How Many is enough? Patient Ratios

Specialties Rehabilitation

Published

Long term care has changed and not for the better. Employers are hiring fewer staff and ratios are forever increasing. What are you views of having 20-26 patients per shift? Can a nurse perform her duties properly with this kind of ratio? I figured out that on one unit I pop a pill from a blister pack every 1.5 minutes for 8 hours. Is this good medicine? Or is a set up for losing your license? I think it is time to get out of LTC.

CapeCodMermaid, RN

6,090 Posts

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

You won't lose your license. That is the way it is in long term care. It is going to have to change eventually. Our patients are getting sicker by the day.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN

102 Articles; 27,612 Posts

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Is this good medicine? Or is a set up for losing your license? I think it is time to get out of LTC.

Nurses' fears of losing their licensure in the long term care setting are not always grounded in professional reality. Statistically, nurses are fare more likely to lose their licensure in an acute care hospital setting.

Moreover, the most common reasons for revocation of nursing licensure are problems revolving around addiction, narcotic diversion, theft, impairment, or intemperate use of alcohol and substances. Nurses seldom lose their licensure for patient care mistakes or having too many elderly residents.

Nica-RN, RN

47 Posts

In my facility, rehab area up to 22 patients and in LTC up to 28 residents.

In my eyes are both not proper working assignments d/t the less time you have to recognize changes of condition properly. I think it is just luck that not much bad things happen during a shift.

Anyway, if I have a second, I talk to my residents to give them a caring feeling, cause a lot of them live here until their "end". Even it is not well enough appreciated by payment and the families, we should try to make it for especially LTC residents as comfortable as possible.

The rehab patients at least know they'll go out once. I just try to keep them comfortable, which is not easy with so much patients, I cannot run allover to satisfy q client needs, this is the hardest part.

Gigi72

9 Posts

In my facility we have 34 res for 2 nurses in rehab. and anywhere from 22 to 30 in LTC. But our rehab has more acute care res. and we chart on everyone, everything, from labs to bms and everything in between. it takes me longer to chart than it does to do my med pass. Plus we have a new NM who micromanages EVERYTHING !

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