Patient Load

[khagerman]

OK, fellow m/s nurses.... I am just interested in what you all consider to be an average workload per day.... Not counting nights, which at my facility is usually better staffed than days, on the average day how many discharges/admission to you as a staff nurse do and take. Just got off a shift yesterday where I was charge nurse, ended up taking two admission and doing six discharges. Other staff nurses each started with 7, d/c'd two, and had two more patients added by the end of the day. Six of these admissions were fresh Orthos, setting up PCA's etc. Please post and let me know your average day. P.S. I'm in KY, and you California nurses don't even need to answer, we know your ratios... :)

[Bringonthenight]

Australian nurse. Up to 12 patients at old med surg job my brand new job is in a state with regulated ratios of 1:4 muuuch safer and happier!

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

I our record is 13 discharges in one shift and 10 admits in, not including surgical.

Our staff nurses don't do the actual dc/admit process, that is my job as a CN. I don't take pt's, but I'm very busy.

On the average it's more like 5 admits in and 5-6 out. Again, not including surgical.

[mitral]

Where we did clinicals, it was an average of 5-7 patients. The nurses ran their butts off, and it definitely discouraged all of us students from wanting to go the med surg route. I don't know how you do it!

[nurseintx0511]

I work nights on a med/surg unit and we usually have 5-7 patients each.

[Mverret1]

My floor is a 31 bed unit, usually staffed with 6 nurses. When I am Charge nurse I usually don't take pts. Our census is normally 27-30 patients. Normally 5-6 dc's and 4-6 admits per day. The nurses usually have a load of 6 patients at all times after dc's and new ad's. Which I usually do the admits/dc's/new IV starts and such. It works pretty well.