Patient to nurse ratio NY in LTC

[elisha]

Hi everyone,I would be asking for your experience/s & words of wisdom. I work in a LTC/rehab facility specifically in a young long term unit where residents follow you every couple of hours for their pain meds (you have to allot at least 30 mins doing narcotic count,that is if you'r a fast counter;just to give you an idea on the amt of narcotic we have).

Last month we were changed toa 12hr shift however when the schedule was released most of us had a 16 hrs shift schedule (we were never informed prior to the release of sched w/c was a day before the start of the month). We followed our superiors & did our part & went on duty.

Then this month they stopped the 16 hrs shift but removed 1 nurse on each unit & implemented a 1nurse:40 residents ratio,also since this sched was started almost all the nurses has had suspensions averaging 10 days for all reasons you can think of (including calling in sick) one of our nurse even had an indefenite suspension(she is now having htn bec of the hse bills yet no definete answer as to when she will be back to work).

This is my question what is the usual nurse;patient ratio in this kind of facilities?What are the legal grounds for suspension (btw,our facility has no policy on this neither did they give any employee any info abt this).The admin said that the owners are cutting back on the budget that's why they had to do this kind of staffing,even the staff coordinator is going crazy over this staffing.We have a nurse that works in 2 units w/c is sched to work 4 hrs on 1 unit & 4 hrs on the other unit to "help out",they only have 27 hrs/wk (our contract stipulates 35hrs/wk of work).

Since we are foreign nurses we are not well versed to laws or "rights" of nurses,we placed our trust in the agency that hired us w/c was when spoken to said "ow,w/ regards to suspensions we are hands off!" Thanks a lot for advocating for us,right?!! Hay....this is probably why those 27 nurses walked out on that other facility.any advice/word of wisdom will be much appreciated as we are at a lost on what to do. Thanks in advance.

[Furwillfly]

One nurse to 40 residents? That is insane! I think it differs state to state, but here in Washington I don't think there is a law on the alloted ratio. However, here if you don't feel you can't take care of 40 residents.......don't clock in. Don't accept the work load. That way they can't hold it against your license. I think it is awful of them to not have discussed the hours scheduled. I wouldn't work in that environment, not fair to you, your co-workers, most of all the residents.