Nursing Nightmare - Whats's the most number of patients you cared for by yourself?

**Elektra6, ASN, BSN, RN** · Jul 6, 2009

60 on night shift at LTC with 3 CNAs, about 59 got am meds too!

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2009

Acute care (med surg)- 13. No CNA, no unit clerk, no housekeeping, just me. They were all really acute and unstable. It was a nightmare.

LTC- only nurse for 65.

I did all meds/tx/charting/calls/orders/paperwork. Had 3 CNAs with me. We had two trachs w/ MRSA, 9 tube feeders and a number of confused, wandering fall/elopement risks. No restraint facility.

Tons of meds/finger sticks and insulins in the AM. Did this for 2 years and it sucked.

Dialysis (chronic outpt) only nurse for 21. Had 3 techs.

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2009

max I have cared for during the night shift is 6...day time is 5...although the approved ratio is 1:3 per hospital..

Where was this and what type of unit?

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2009

Worst evening shift ever, 13 cardiac tele patients, one CTD, and no one would help. The charge nurse had a team of 5 and the nurse next to me had three. I still have nightmares about that floor many years later.

I worked at a similar place in 2001/02. (See my post above). I also still have nightmares about it. I know how you feel.

wacberry · Jul 6, 2009

Long term care facility in a small town 60 miles south east of Houston. (Wharton) We moved here about 18 months ago for my husbands job.

There are really not many choices unless you want to drive back into Houston.

They pay a lot better in Houston. I only work part time, 2 on 3 off.

PAERRN20 · Jul 6, 2009

Well, anyone up for a move to California?

guislander · Jul 6, 2009

Nah, We just need to get our states to enact similar laws to CA.

txredheadnurse, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2009

Back in 1979 I worked (briefly) in a LTC facility. I was the only nurse on nights, had 3 wings with a total of 5 aides and a bed count of 120. The census was usually between 115 to 120.

It was a constant up and down the wings checking on the aides, checking on my dying patients (seemed to have at least 2 or 3 a night who were hanging on by a thread) to keep them medicated, checking to make sure the aides hadn't left the back doors unlocked when they slipped out to smoke since I had encountered an intruder one time who was stealing bedding and clothing from a patient, and hoping to not find an aide curled up in bed with a patient taking a snooze. Yep, had that happened too.

That was a very long month. The final straw was the night an aide discovered a patient dead during her last set of rounds and I was cussed out by the supervisor, the on call doctor and the justice of the peace for "disturbing" them at 5:15 AM to inform them of the death. Since I couldn't declare death I needed one of them to come in and make it official so I could call the funeral home and notify the family. I was told, and I am not making this part up, that I should have waited until shift change to call anyone and to just move the roommate out into the hall, close the door and tape it shut so no one disturbed it until someone could come in at a "civilized" hour to declare death.

PAERRN20 · Jul 6, 2009

Back in 1979 I worked (briefly) in a LTC facility. I was the only nurse on nights, had 3 wings with a total of 5 aides and a bed count of 120. The census was usually between 115 to 120.
It was a constant up and down the wings checking on the aides, checking on my dying patients (seemed to have at least 2 or 3 a night who were hanging on by a thread) to keep them medicated, checking to make sure the aides hadn't left the back doors unlocked when they slipped out to smoke since I had encountered an intruder one time who was stealing bedding and clothing from a patient, and hoping to not find an aide curled up in bed with a patient taking a snooze. Yep, had that happened too.
That was a very long month. The final straw was the night an aide discovered a patient dead during her last set of rounds and I was cussed out by the supervisor, the on call doctor and the justice of the peace for "disturbing" them at 5:15 AM to inform them of the death. Since I couldn't declare death I needed one of them to come in and make it official so I could call the funeral home and notify the family. I was told, and I am not making this part up, that I should have waited until shift change to call anyone and to just move the roommate out into the hall, close the door and tape it shut so no one disturbed it until someone could come in at a "civilized" hour to declare death.

Oh. my. gosh!! That's all I can say!

melz34 · Jul 6, 2009

you people don't seem to get any lazy nurses in your hospitals well in ours there will be me and another nurse working and then the others will be sat around with a cup of coffee and a copy of heat or closer or ok and their pts will press their call lights and either me or the other nurse who is actually working with me will go i think one night their were 36pts on the pediatric ward and me and the other nurse had to split them up between us so she had 15 and i had 15 and then one of the less lazy nurses got up and said i will look after the other 6 but the other 2 just sat their doing nothing if you don't get this in your hospitals then lucky you

melz34 · Jul 6, 2009

Originally Posted by txredheadnurse

Back in 1979 I worked (briefly) in a LTC facility. I was the only nurse on nights, had 3 wings with a total of 5 aides and a bed count of 120. The census was usually between 115 to 120.

It was a constant up and down the wings checking on the aides, checking on my dying patients (seemed to have at least 2 or 3 a night who were hanging on by a thread) to keep them medicated, checking to make sure the aides hadn't left the back doors unlocked when they slipped out to smoke since I had encountered an intruder one time who was stealing bedding and clothing from a patient, and hoping to not find an aide curled up in bed with a patient taking a snooze. Yep, had that happened too.

That was a very long month. The final straw was the night an aide discovered a patient dead during her last set of rounds and I was cussed out by the supervisor, the on call doctor and the justice of the peace for "disturbing" them at 5:15 AM to inform them of the death. Since I couldn't declare death I needed one of them to come in and make it official so I could call the funeral home and notify the family. I was told, and I am not making this part up, that I should have waited until shift change to call anyone and to just move the roommate out into the hall, close the door and tape it shut so no one disturbed it until someone could come in at a "civilized" hour to declare death.

OMG that's ridiculous the on call doctor should have come straight away

Riseupandnurse · Jul 7, 2009

How could I have forgotten about this? This was back in the early 70s, at a long term care facility on nights. There were three of us AIDES, no nurses at all, for 60 patients. No-one was allowed to get meds; we just chased them back into their rooms when they escaped, cleaned up when they urinated in the halls, and did light housekeeping. One of us slept two hours a shift and another one often took diet pills on the shift and wasn't much help. How did they get away with that?