Nurse patient ratio?

Nurses Safety

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I live in Georgia and as far as I know we don't have any "Law" that says how many patients one RN/LPN can care for. I noticed that California has a law that the RN can only have 5 patients. What does your state law say about how many patients the RN/LPN can care for?

Specializes in Geriatrics, MS, ICU.

We are only supposed to have 1 or 2 patient's in ICU...But lately we all seem to be getting 3 patients no matter how critical they are. That also includes our charge nurses. They have been forced to take 2 or 3 patients whenever they come in. That makes it challenging when we have a problem or a patient goes bad, or there is a call from the floor/rapid response. What are you supposed to do if your resource person is too busy to help you? BUT, our numbers look great! Well done management...well done, Bravo! JHACO was here last year and it was amazing how all of the units were perfectly staffed and no-body was overwhelmed with too many patients. We received a wonderful report! Whatever! I would love for JHACO to actually do a site inspection! You know actually SURPRISE management! Somehow we always know when they might be dropping in for a "Site Inspection"!!!

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.

I work med surg, & I was promised no more than 7:1....its been 9:1, & I have had 10! We have a ward clerk & 2 CNA's for ~ 26 on ms, & 12 on peds. Everyone grumbles & fusses about the pt load, but will they stick together, & try to change things???? Nope! and I can't do it alone. I have been looking for another job......hope its not the same song & dance with a different partner!

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Yes we need staffing ratios. Read each and every one of the last threads. Hospital Associations state that staffing by acutiy is the safest way to staff any unit because "all patients are not alike." Wow how true! But on any given day acutiy seems to be tossed out the window when there are the few nurses to take care of many patients, and no patient care tech, unit secretary etc. I too have been called a "strong nurse" so have many of my co-workers. Strong nurse means being an expert in your field, being a patient adovcate, and expecting that we walk onto our unit we can proivde our patient safe quality care. The kind of "stong nurse" my manager refers too, is the person who continues, on a daily basis to run from patient to patient, crisis to crisis without the resources to do my job and not question or complain about it. It is not a question of being strong or being able to handle it, it's a question of being able to take care of our patients safely. Our patients and our profession deserve no less.

By the way if you are interested in learning more about safe staffing legislation in Illinois- contact me!

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Where I work pt ratio is up in the air and assignments are NOT based on acuity but rather room numbers. A usual night is 6:1-7:1 and tech is only responsible for vitals (No blood sugars, blood, dsg changes, feeding, and if you are lucky you may get them to put a pt on the bedpan but usually you cant find them or they are too busy) We would rather place nurses as monitor techs and secretaries then place them on the floor when we are short staffed and the charge nurse never does any pt care. I am honestly feerful of losing my license in this facility and am actively working on finding a new job. The other night I was about to just quit because of these horrible working conditions and actually broke down and cried. I worked very hard for my license and I am positive this hospital would not have my back if anything happened to my pts because the load was too heavy. MAybe the load wouldnt be so heavy if they used nurses as NURSES!!!!

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I Understand That Magnet Hospitals Assign Less Patients Per Nurse, Anybody Know And What Is The Deal With Magnet Status Hospitals Are They Any Better

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