Staffing levels at your hospital

MERRYWIDOW46 · Oct 30, 2009

I do several specialties and work at several facilities. Ratios vary according to speciality and hospital.

University teaching hospital: day Med/Surg:4-5:1 Telemetry/IMCU 4-5:1, ICU: usually 2:1 on a short staff day 3:1, ER 4-5:1

Community hospital: day Med/Surg 6-8:1, Tele 5-7:1, ER 4-5:1, ICU 2-3:1

Tertiary care Level II Trauma Center: day Med/Surg6:1, IMCU4:1, ICU2:1

Most facilities claim they are well staffed. However, some have FROZEN clinical nursing positions. I was told by a recruiter 2 positions I had applied for were eliminated from the budget. However, three weeks later there were 4 new nurses with less experience orienting. (How do I know this? I was still working there as supplemental agency staff). Administration does and says what they want and thinks that we are stupid!

Penguin67 · Oct 30, 2009

I've been a nurse for 20 years and can honestly say that it was the rare occasion that I've ever felt "fully staffed" on any given shift that I've worked. However, in the past 5-10 years, it has gone beyond ridiculous, as there have been times that I did not feel safe with the load that I was carrying.

At the last place where I did prn work, I felt like the load was very high for a pediatric floor, anywhere from 4-6 on dayshift, usually avering 5, with 2-3 discharges and admisisons pretty much expected. The administrators did not feel that peds nurses should get a lighter load, and treated us like the adult med surg patients in the rest of the hospital. Which might be ok, if all peds patients were able to walk, talk and take care of themselves in their parent's absences, but many parents visited, and had to leave to care of other children at home.It was a mess.

Not sure if that was purely driven by the dollar, but I suspect so.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Oct 30, 2009

it is not so much a shortage of nurses, but a shortage of experienced, willing-to-work nurses in my facility. Not everyone fits every unit. So to find a nurse who fits that unit and WANTS to be there is a challenge sometimes. We do not want a unit full of new grads who lack confidence & experience.

JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP · Oct 30, 2009

it is not so much a shortage of nurses, but a shortage of experienced, willing-to-work nurses in my facility. Not everyone fits every unit. So to find a nurse who fits that unit and WANTS to be there is a challenge sometimes. We do not want a unit full of new grads who lack confidence & experience.

I understand that experienced, confident nurses will provide better patient care than new inexperienced grads, but how are new grads expected to ever reach that stage if no one will hire them? What do you think will happen in 10 years from now when all these wonderful experienced nurses will retire?

nurse_mo1986 · Oct 30, 2009

I understand that experienced, confident nurses will provide better patient care than new inexperienced grads, but how are new grads expected to ever reach that stage if no one will hire them? What do you think will happen in 10 years from now when all these wonderful experienced nurses will retire?

I think that one or two new grads would be acceptable, but when the majority of the unit is staffed by new nurses that don't have experience under their belt, all hell can break loose:)