Nurse/Patient Ratios

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Specializes in Telemetry, Traveling, PCU, Surgery, ICU.

I am an ICU RN in a small hospital. During the off hours, we are usually the ones who are involved in all of the questions. The med/surg unit currently does not have a policy/procedure regarding the nurse/pt ratio. I am wondering what other hospital's nurse/pt ratios are. Does this include the RN giving the medications or LPNs giving meds. How many CNAs are covering the floor at the same time? Any input is welcomed. Thanks

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I am not sure I understand what you want - but in Texas we are mandated to have "safe" staffing. It is not related to numbers, as ONE patient can keep you busy. There is currently a law in our Senate to further mandate that nurses be involved in decisions regarding staffing (hospitals). And yes, the mandates cover RN/LVN but not CNA. If hospitals are forced to have a specific nurse-patient ratio then the CNA's usually get cut in order to balance the pay. That means the nurses have more work to do. Be careful of what you ask for.

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1 RN to 4 patients on days, 1 RN to five patients on nights. We rarely have a tech.

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I work on a busy non tele med surg floor. Day has 6 pts nites have 6-8pts a nite. Yes it is very crazy and many nurses have been complaining alot. Nite shift does not have a unit clerk and 1-2 aides. Days have 3aides.

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Specializes in Peds Hem, Onc, Med/Surg.

We are a half tele med surg floor, and on days we get 6 pts and two nurses share one tech. (so on the floor we have one charge, 4 nurses and 2 techs and one HUC) On night shift we can get anywhere up to 8 pts, one CNA per side, and no HUC, and sometimes no charge. It gets crazy.

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Specializes in med/surg , hospice and oncology.

:smilecoffeecup: I work straight night shifts. I work on an Oncology/Med-Surg Unit. Alot of nights it's just me, an LPN, and an NCA. As an RN, I'm in charge with a team of 8 patients. The LPN has the other 8 patients and the NCA cares for them all. We of course hang alot of blood products and have chemo running on some nights....for an RN. Being a mainly Oncology Unit, we can have fresh,clean post-ops, due to our neutropenic patients. Lots and lots of IV pain meds. Besides my pushes, I have the LPNs also. Our nights go extremely fast. We work well as a team and usually are able to bust out a few complete baths. I can't say we get out on time most mornings. Which, the hospital frowns upon due to the BUDGET and not wanting us to have overtime. They want these patients taken care of...Right?? When I do the schedule for dayshift. They normally have 5 patients. Sometime 6... which in my opinion is to many. They do have a charge nurse at the desk. Afternoon shift is usually about 6 patients and the charge nurse has a team.

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

When I was working in ICU the ratio was 2:1 or 1:1 depending on patient condition.

I work on med surg unit now, 34 beds. Nurse patient ratio is 4:1 or 5:1. We never go over that level on 3-11 under any circumstances.

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I am on a surgical floor and generally work the 3-1130 shift....during that time we typically carry 5-6 pts to 1 RN. We have a CCA, usually, but that varies and not every one of them "enjoy" their work-thus you get different levels of care from them. We have some GREAT ones though!!!

I have also been on nights there and it can go to 7-8 for 1 RN.

Days usually has less...about 4-5 at the most to 1 RN.

But I agree w/ the stmt above, it depends on the pts not the numbers....i had one pt the other night that took up A HUGE amt of my time so fortunately the charge nurse was able to help w/ my others bc I had 5 others on top of the 1 that involved more time.

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