Nurse to patient ratio in subacute facility

[IamGold]

I'm curious to know what the typical nurse to patient ratio is in a subacute/ rehab facility. I am a new employee to this company and have 20 patients with 2 aides. I at times will have a desk nurse to assist me as well as the other two nurses. We currently do not have a unit manager. I have worked four days on my own and feel very overwhelmed. I barely get my med pass done for morning by noon!!! Crazy but true. I have yet to have time for assessment or education let alone any treatments with constant interruptions to prevent falls or by other staff to include PRN meds( nonstop). Major problem is that the meds are never all available with backtracking for one to all pills. If a person drops a pill( happens often) you have to pull from backup. The meds are packaged in threes with frequenting errors. I thought this would be a great place to gain skill and provide education with great outcomes, instead, I feel like a negligent nurse with poor organization. I feel like the facility has lost the concept of restorative and are treating it like LTC. Though they are fairly stable, they require much more care than LTC to include the high fall risk, confusedpatients constantly setting off alarms requiring stopping med pass. Any support or words of encouragement, advice would be great.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

20 patients to 1 nurse is a very typical nurse/patient ratio in subacute rehab for the day shift and evening shift, especially is the nursing care is taking place at a SNF/nursing home setting.

I would have up to 36 patients when working subacute rehab on night shift.

[gainschool4lpn]

iamgold,

sounds about right. I just started working at a facility where they have one wing ltc and the other subacute. I got a few days training and then put on my own. I am a new graduate. It is completely overwhelming!! There are about 30 patients to a nurse and it's all I can do to get am med pass done before 12 o clock med pass and treatments. I haven't been able to get to treatments because as soon as I am done with med pass and tube flushes/feeding its time for the next med pass and then charting and out the door 10 hours into an 8 hour shift....Some of the CNAs and other staff have little respect for new nurses so I am always chasing things down. I agree with you, I am a bit overwhelmed and frustrated at the lack of time and resources. It will get better- I know- just have to push through this hard time- EVERY nurse goes through this- it is a rite of pasage!! Also, I keep reminding myself why I became a nurse in the first place and that is to bring comfort to others and put a smile on their face.

Good luck and know I am here if you'd like to chat.

Thanks-

KC

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

This discussion has been moved over to the Geriatric / LTC Nursing forum to increase the likelihood of generating more responses that answer the original query.