Nurse patient ratio?!??

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Hello, I'm well into my first year of nursing. I live in South Carolina where we have no nurse to patient ratio laws. I work on a general med surg floor where we are set up in pods. There are 8 rooms to a pod and we often have 8 Pts to one nurse and one cna has up to 16 Pts. I often leave work feeling like I didn't accomplish anything but throwing meds at Pts. I am always frustrated and mad at the fact that I feel so overwhelmed and stretched thin. So far I have cared for up to 12 Pts a shift, not all at once but w admissions and d/c.i really don't understand how anyone likes this?? I want to know if this is normal? What's your patient to nurse ratio and where are you located? How many Pts do u go through a shift?

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In philly suburb, step down is 3-4 during the day 5 max at night. 1-2 in Icu. I heard the ms floor is 6 max at night 5 max during the day. Pay is 31/hr

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I also work in a state that does not have patient ratio laws- it's extremely frustrating. I work day shift on a med/surg unit and our ratio is 6:1 IF were staffed appropriately- but that never happens. We are always short and on those days we have 6-8 patients. With admissions and discharges we are looking at about 12-14 patients per day. It's ridiculous and by the end of the day I am ready to pull my hair out. I am a new nurse of 9 months and I am finding it very difficult to develop solid critical thinking skills because I have no time to actually stop and THINK- instead, I spend my days running down the hall throwing pills at people. I envy those who make it look easy.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/urology.

I am in MD. I have been working on a med-surg floor since January of this year and I worked both days and nights (currently on nights). On day shift I was typically 1:5 or 1:6 at the beginning of the shift, but with discharges and admissions it could be 1:8. On night shift I'm usually at 1:6 or 1:7. The nights that we are 1:5 are few and far between.

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Specializes in Public Health.

I'm in NV we don't have mandated ratios and on nights our ratio is 1:6 med surg. Usually it's the same ratio day or night. We are fully staffed unless someone calls off.

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Thanks guys. Seems NV may be a good place to be a nurse! Fully staffed, I envy you ? I am considering moving out of state and I really wonder if it's like this everywhere. It seems this is nursing now. Which sucks. Bas22: I feel the Same way. Critical thinking?! Who has time?!?

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I'm in CA, and we are part of the union in my facility. On Med-Onc, Med-Surg, Med-Ortho units it's 1:5 on days/nights. Med-Surg-Tele is 1:4 or 1:5. When staffing is ideal we have resource/break nurses as well.

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Specializes in ER, Trauma, Med-Surg/Tele, LTC.
I'm in CA, and we are part of the union in my facility. On Med-Onc, Med-Surg, Med-Ortho units it's 1:5 on days/nights. Med-Surg-Tele is 1:4 or 1:5. When staffing is ideal we have resource/break nurses as well.

Being union has nothing to do with those ratios in California. California is the only state with mandated nursing ratios. And they only apply to acute care.

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Specializes in Public Health.

I would like to add that not every hospital has our ratios here in Vegas. My hospital is newer and it's in a good part of town with good facilities and its expanding. Some other sister facilities have higher ratios but most are 1:7 on medsurg. Our hospital also doesn't really have separate medsurg floors, one floor specializes in neuro but takes all types of pts and another is ortho focused but still medsurg, etc.

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jdeng44, Are those ratios typical of the Philly area in general or are they specific to your organization?

We are very interested in moving to the area and I have been wondering about the ratios, esp seeing as I will be a new grad

Thanks

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Specializes in Public Health Nurse.

I not only have read about the incredibly ridiculous patient ratios here on allnurses, but also from friends who graduated in my cohort and are already working, some get 8:1 or 9:1, not counting their admissions and discharges. How safe can it be? How easy is it to make a mistake on something that you would not, if you were adequately staffed and not overwhelmed with so many patients? I tell you, I get tons of emails from ANA stating how there is a nursing shortage, which is another topic I know, it vexes me that they continue the spiel and do not address patient ratios either.

I also wonder, if the reduced the unreasonable ratios, then maybe the nurse turnover and burnout would also decrease.

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I floated to m/s a few times, and 8:1 ratio was the norm there, of course I had days where I had 8 patients in pcu! Ugh. Nightmare. I am in Florida.

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