Nurse/Patient Ratio

1. Hello everyone....I work in a rural hospital with at 14 bed pediatric unit. I was wanting to know what your patient ratio was like. We are trying to defend the fact that we feel extremely unsafe with a 7:1 ratio. There may or may not be ancillary staff to help us with this ratio. We have many many acute RSV and respiratory patients. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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2. 

   About NativeButterfly

   Joined: May '02; Posts: 74; Likes: 1
   Women's Health Nurse Practitioner; from US
   Specialty: 4 year(s) of experience

   9 Comments

   Topic Closed
3. 
   Mar 10, '03

   Our peds unit tries to have a max of 4:1. We have 12 beds, with some rooms doubled, we can take 18, but we don't have the staff for it.
4. 
   Mar 10, '03

   At tertiary medical centers, so pretty sick kids, the max I have had since 1986 is 5, with the norm being 3 or 4 :1. With some cardiac, multi system issues - 2:1. Rarely 1:1 and that is only because there is no room in the unit. I know they sometimes have 5:1 on nights. The last time I had 7:1 was 1978 and I still have nightmares about it. I had 7 kids and 10 lines, evening shift.
5. 
   Jul 12, '03

   I work in organ transplant and on nights usually have 2-4:1. A bad night is 5:1, however I have been pulled to units where there is RSV and the norm ration is 5-8:1 in nights.
6. 
   Jul 17, '03

   we are supposed to be staffed 4:1 but more often than not it will be 5:1. during the winter if we get some really bad rsv's we do a 3:1 or 2:1 ( if people are willing to do overtime.)
7. 
   Jul 21, '03

   We have 3-4 on day shift and 3-5 on night shift. Kids are staffed 1:1 or 2:1 when condition warrants. This is a peds Hem/onc unit. I know on our general med units where acuity is usually a little lower they have the same ratios.
8. 
   Aug 6, '03

   We have 3-1 on days, and 4-1 on nights for the ward and 1-1 in PICU
9. 
   Aug 13, '03

   We are staffed usually 3-4:1. In some cases we will be 5:1 where we also have a CNA just with our assignment.
10. 
    Sep 14, '03

    we usually staff4:1 unless chronic vent kids then its 2:1, winter months staffing can go to 5:1/3:1 if we r in overflow......usually have a tech for vs and bath/linen/diaper help......it is a gen. med/surge floor for infants up to toddlers age max of 5 yrs old.
11. 
    Sep 15, '03

    My ward is an ortho and trauma and some medical. It's a 23 bedded ward. We have children between ages of 0-16yrs. When we are busy i have had ratio of 8:1. It's very hard work. This is due to staff shortages. When i come on duty the number of patients is divided between the trained staff, some days it's 6: others can be as little as 3:1.

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