patient or two. That is pretty unusual though thank goodness.

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Level 2 Trauma ER in New York:

Trauma: Max at 7:1

Acute: Max at 9:1

I've seen it go up to 11:1

It's pretty sick and completely dangerous...

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Specializes in Emergency.
Level 2 Trauma ER in New York:

Trauma: Max at 7:1

Acute: Max at 9:1

I've seen it go up to 11:1

It's pretty sick and completely dangerous...

Seriously. If those are normal ratios, I'd be looking for a new job.

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Level 2 Trauma ER in New York:

Trauma: Max at 7:1

Acute: Max at 9:1

I've seen it go up to 11:1

It's pretty sick and completely dangerous...

So, let's hear some stories about adverse outcomes for pts due to this ridiculous ratio. :eek:

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I work in Level 1 and our staffing is awesome; we don't have to worry about census. We are really team oriented.

Usually if I have a trauma room I'll have that room only, or maybe another acute room.

Max load for critical care is 3:1

Minor care is about 4:1

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Specializes in ER, Medicine.

3-4:1 no matter what area you're in...3 is this the room, the 4th is the hallway.

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Specializes in ED.

My ratio is 5 to 1 from 7a to 11a and then 4 to 1 from 11a to 7p.

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Specializes in Emergency, Occupational Health.

3-4:1 (3 rooms, one hallway but we try not to use it) in reg. rooms

1:1 for intubated/traumas

5-8:1 in fast track, depending on staffing and what time it is/how busy it is

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Wow those ratios sound lovely.

Per our union contract our ratio is supposed to be 6 patients to one nurse.

On average I'd say we run about 7-9 patients each

and on most bad days (which are pretty much every day) we have up to 15 patients each.

YEP 15!

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