"normal" workload??

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I am a nursing student on the path to graduate in January 2016. I decided to get a CNA job so I could gain practical experience outside of clinicals. I am a career changer and am brand new to the world of hospitals and health care. I have been working as a CNA on a medsurge floor of my local community independent hospital for 2 months. I am gaining so much confidence and experience as a CNA. It is very very demanding and nonstop 12 hr shift but I enjoy the work and learning. I am, however, getting nervous watching how hard it is for the nurses to do their jobs. These are a really great group of hard working ladies, but many seem overwhelmed and stressed. From my perspective it seems that they cannot provide the level of care that they want to because they are so busy. Some have told me they are there for sometimes an two hours after their shift still charting/documenting. Everyone seems exhausted. Here are some of my questions...

1. Is it like this everywhere on medsurge floors?

2. What is a "normal" patient load?

3. How do I know if this is normal or a red flag?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

1. Yes med surg is generally very busy.

2. Patient load will be different every where.

3. I wouldn't consider nurses being busy a red flag. Nursing is hard work.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Onc.

I work oncology/med/surg

I am busy a lot! I do sometimes run around like a chicken with my head cut off lol!

We have good ratios though IMO. 4:1 days 5:1 back half of PMs and 6:1 on nights. Days has 3-4 cnas, PMs has 3 and nights have 2. We have 18 beds in my unit.

I very rarely skip my lunch and I haven't ever stayed more than 10-15 min later than scheduled.

I love my floor.

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