Nursing School Patient Loads

Nurses General Nursing

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There is a discussion going on in the Nurse Educator forum related to clinical expectations. Anyway something that has come out of it is the amount of patients this student is responsible to take on.

In my ADN clinicals back in 2005ish in our last clinical rotation we were expected to have total care over two patients. We were on the same floor for 8 weeks, had two new patients per week with three days of 8 hour clinicals.

The student I am talking to is expected to ramp up to five patients by her last semester, do full care yet not have access to the PIXIS without the primary RN, and has to move to a new floor and learn a new stocking layout about every week.

Does this sound common? I have yet to ask where she goes to school, so this may be an outside of the US situation.

I am just curious as to what your degree is and what clinical expectations they had for you during school.

Tait

Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

In my 5 semester ADN program, now, we take do total care for 1 med/surg patient all first semester. That one patient would start of being mild but by the end of the first semester we cared for 1 higher acuity patient, total care. The 2nd semester we had to do total care for 2 stable patients a minimum of 3 times in the semester. During summer semester we had a mix if med Surg and LD/OB, we had one to 2 patients on those rotations, doing total care. On Med-Surg, we started with 3 patients, 2 mild care and 1 slightly higher acuity, all total care.

My fourth semester we started team nursing and each student rotated to act as "Charge Nurse", that student took responsibility forsaking pt. assignments that day and functioning as a charge nurse, carrying partial responsibility for all patients assigned. Team members during team nursing take anywhere from 2-4 med-surg patients with various blends of acuity, still total care, but if you needed help we have always been encouraged to work as a team. The group, typically made of 5 or 6 students, can only have a max of 14 patients (actually its really according to which instructor we're with bc some like to push us to see how good we are, safely) and a minimum of 10. Nobody gets less than two patients, but we mostly all get at least 3 patients with one or 2 people getting 4 and we rotate that so everyone gets the opportunity to have that kind of pt. load at least twice a semester. Of course our clinical instructor facilitates during the whole team nursing process, double checking to see if they agree with the patient assignments and etc... After hearing report.

My current semester the first 1/2 of the semester we must do 120 hours of an individual practicum or preceptorship on a desired/assigned unit with an assigned hospital employed preceptor, I chose CVICU.

By the end of preceptorship all students in my program must be able to manage the care of at least 4 mild-moderate care med-Surg patients safely, independently, or with little guidance. If you completed your practicum in a specialty or critical care unit (L&D, ICU, PACU, ER), we are expected to be SE care for a patient load that is typical for a new grad on that specific unit, for me that was 3-4 CVICU patients, unless I had a fresh CABG, which I would do one one care for.

Because we must share preceptors and sites with other schools, we can only do 120 hours of individual practicum and have now returned to Team Nursing with our instructors for the remainder of our final semester. We are now taking 2-5 mixed acuity patients, according to which instructor we have. When we have 5 patients or 4 "difficult"we still get our own vitals, but the Morning care can be delegates.

I'm in SE NC!

Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

My ADN program, I had two pts. all of my last year. We did mother/baby and med/surg. I am now in a six month internship, as a nurse ( new grad program, but I worked for 8 months in a LTC rehab unit). I have started with 2 pts, total care with a preceptor. I will eventually get up to 4-5 at the end of my 6 months. The rationale is that when we learn slowly and methodically, we learn properly. I can't imagine being safe as a student with 5 pts. I am NC as well. eastern.

Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.

Last semester here in a BSN program. In my practicum, our patient assignments depend on our units and how the preceptor wants to shape the experience. I started off with 1 patient at the beginning this semester and have progressed to I'd say 3.5 out of 4 . My preceptor at this point primarily will bring me meds as I don't have access to the Pyxis and has to handle drips like diltiazem or insulin as I'm not permitted. It's been great; she's figured out my weaknesses and can help push me along when I need it.

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

First two semesters it was 1, unless the instructor thought you could handle 2. Last semester was 1 during clinicals ( all critical care ) but during our internship it was expected that we took the entire load of of the nurse for whatever unit you were on.

I'm currently in a 6 semester BSN. We do 14 week rotations (actually 16 weeks but last 2 weeks are non-clinical). Clinicals are 2 days a week and we are generally on the floor for 10 hours. 1st semester we took one patient and assisted CNAs with anything they were doing, answered call lights, etc. 2nd semester we took 2 or 3 pts. depending on acuity. 3rd semester was OB and peds. Peds we started with 2 pts and ended with 4. For l&d we only took one pt in hopes that we could assist with deliveries but generally followed our RN and assisted with all of her pts. In mother/baby we took 4 mothers (so technically 8 pts). 4th semester was complex care and we started with 2 patients and were expected to handle all pts for the RN we were assigned to by the end of the semester.

