Please share nurse to pt ratio

Specialties Oncology

Published

Hi everyone. Can anyone share with me their nurse to pt ratio in Outpt chemo departments and Radiation departments please? very curious as to the "average".Thanks

Im not sure if you are interested in the inpatient oncology depart... we hang chemo on our floor as well. I will have anywhere from 5 to 9 patients a night. It doesnt matter if I am hanging chemo on one or more of my patients we still keep those numbers. We sometimes get a break if we are doing chemo belly baths on patients and will only have to care for a few other patients at that same time.

We have one radiation nurse for anywhere from 15 to 20 pts on tx and 2 chemo nurses for hopefully not more than 8 pts infusing at once - In an outpatient clinic. No CNAs or Techs.

Specializes in Psych.

I'm a nurse on an inpatient unit and our ratio is 4:1.

Specializes in Med/surg and Oncology.

i work in a extremely busy out pt clinic, there is one infusion RN and a LPN that helps out although he cant hang the chemo. we have 8 chairs and 2 beds. somedays we have up to 17 infusions. our radonc department runs seperately with one RN but it is all in the same building. there are usually 3-4 RN doing assessments, drawing blood ect.

Specializes in onc, M/S, hospice, nursing informatics.
Im not sure if you are interested in the inpatient oncology depart... we hang chemo on our floor as well. I will have anywhere from 5 to 9 patients a night. It doesnt matter if I am hanging chemo on one or more of my patients we still keep those numbers. We sometimes get a break if we are doing chemo belly baths on patients and will only have to care for a few other patients at that same time.

What is a "chemo belly bath" please. Never heard of that, and I have been working inpatient oncology for 5 years.

:confused:

P.S. We usually have 5-6 on all shifts.

Sounds like IP chemo to me...but I've never heard it called a "belly bath" either.

Specializes in GI, OR, Oncology.

I just started working at an outpatient cancer center. There are 10 chairs - one infusion nurse for non-chemo treatments get 2 chairs, and 2 chemo nurses get the rest. It seems to be very busy most of the time. So, I guess for the chemo nurses it's 4:1. I'm still so new it's really scary to me because it feels sort of chaotic all day. I'm still deciding if it's the place for me. I feel way too paniced and rushed all day. This is not something I want to ever make an error with! I have the rest of this week and next week of orientation, then I'll have to decide if it's something I can handle or not. I hope I can learn a lot in the next week, because I'd really love for this to work out - I love the patients!

I work on an in-pt. unit, that is mostly Heme. pts and our ratio is 4:1, sometimes 5:1.

p.s. I've never heard of 'belly bath chemo' either :o. I'm I missing out on something here? I've been working Heme/Onc. for 8 years....

my guess is belly bath is IP chemo too??

I am inpatient. Med/Surg mix. anywhere from 4:1 to 7:1 on days or 5:! or 9:1 on nights. Purely depends on staffing. My unit staffs well but we get pulled often leaving us with more patients. :(

We try to give nurses with chemo less patients but doesn't always work. Nurses with a stem cell patient usually get less though and it's 1:1 on reinfusion day.

Specializes in MS Home Health.

I have never heard the term'belly bath'either...

renerian

Specializes in oncology.

I work in an outpatient 16 chair Oncology/Hematology clinic with 2 doctors. The nurse/patient ratio is 8:1 to sometimes 10:1 depending on staffing. We administer chemotherapy, Infed infusions, IVF's, IV antibiotics. We also administer research chemotherapy. Our duties also include checking the prescription line for refill requests. On average for an 8-5 (or until the last patient is done) day, there are 2-3 nurses in the the treatment room. The great thing is that we have a pharmacy tech to mix drugs and an MA to help out with vital signs and other misc tasks. We are very busy from about 10a-3p.We work as a team and that makes for a wonderful 8-9 hour day.

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