So Frustrated....

Yes that is very reckless by the hospital.

I worked in a 15 bed SDU and our "hospital wide" CP:patient ratio was 9:1, however I encouraged management to lower it to 6:1 for our SDU which they eventually did. However It only applied if the census had no expected transfers/discharges.

I was usually stuck with the whole floor.

You need to talk to your nurses. Nursing requires a delegation of tasks. If you are stuck doing everything, only whats possible will get done. Discuss this with your shift leader. I don't think you shouldn't be doing straight caths anyway.. (unless ur state lets you) also because of the increased risk of infection.

Even with half the patients you have, I worked myself almost to disability (have a bad knee). I hope you can get the strength to talk to your supervisors. Honestly I would START looking for another job. just so can have somewhere to go when management doesn't adhere to your requests.

BTW it took me like 9 months to get them to change ratios..

Hope you do well!

I'm allowed to do Straight caths, Foleys, EKG's, and removal of peripheral IV's because I'm a PCT and we're trained to do that. But yeah, it's still ridiculous because I'm trying to do everything and having the whole floor means that I do at least 11-12 EKG's sometimes a night. Plus sending urine specimens, etc. it's just too much to handle for one person. I am really just frustrated because 33 patients is a lot for one pct to handle.

And with all these tasks and patients, who the heck is keeping the patients SAFE?

How well are basic needs being met?

Are you changing and turning all these folks by yourself?

Can you get them to the toilet before they try to get up on their own... and fall?

Can you be in two places at once to keep "Fred" from climbing out of bed and cracking his head open while you are elbows deep in a "Code Brown"?

How long do your patients have to lie in a wet brief before you can even fight your way through an endless list of patients and tasks to change them?

And, I have no doubt, you do your best to prioritize, but The Powers That Be won't care that you prioritized correctly and chose safety over getting that EKG... because these fools will only focus on "Why didn't you get that EKG?"

That is a huge load and they won't care.

PCT's and CNA's get paid minimally, yet management's tight pockets still can't be wrung out to provide money to pay for more than just ONE!

They create positions, such as the PCT to take on Nursing tasks so they don't have to pay the cost of having another nurse. They dump these tasks on the cheap PCT... but they do not pay the PCT any better... nor do they want to provide better staffing.

This is dangerous... and don't think they'll back you up when someone gets hurt.

It's always YOUR fault...

Sorry, but I had to get that out.... *breathe, breath*

In a nutshell, this is whats wrong with America.

Here is a good read

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

I cannot believe that is even allowed. Having that many patients to take care of is extremely unsafe, especially in a cardiac unit. I work telemetry and we rarely have over 8 patients. And even have 8 patient's is incredibly difficult. If that it is how your hospital operates, I would look into working somewhere else entirely.