pt to nurse ratio

[michellelpn]

What is the patient to nurse ratio where you work?

What shift do you work and what area of nursing are you employed in?

:) :) :) :) :) Michelle

[dazedandconfused]

Depends on the shift. I work 7a-7p right now. I can have anywhere from 4( which is rare) to 7. 7p-7a can have 5-7. all these numbers depend on staffing. Lately it has been 5 or six patients with no aid.

[DougMiamiRN]

7am to 3pm, Respiratory Isolation Unit/MedSurg, 6 to 7 patients. Charge has no patients, evening and nights have same patient load. Union is addressing patient/nurse ratio in next contract. On regular medsurg floors the ratio is 1 to 10, telemetry 1 to 5.

[picu75rn]

Sorry couldn't vote as our ratio changes so frequently. Ideally, in our NICU, we have 1RN to 2 pts. if one of the infants is vented. Our feeders and growers are usually 1RN to 3pts. Of course, we also have far to many days where we might have 4-5pts with only one RN and 1-2 of those pts. could be on a vent and rest feeders and growers. There are just not enough nurses out there!!!!!!

[Stormy]

ICU-

1 vent - 1 nurse

No more than 2 patients per nurse. Depends on acuity of the patient.

[smurfynurse]

Where I work, we usually have between 6 to 8 patients per nurse, but we usually have 1 or 2 admissions per nurse through the course of the night. This makes it hard when you have to take time out to fill out the endless pages of the admission form for the patient as well as take care of the original patients you started out with.

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

I work 6p-6a on pedi floor. We generally have 4-6 pts.. No CNA unless >10 pts. on floor. Charge nurse gets same # as the rest. On days the Charge usually takes fewer, if any, patients and they always have unit clerk and CNA. On our floor all are RN's and we do all our phlebotoy, IV's, EVERYTHING.

[rjlrn95]

There is so much variance in my area w/nurse to pt ratio--I agree with exotic nurse==we should have regulations in place for 5-6 max per nurse and that would depend on acuity and floor you were on.

I do agency so see many diff #'s. --Last night, ortho floor with myself, RN, and one LPN. Share a tech w/peds. She took 5, I had 4--sounds great--BUSY night. we each had a post op, I had a Very confused and agitated 95yr old getting blood, family upset, etc. Two admits to come right after shift change--No secretary and I'm not allowed access to computer sys which left my LPN with all that crap. Our tech is crosstrained as secretary but can't find her when you need her and she gets upset if she has to empty foley's.

Another place I go has a telemetry floor that we do primary care, w a very occasional night when we will have a tech, ususally run 6-7 pts on this floor and we are expected to do baths on all the total care pts at night. The ms floor in this hosp runs with 7-8 pts per nurse, sometimes 6, but 2 techs and a secretary all night--that is a dream night.

The hosp I started in runs their othop floor with 2RN's, 1LPN, ! tech with 28 pts. I rememeber one night having 6 post-ops and

talk about being unsafe!!!!!! Rn's also have to do the LPN"S assessments in this institution. Plus, I ususally did charge.

If I hadn't had a teenager and one in the Navy I would have quit that horrid night but am glad I hung in there.

I still do nights and there are better places and numbers to work with, just keep looking, until you can get that reg passed.

[Ltkristarn]

When I was working on a telemetry floor, it was a dangerously high ratio. One night, 20 patients- two RNs and one CNA Thank goodness no one decided to code that night. On average, it was 8 to 9 a nurse, which was really scary too considering there were only three RNs and one CNA. We had patients code at least once a week and it would take at least two of us for the code, plus the rest of the team from other parts of the hospital. That meant two of us was unable to provide care for our other patients and leaving only one nurse on the floor to cover all the patients. What would happen if two patients coded at the same time? Dangerous!!! Then even another night, I had three patients on Dilt gtts, new admit, one sleeping (thank goodness), and a patient post op day 2 going through full blown DTs ???? We had the 5 to 6 patients a piece, but the type of patients we had was just awful and left us running all night. I think what hospital need to do is consider the acutity of the patients on the floor and not the numbers.

Anyway, now in CCU and only have two patients whichever shift I am on And never mess a day on the tele floors- too...don't know lol.

[Julie, RN]

Inpatient Oncology, 1 nurse to 4-5 pt's (very rarely 6).

Charge takes no pt's.

Two cna's for the floor (32 beds - we stay full).

[RNforLongTime]

I work on a 30 bed medical telemetry/respiratory and whatever else they decide to admit to our unit. I recently switched to night shift and our max pt assignment is 8 patients per RN. There are always 2 NA's.

On evening shift, the max is usually 6 although one Rn can have 7 patients if necessary. Same for day shift. On day shift there are usually 4 NA's and on evening shift, 2 NA's

[Sundowner]

Try this on for size.

LTC Skilled Unit: One LPN 3-11 Good day 30pts, bad day 60.

CNA's .....heh....anywhere from 8 to 30

RN- one....120 patients, 60 skilled, 60 non skilled

There seems to be a huge lack of concern for staff/patient ratio in the ltc setting. People are dying needlessly out of neglect.

The above mentioned Ltc facility used to operate as such.

Each wing had thirty beds, each wing had either two lpns or one lpn and one rn. with the exception of the nonskilled wings which operated with one lpn per wing. One RN supervisor for the whole house. CNA's had eight to fifteen (rarley fifteen). That was three years ago. without the help of Agency.

[Enright]

When I started in pediatrics, I was always told that peds staffed better than other floors. On 3-11 I'd have 3-4 children, 3 if one was a transplant. When I finished up my clinical career at another hospital 15 years later (in the 1990's) I had 12-20 kids on noc shift. Not just sleepers...babies, q6 hour respiratory tx (no RTs), admits, IV starts, parents who have needs. No aide, no LPN, and no help from the other RN who also had 12-20 herself.

And they were stunned when I left! I do maintain there is no nursing shortage, just a lack of people willing to be abused.