12 patient assignment

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Hello! So I just got my first clinical patient tech job on a telemetry floor and our patient assignments are always 12 patients. To me, this seems like a tremendous amount of patients to do vitals (3 times a shift), bed and baths, turning, answering lights, etc. The nurses are helpful for the most part, but my first shift on my own I felt completely overwhelmed. I am also in school and graduate in December. I guess I am just looking for advice as to how to handle having 12 patients at once. Thanks!

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Techs on the tele/med/surg floors at my facility have 13-15 pts each (2 techs per floor, 30 beds on 2 floors, 26 beds on the other).

I think our postpartum floor is 1:10 ratio (but not positive, think it is higher in the day than the night)

From reading here, 12-16 seems to be about the norm.

Heck our ICU has 1 tech for 12 beds, and they also work as the unit secretary.

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Specializes in OR/PACU/med surg/LTC.

Try to organize it so you are not running back and forth from one end of the hall to the other. If you have to do vitals on all 12, start at one end and try to work your way down the hall. Sometimes you might get interrupted and have to toilet someone in the middle. Also, before you go into a room, try to think of what you might need so that you aren't running back out multiple times. It will get better once you have a routine.

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12-16 patients is the norm on my telemetry floor for a pct. It will get easier with time! Good luck!

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Specializes in Medical ICU, Oncology, Otho.

The first night I was by myself as a tech I was completely over my head. I promise that it gets better. My advice would be to start everything early because you'll always get interrupted. Not sure if you guys have dynamaps that you have to push around or not but if you do, load that baby up with anything you might need. I also try to combine my care, example: if the patient needs a bath I'll do it around vital sign time, two birds with one stone! Good luck!

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We're not really assigned anyone, but normally night's has one tech does all the vitals varies 10-20 patient's. I mean one tech during day evening would do all the vitals and other Tech do blood work. At my other gig one tech to 20-31 patient's...I am a psych tech but we help them out if could with vitals...but they do vitals, tolieting, feeding, and blood work for all those patients. Was a family environment I liked it we helped the tech out when we could definitely a lot of work for them.

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I wish I had 12 patients to assist with, We have 25 rooms with new moms, and only one tech per shift in Mother/Baby unit, and I have to do vitals on mom and baby 3 times a shift, it takes two hours to get to end of hall, then afterwords I have several babies that need their first bath, which is very time consuming, as well as other duties like peri care, blood draws, make beds etc, I'm exhausted at the end of 12 hour shift, to top it off I don't have a desk to sit at like the nurses do, if I even get a free moment, I can go sit down for a few minutes at front desk, but it don't take long before I hear another Nurse giving me a job to do lol.

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It sounds like a lot now but it is very doable. I was overwhelmed when I got my first CNA job while in nursing school. I had 8-9 patients on a good day and 12-14 on days we were short (they were full care). On the telemetry floor you'll most likely have patients you can just set them up with stuff to get ready. Just breathe and don't rush. I always made a list at the beginning of my shift and I would write the order I was going to get everyone up. You can do it, good luck!! And remember it will get easier as you get into your own groove, it just takes some time :)

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Hello! So I just got my first clinical patient tech job on a telemetry floor and our patient assignments are always 12 patients. To me, this seems like a tremendous amount of patients to do vitals (3 times a shift), bed and baths, turning, answering lights, etc. The nurses are helpful for the most part, but my first shift on my own I felt completely overwhelmed. I am also in school and graduate in December. I guess I am just looking for advice as to how to handle having 12 patients at once. Thanks!

The floor I work on now is 10-15 patients per tech but I've worked with up to 18 patients at a time during my experience as a tech.

It helps to write things down and prioritize. The better report you get from your patients RN the easier time you will have prioritizing tasks. If you know what's coming you can attempt to plan for it. Don't be afraid to ask for help and keep your head up! Once you figure out a rhythm that works for you it will come easier to ya! I've had nights that have made me cry but they also made me stronger.

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How heavy a work load depends on the shift. For night shift this is a typical load for a tech, maybe even a little light.

For days it's a heavy load because you have to add baths into the mix. its impossible to say how heavy because every hospital is different and the division of labor varies. As a rule though techs will always have more work than is realistic.

Supervisors would rather have overworked stressed out techs than rns, because mistakes by RNs can be more dangerous, so techs are where they cut corners. Just do what you can and prioritize and know your tech nightmare will be over when you pass the nclex. I've never known a tech turned rn who said being an RN was harder than a tech, at least outside this forum, so just do your time.

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