Nurse:Patient Ratio on Med-Surg Floors?

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I just interviewed at a couple of hospitals in Southeast Michigan for med-surg floors and the Nurse:Pt ratio is 1:6 and up for day shift with 1:8 not being abnormal. Is this standard here? It sounds so high compared to Chicago where and 1:4 is standard with 1:5 being the max. Can anyone comment on this for Beaumont RO & Troy, St. Johns, DMC, Henry Ford? Thanks!

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Specializes in Step-down/ICU.
I just interviewed at a couple of hospitals in Southeast Michigan for med-surg floors and the nurse:pt ratio is 1:6 and up for day shift with 1:8 not being abnonrmal. Is this standard here? It sounds so high compared to Chicago where and 1:4 is standard with 1:5 being the max. Can anyone comment on this for Beaumont RO & Troy, St. Johns, DMC, Henry Ford? Thanks!

Yes, this is the norm here. When I worked at HF main the norm was 5, with a max. of 6. A few of my friends work at the DMC and they can get up to 7. In fact, one of the DMC hospitals that I interviewed for told me that the norm was 7 for that floor.

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The norm for HF main is 5-6 on days, I think 6-7 on nights.

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thank you for the feedback, that's very helpful. does anyone know about Beaumont RO, Troy or St. Joes Oakland? Thanks!

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Specializes in Renal/Cardiac.

In Florida it is 1:6 or 1:8 on night shift and 1:8 or 1:10 on days

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We need mandatory staffing ratios in Michigan. Also, we need some limits on hours-of-service. If a truck driver can only work for 14 hours, how come it's safe for nurses to work 16+, especially when there's evidence that tells us plainly that high patient ratios and longer work hours lead to poorer patient outcomes?

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Specializes in Renal/Cardiac.
We need mandatory staffing ratios in Michigan. Also, we need some limits on hours-of-service. If a truck driver can only work for 14 hours, how come it's safe for nurses to work 16+, especially when there's evidence that tells us plainly that high patient ratios and longer work hours lead to poorer patient outcomes?

I agree that there should be mandatory nurse to pt ratios in all states because along with the hours worked plus having an overload of patients can result in poor outcomes for the patient which also leads to more nurses that burn out faster

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

I'm doing clinicals in SW Michigan right now, and the hospital I'm at has 1:4 or 1:5 on med-surg.

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Specializes in Pediatrics & luvin it.

I work in the pediatric department at a local hospital in N.E. Tennessee and our ratios depend on a few things. If a nurse is doing chemo he/she only gets 3 Pt's max and no more than 1 chemo Pt. If we have 2 chemo Pt's we have 2 nurses with only 3 Pt max and so on. Normally our day shift ratio is 1:4, maybe 1:5 if something comes up. Our night shift is only slightly higher with a ratio of 1:5, maybe 1:6 if something comes up and the night nurses do not do chemo. I also hear there are some hospitals in VA that have a ratoi of 1:3.

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Our cardiac stepdown unit has a ratio of 1:6 on days, 1:7 on nights; if census drops someone goes home and gets called back in when admssions arrive. We start antiarrhythmic drips, admit patients from emergency codes on other floors, staff the code team, provided 1:1 staffing for combative patients. It's a war zone! But you know, those green fall risk bracelets will protect your patients!

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Mandatory staffing rations are a good start, but they are not absolute. There have been times I have had 7 patients and could work on the crossword puzzle on my dinner break; there have been other times that I have had 3 patients and not only did not get lunch but stayed late. One of these days, maybe after I'm dead, nursing administrators will figure out that acuity has to figure into the ratio.....there should be standardized categorization of patients by acuity and this should impact staffing grids and nurse patient ratios.

If every manager had to work on the floor two days a month, this wouldn't be a question. Sometimes I feel as though hospital administrators WANT us to fail.

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Specializes in Renal/Cardiac.
Mandatory staffing rations are a good start, but they are not absolute. There have been times I have had 7 patients and could work on the crossword puzzle on my dinner break; there have been other times that I have had 3 patients and not only did not get lunch but stayed late. One of these days, maybe after I'm dead, nursing administrators will figure out that acuity has to figure into the ratio.....there should be standardized categorization of patients by acuity and this should impact staffing grids and nurse patient ratios.

If every manager had to work on the floor two days a month, this wouldn't be a question. Sometimes I feel as though hospital administrators WANT us to fail.

I totally 100% agree especially with managers pulling time on the floor I seen a manager where I worked do 1 day on our Cardiac floor OMG she was so flustered I had to clock in early just to help her out she was freakin out something fierce why? because she had been off the floor for so long she had forgotten what it was like so yes they should all have to at least once or twice a month pull their time on the floors

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