How many patients are you assigned?

[Little Panda RN]

I am a graduate practical nurse and our hospital here routinely assigns 5 patients per nurse. The do not have CNA's. I worked the ortho floor during my last practicum weekend and it was pure h*** . The patients were total assist and there was no help! Is this routine for most hospitals to assign 5 total assist patients to one nurse without the help of a CNA? After that weekend it really soured me on ortho:( . Anyways just curious if it is like this all over.

[suehp]

I just started on an ortho-vascular floor 2 weeks ago... the demands for a nurse is [EVIL][/EVIL] ! I'm on days right now but will be working 7pm-7am. I was TOLD that the usual pt load on nights is 7-8 patients so I guess we'll see.

I was "told" that the max we would have on nights would be 6-8. I was a bit suspicious at first but to be fair after being there for about 6 weeks now the max I have had is 8 and that has literally been twice. The normal is 6, but I have been known just to have 4 when it is quiet. At the moment they are destaffing a lot as we are in our quiet season.

I personally think the safe number is 6 especially if you have a lot of post-ops. our surgery days are mon, wed and fri so those nights are particularly busy. It is also better if you keep the same assignment which to be fair they do try and stick to as best they can which means it is a little easier as you know the patients.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Sometimes 5 is too many and 10 is easy as pie. It all depends. My suggestion would be to double team with another nurse. That way you have her help and she has yours.

NEVER try moving someone alone. My back finally gave out after 32 years, and all I did was push a bed (WITH help.)

[suehp]

NEVER try moving someone alone. My back finally gave out after 32 years, and all I did was push a bed (WITH help.)

I always make sure I raise the bed when turning anyone or doing dressings as I find bending over kills my back more than the actual lifting or turning! You just have to remember to lower the bed again LOL

[bahraini male nurse]

am orth nurse during morning duty i will assigned for 4 pts

in evening and night duty only 8 pts

but all that with team work

[suehp]

I arrived on duty the other night at 7pm and was assigned 4 patients, one of them was a fresh post op. Before 10pm I was further assigned another 2 fresh post op patients. In total on the unit we had 11 patients with 2 RN's and one tech. It was ridiculous. I ran between the 3 fresh postops trying to help the tech who had 5 fresh post ops in total, trying to take off the Doctor's orders and making sure the patients were doing ok.

Our census has been low so they have been destaffing us a lot lately...but that was awful. The next night was slightly better in that we had 3 RN's and one tech for 14 patients but at least we didnt have any fresh post ops.

Some days are better than others:o

[lyallch]

Why do nurses keep doing what we do??? Would any other profession have put up with this kind of madness??? Are we mad???? :stone :smackingf

[RN and Mommy]

I work on an Ortho/Neuro unit and we have on days anywhere from 5-7 patients along with a CNA who only has those patients as well. With patients coming and going, it is not unusual to have run through 10 patients a day.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

I've run through as many as 20 in a shift. But that was with an LPN and a tech on my team.

One evening an LPN and I (no tech that nite) admitted 13 patients. The next shift then complained that we didn't admit the one that arrived 5 minutes into their shift.

[butterfly_kizzez]

I work nites in ortho /trauma w/c is 2 units combined . In the ortho unit w/c are all total joints we have 4 pts each w/ 2 CNA's but in the trauma

unit we have 4 pts each w/ no CNA. It could be a crappy nite or an easy nite depending on the acuity. I find it more stressful in the ortho unit with the postops w/ epis and pcas .

[mmsparkle]

Well, back when I was working on the wards, we'd have 7 (officially, usually 5 or 6) staff - max 4 qualified, for 32 patients. This was in the morning shift. The late shift and night shift had to make do with 4 staff, 2 qualified, 2 unqualified. I've been there on the days I was the only qualified nurse with 2 agency health care assistants to help. So, up to 32. Those of you who have only 5 patients, be glad.

It was the most hard work, and stressful, I've ever done. Impossible to provide patient care. Moving to ICU was a breeze, comparatively.

[Black Nightingale]

This stuff sounds crazy!! Ortho is hard work...the patients are up with 2 assists, have to have assistance with elimination, IV antbx, PCA pumps, turning and reposistioning q 2 hrs..on a floor where we average 35-39 patients a day there are usually 12 nurses during the day and 8 at night. Hopefully there are techs, but if everyone works as a team, you can get things done.

[Cat Nurse]

I work M-F on a ortho (med/surg overflow unit) we usually have more med pts than ortho. I am in charge and usually have 4-6 pts. On a good day we have one PNT. The hospital policy recently changed so all vitals are done every shift plus the post-op pt whose VS are every 4hrs. Nurses forget they can do a bath or a set of Vitals. Several nurses will spend time looking for a PNT to do vitals, than if they did them selves.