Our 6th semester is either an ICU or ER preceptorship so I suppose our location will determine how many patients we handle.

In all semesters except for the 1st we are expected to do total care, full charting, assessments, and pull meds as well as IV starts, even in peds and EXPECTED to communicate with the physicians and other members of the health care team. Pt is scheduled for dialysis? We were fully expected to pick up the phone and call down to dialysis to see what time they were planning to pick up pt, communicate labs and meds and to find out which meds we could be expected to give!.

In my program. we must obtain RN and instructor verification before administering intravenous cardiac meds, narcotics, or insulin. We also are not allowed to adjunst PCAs by ourselves or chart from the care plan (in Epic) our Dar notes and assessments are labeled "student note" but we were expected to follow the care plan and chart accordingly. However, by the end of our 4th semester most of us were allowed to chart from the careplan.. Depending on the pt, we also need the RN with us for certain types of trach care, such as when cleaning and removing/replacing non-disposable cannula.

By the 5th qtr of my ADN program (6qtrs total) we had a full load. I was on oncology and a full load was only 3-4 so I was lucky. Our rotations were five weeks long. My last quarter was in PACU and I took 1-2 patients (same as the RNs) but no critical patients by myself.

Clinical days would drag if you only had one or two patients.......

We did 3 tele patients in our last clinical. With the unit size and our group size, it honestly would have been hard to have 5 patients (aside from the fact that that also wasn't the ratio the nurses had themselves on this unit). We still needed supervision to give meds, we supposed to be delegating to the CNAs (and boy was THAT awkward: "hi, I'm a guest on your unit having an educational experience, so let me tell you what to do...."), and it was still a handful sometimes. This was an accelerated BSN program.

I'm totally jealous of the folks that got to do preceptorships (just didn't fit in the time frame of the program I was in) but in the end I feel like I transitioned well as a new nurse.

EDITED TO ADD:

We had subject-based clinicals. We had 1 clinical 1st quarter that was med-surg/rehab, 3 clinicals 2nd and 3rd quarter (maternity, med-surg, psych, peds, another med-surg, and community health) and 2 clinicals 4th quarter (geriatrics and "critical care" which was on telemetry and step down units, not ICUs). Our set up was the instructor assigned us patients, we got and gave report to the nurse and touched base with the nurse regarding our assessments, but meds and any procedures we needed supervision with were done with the instructor (unless we were done with our patients and were tagging along with a nurse on the floor to see something cool, and for L&D we were paired with a nurse and stayed with her for the shift).

This meant we started out with a certain amount of independence simply because our instructor couldn't be in 5-8 places at the same time (our class size range for clinicals), which made me feel like I still knew nothing about how to manage a shift by the end (compared to working as a new grad with a preceptor who initially went in to every room with me every step of the way and gradually backed off over my orientation. Personally I think a little more hand holding in the beginning just gave me a much better grasp on how to actually prioritize and time manage and juggle multiple tasks).

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
In my 5 semester ADN program, now, we take do total care for 1 med/surg patient all first semester. That one patient would start of being mild but by the end of the first semester we cared for 1 higher acuity patient, total care. The 2nd semester we had to do total care for 2 stable patients a minimum of 3 times in the semester. During summer semester we had a mix if med Surg and LD/OB, we had one to 2 patients on those rotations, doing total care. On Med-Surg, we started with 3 patients, 2 mild care and 1 slightly higher acuity, all total care.

My fourth semester we started team nursing and each student rotated to act as "Charge Nurse", that student took responsibility forsaking pt. assignments that day and functioning as a charge nurse, carrying partial responsibility for all patients assigned. Team members during team nursing take anywhere from 2-4 med-surg patients with various blends of acuity, still total care, but if you needed help we have always been encouraged to work as a team. The group, typically made of 5 or 6 students, can only have a max of 14 patients (actually its really according to which instructor we're with bc some like to push us to see how good we are, safely) and a minimum of 10. Nobody gets less than two patients, but we mostly all get at least 3 patients with one or 2 people getting 4 and we rotate that so everyone gets the opportunity to have that kind of pt. load at least twice a semester. Of course our clinical instructor facilitates during the whole team nursing process, double checking to see if they agree with the patient assignments and etc... After hearing report.

My current semester the first 1/2 of the semester we must do 120 hours of an individual practicum or preceptorship on a desired/assigned unit with an assigned hospital employed preceptor, I chose CVICU.

