What is the nurse to patient ratio where you work? I work at a busy trauma center and we max out at 10 patients per nurse. At 4-6 patients I feel okay (depending on acuity). But when it reaches upwards of 8-10 it can be overwhelming and sometimes it feels downright unsafe! I am not the only nurse who feels this way.
The scariest part is a good deal of them end up being ICU/Step-down. To me it makes NO SENSE that the ICUs have a strict nurse-patient ratio (1-4 patients per nurse depending on the floor and acuity) meanwhile we can have 10 "mystery" patients because you never really know what's going on until they are fully worked up.
Lately with it being winter we have been getting 20-30 patients per area, with 3-4 nurses per area at night. We have been getting stuck with holds because the floors are full including the ICUS/SDUs. Patients have been in the hallway to the point you can barely walk through and it's a downright fire hazard/capacity issue.
Last night I had 8 patients and I had a cardiac arrest come in. I had some help from the other nurses but I thought to myself , "this is ridiculous!" It's physically impossible to take care of the patients adequately when we have that many. I love my job and I love being busy but I obviously do not like when it starts to feel unsafe. My co-workers have expressed the same concern. They are crazy busy on days too but they usually have better staffing and have a few float nurses helping out with triage/discharges/lining patients etc. But they seem to not give a damn about us on nights and we are always short. I care for my patient's and do my absolute best every shift but I can only be in one place at a time. I leave each morning being absolutely exhausted mentally and physically.
Do you guys have similar issues at your facilities?
