Patient to Nurse Ratios: What are yours?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am curious about what your patient ratio is.....

State the following:

State

City

Unit worked

Patient load

Shift

I will start:

Texas

El Paso

Med Surge

7-8 patients

day shift

Texas

El Paso

Telemetry

6 patients

day shift

Washington

Edmonds

Surgical/Oncology

5-6 patients

day shift

Specializes in Trauma ICU, Peds ICU.

State

City

Unit worked

Patient load

Shift

California

ICU

1 or 2, based on acuity

Nocs

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State TX

City Ft Worth

Unit worked TRAUMA/TELE (PCU UNIT)

Patient load 3-4

Shift TRAINING ON DAYS ~GOING TO NIGHTS~PT LOAD SAME

We have a 36 bed unit with 2 charge nurses who do not do pt care, 2 unit clerks, & 2 techs who collect all vitals including BS. The techs also do baths & linens on good days, as well as other delagated tasks.

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Houston, Texas

Med Surg

5-7 patients

7a-7p

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Specializes in Emergency Department/Trauma.

Central Florida

Emergency Dept.

4 patients (can add a hallway bed for one additional during high volume times...aka almost always)

19:00-07:00

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Specializes in Coronary Rehab Unit.

Tennessee

telemetry

anywhere from 4:1 to 10:1

11p-7a (rarely if ever pct or cna.......2 RNs and 2 to 3 LPNs )

It's usually fine, we all work together great.... some nights get crazy (light staff and lots of new admits....especially admits that don't particularly belong on our unit:banghead:) .... but all is usually well by end of shift :up:

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I'm interested to see responses from nurses outside the USA in this query...

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Ortho, Onc, Cardiac, Neuro.

I float so it depends on the dept.

Northern Colorado

Medical, Neuro, Tele, Ortho

1:6

Surg, Onc

1:4-5

7p-7a

They just changed our ratio. It used to be max 5. We even lucky if we have an aide sometimes.

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California

Med/Surg

1:4

6a-6p

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Specializes in geriatrics.

I have worked in long term care for 11 years as an LPN. Average amt of paitents is 40 I am the only nurse and I usually have 3 LNA's. However I have had as many as 80 paitents (on night shift) this is not safe!!! that is why I am currently taking sometime off because I feel like instead of going to work I might as well throw away my license. :banghead:

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Specializes in ICU, School Nurse, Med/Surg, Psych.

State- Iowa

City- Cedar Rapids

Unit worked- Outpatient Chronic Mentally Ill Home Health

Patient load- 45-50 clients

Shift- 8am -4:30 weekends & holiday off:)

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Specializes in Telemetry.

Missouri

Telemetry/Cardiac Stepdown

Nights

5:1 (Ratios on days are the same though, which I think is stupid and unsafe.)

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Specializes in med/surg.

Pittsburgh

PA

med/surg

6-10 (avg 8-9)

7pm-7am

we don't have lpn's, only pca's (pt care assistants)

we are lucky if we have 2 pca's on the floor with 24 patients to split between 3 RN's.

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