By the end of preceptorship all students in my program must be able to manage the care of at least 4 mild-moderate care med-Surg patients safely, independently, or with little guidance. If you completed your practicum in a specialty or critical care unit (L&D, ICU, PACU, ER), we are expected to be SE care for a patient load that is typical for a new grad on that specific unit, for me that was 3-4 CVICU patients, unless I had a fresh CABG, which I would do one one care for.

Because we must share preceptors and sites with other schools, we can only do 120 hours of individual practicum and have now returned to Team Nursing with our instructors for the remainder of our final semester. We are now taking 2-5 mixed acuity patients, according to which instructor we have. When we have 5 patients or 4 "difficult"we still get our own vitals, but the Morning care can be delegates.

I'm in SE NC!

^Similar...did this in PN and in BSN school in PA...also depends on the nursing instructor, and the program. My area has TONS of nursing schools, so to have an opportunity to be able to shadow and closely follow nurses during each of my program's clinicals, it MENTALLY prepared me to face the floor work, no matter how steep the learning curve.

For all who are interested, this is the recent thread where there was some question about what is a right amount of patients for a student to take. Many, many people on this thread I posted were quite rude to the OP, and basically told her to suck it up and shut up. I don't think it's appropriate for a student to have more than a couple of patients, yet when OP said she had 5, people were like "so what? that's the real world!"

I get that, but you also have to understand that these are students, and many need their instructor with them to do certain medications, and can't get into the medication machines, and have never done many skills and need assistance, and then if their instructor okays something, they still have to go and find the supply room and figure out what the hell the nurse means when she is looking for Kerlix, or a drain sponge, for example. Both of those things I had no idea what they were when I started nursing. Nursing tasks and skills are things that you learn on the floor, not in the classroom, but it is entirely inappropriate to be thrown to the wolves on a floor in the name of learning. You need intensive, one on one training.

It's unrealistic for a school to throw five patients at a student nurse and expect them to go, yet nurses on the floor get weeks of supervised orientation to the floor. You either need one on one clinical instructor with an instructor from the school, or a smaller patient load so your clinical instructor isn't stretched so thin.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/clinical-nursing-student-817516.html

Specializes in geriatrics.

We were expected to provide care to 4 total care patients during our final semester of the BSN program. That's still the standard for many universities in Canada.

I graduated in 2010.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
We did 3 tele patients in our last clinical. With the unit size and our group size, it honestly would have been hard to have 5 patients (aside from the fact that that also wasn't the ratio the nurses had themselves on this unit). We still needed supervision to give meds, we supposed to be delegating to the CNAs (and boy was THAT awkward: "hi, I'm a guest on your unit having an educational experience, so let me tell you what to do...."), and it was still a handful sometimes. This was an accelerated BSN program.

I'm totally jealous of the folks that got to do preceptorships (just didn't fit in the time frame of the program I was in) but in the end I feel like I transitioned well as a new nurse.

EDITED TO ADD:

We had subject-based clinicals. We had 1 clinical 1st quarter that was med-surg/rehab, 3 clinicals 2nd and 3rd quarter (maternity, med-surg, psych, peds, another med-surg, and community health) and 2 clinicals 4th quarter (geriatrics and "critical care" which was on telemetry and step down units, not ICUs). Our set up was the instructor assigned us patients, we got and gave report to the nurse and touched base with the nurse regarding our assessments, but meds and any procedures we needed supervision with were done with the instructor (unless we were done with our patients and were tagging along with a nurse on the floor to see something cool, and for L&D we were paired with a nurse and stayed with her for the shift).

This meant we started out with a certain amount of independence simply because our instructor couldn't be in 5-8 places at the same time (our class size range for clinicals), which made me feel like I still knew nothing about how to manage a shift by the end (compared to working as a new grad with a preceptor who initially went in to every room with me every step of the way and gradually backed off over my orientation. Personally I think a little more hand holding in the beginning just gave me a much better grasp on how to actually prioritize and time manage and juggle multiple tasks).

^This...is more similar to my BSN program...my experience is between yours a Pac's post I responded to.

Maybe it's me, but I am more if an advocate of more opportunities for theory applications in nursing...you will still have to acclimate to a nursing unit, and practice, but those intangibles like time management, safety, preparing and identifying complications, leadership and advocacy (for yourself, your patients, and as a team member) can really prepare entering in the profession...

When you have people buning out, fearful of taking breaks, ie not having time to pee and a ton of other issues, I just wonder, if done right, would it be minimized by really having a true "practicum"???

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

My last semester of nursing school was a mixed bag- leadership and critical care in the same clinical. The first week, we oriented to a med surg floor and took one patient. The following 3 weeks we took a full team. My patient load was 5; some students at the other hospital site took 8-10. In other semesters (except peds/OB), we started with one but were expected to take two about midway through.

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