i work on a step down unit. our floor has 42 pts with a ratio of 1:4 or 1:5. we are the only floor besides the ICUs that can take a vent pt. if we have a vent pt it's an automatic 1:4 ratio. we also take pts on aquadex, it is also a 1:4 ratio. then you have all your standard cardiac stuff. heart caths, ablations, cabgs, stemis, nstemis, chf, drips, bipaps, trachs, chest tubes, etc. our charge nurse takes 2 pts, so theyre not always able to help either. we have 1 CNA for the entire floor and monitor our own teles. we're extremely understaffed and are required 3 12's one week and then 4 12's the next week, then back to 3. in the past month we have had a total of 8 nurses leave between day shift and night shift. i'm just about at my point of looking for a new job as well.
i'm curious to know how the pay is set in other hospitals. do all of your RNs make relatively the same base pay, or does it differ depending on acuity of pts? ours is standard, so while were coding pts, other nurses are on other floors literally watching movies and making the same amount of money.
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