ABLONGLEYRN

I work on a 48 bed tele floor. We have OH's, sometimes as many as 17 on the floor. We have post MI's, post HC/Plasty's/ablations/ICD's/pacers etc. We see alot of angioseals and have alot of problems with bleeds when they are on integ. and or reapro. Often using c-clamp on the floor to control the bleed. They have just recently started to use the perclose and can't make a statement about that yet. Our OH's usually come to us post-op day 1. Sometimes with CT and some have temp pacers. We have a large turnover of both pts. and staff. They have just made major changes in our staffing on the floor. Our ratio now is 5-1 with the help of a CNA. And are finding that most days are spent on the run. We have all drips except for NTG and levo. I've been a nurse for over 20 years and find that it's just about impossible to give the kind of care that I'm used to giving and feel I need to give. I find that the age of our OH's has gone up and the acuity is much higher than a few years ago and yet they expect you to do more. Pt's are confused, less mobile and over all more needy. We have alot more complaints from pt's and their families and the Docs. regarding thier care. We have more med. errors and more incidents happening. But management continues to deny that it has anything to do with increased pt. ratio. And we have many new grads every year. JUst a sad state of affairs!