mounceb

undefined I work at a rural regional hospital in Louisiana as an LPN and make 13.00 per hour with 2.00 shift diff and 2.00 weekend diff. It is fair pay in these parts where the cost of living is pretty low. I could make considerably more elsewhere in a larger city but the cost of living and crime would offset it too much. We pay better than most any hospital in our area but the LTC facilities pay slightly more... for those who can tolerate that environment.

No, you misunderstood. It was 14 patients to ONE nurse. 27 on the floor, one nurse had 14 the other had 13. That is too many.

I too am an LPN and a full-time RN student. I work in the ER at my hospital now but put in my time on the med/surg floor here as well (over a year). We frequently do not have an Rn on the floor. The standard is to divide the patients equally if possible and everyone does everything. We do usually have at least one CNA. I frequently had to take at least 9 patients and have had as many as 12 all to my self. I am and was ALWAYS responsible for my patients. If something happens to them - I answer for it because IF we do have an RN on the floor, she has her own load and all of the pushes, blood, etc. The standard is no more than 7 per nurse, regardless of licensure, but I have sen as many as 14 to one nurse. That is way too many and yes it was wrong... but we are an 80 bed rural regional hospital and we did what we had to do. It is unsafe and our hospital offers 15,000 dollar sign on bonus for an RN for 3 years. But there is none to be had. So, I agree that the LPN was at fault. She/he should have checked the patient more often barring any severe mitigating circumstances. Our policy is a minimum of every 2 hours the primary care nurse must check and chart on each patient. The CNA's catch them between (if we have any).