Patient LOAD anyone?

[Pheobe05]

hey guys! just wondering here... i have been a med-surg nurse for almost a year. i love the skills, people and job. but my pt load is about 8-9 patients a night. i feel as if i've aged 5 years this past year. just wondering if this is the patient load at all hospitals and i'm a big baby. or- if this is unusual? let me know what you think. i appreciate your input.

[TraumaRN1983]

I work in a Trauma/Emergency General Surgery unit and on day shift we usually only have 3 patients. Sometimes we become short-staffed at 1500 when 8-hour day shifters leave and we often have to pick up one additional patient. On nights, our nurses are more likely to have 4 patients. I can't imagine having 8-9 patients at a time, sometimes 3 patients on our floor gets overwhelming, I am amazed at those of you who can handle so many patients!

[wooh, BSN, RN]

All this and there are still people thinking ratio laws would be bad!

[RNLisa]

Wow, I feel very fortunate. I work days, on a normal day I have anywhere from 3 to 5 patients to begin with, some days I end up with 4 to 6 patients. I have never had more than 7 at a time, and that was only once. I worked yesterday, I began with 5, discharged one first thing, then had 2 admits and 1 more discharge. I ended up with 5. I feel very fortunate. I really have never felt over loaded, with the exception of one day when we were short. The only problem is that we usually end up with only 1 stna and she has the whole floor regardless if there is 2 patients or 20 patients. That sucks. Our stna's work the butts off where I work. Not that the nurses don't.

[Lorie P.]

:chuckle anything less than 6 is a wonderful night. most nights we have 7-9 pts each. we have had our pt care administrator tell us numerous times " most pts sleep while you guys sit with a cup of coffee comapring cmls to mars trying to stay awake"!! last time this rn, msn worked a floor was bakc in 1992 and it was the unit!!!

just for an example of a typical night for me:

3 pts confused with bed alarms going off cause they will not stay in the bed

2 wanting pain/nausea meds at exactly the time they are due!! plus bring me something to drink when you bring my nausea meds

2-3 getting colonoscopy preps ( by the way usually they atre over age 75 and incontient to begin with)

and the list goes on and on!! i am so happy to work a group of 3 other nurses that actually work together and help out.

then when i give report the next morning day shift whines when are we gonna stop having 5-6 pts???:rotfl: what a joke, i would not know how to act with only 5-6 every time i worked.

likewise great thing i love my job or see ya!!

[RNLisa]

The thing is with day shift, even having 5 or 6 patients, we also have all the family, doctors, physical therapy, occ therapy, speech, radiology, etc. to deal with, not to mention surgery, the surgeon, etc.

[clc19k30]

My usual was 5 patients. That was on a 29 bed Med Surg Unit with two other RNs and 2 LPNs, No CNAs. When I got to ICU it was 1 to 1.5 patients per Nurse. RN and LPN, no CNA. But you could count on an admission at 1600 whenever I was charge!!

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

5 patients max.

Used to be 8-9-10 . . . . mostly 6 to 7.

I have a CNA too.

steph

[superRN39]

Well, I work on a transplant floor and we have pretty good patient ratios.

On the day shift you usually have 2-3 patient (2 if you have a post-transplant patient), evenings 2-3 patients and nights 3-4 patient.

[EarthChild1130]

On the medical floor I'm assigned to, my usual load is 4 patients. When I float back to psych, we usually take 2-3 patients each...the medical floor has 14 beds and the psych floor has 10.

When I worked psych in Mobile, AL we had a 26 bed adult unit and a 15 bed geripsych...and I worked nights, and we'd take 12 each...not so bad since it was psych.

My friends who still live in Mobile say that their usual med/surg load is between 8-10 patients.

Too much, I think! I'm all for ratio laws!!

[Sassybottom]

I don't know how some of you manage with so many patients ... I would go insane. You guys must be really effective with your time and organization.

Our typical load on night shift is 5 patients with potential for an admission or 6 patients. Our day shift is usually 3 patients and an admit or 4 patients.

Even with just 5 patients and no admit, I never have a single moment to sit down and have a break. I really don't know how some of you guys can manage - seriously, I bow to you.

[EmmaG, RN]

........

[grace90, LPN, LVN]

On night shift, 6-8 pts is good on the ortho/neuro/surg floor. On tele or med/oncology, starting out with 4 or 5 is better because those two floors typically get slammed with night time ER admissions a lot more. :uhoh21:

Side note: Last time I floated to ortho/neuro/surg I actually had a very ingrown nurse who hasn't floated off that floor in years ask what in the world med/oncology would get night admissions for?!? I stared at her like she was joking and then began rattling off a long laundry list that didn't stop until she started ignoring me.