staffing on nights

kiowaprincess2003 · May 8, 2005

I work in a nursing home that has 70 residents and at night we have 1 LPN and 3 CNA's. Don't know how it can be legal but it is.

meintheUSA · May 8, 2005

:uhoh3:

The reason I ask is that we have 90 beds, usually a census of 80, and I have two charge nurses, one supervisor and five nursing assistants. I am trying to cut back to two charge nurses, no supervisor, and am getting a lot of resistance. Our facility is very low key, a couple G tubes, nothing else complicated. They have no treatments and do no resident care, other than checking if an alarm goes off or helping turn residents. I came in on 2 11-7 shifts and saw very little action.

:angryfire Perhaps you should not have "came in on" a shift to judge.... I work with 1 lpn and 2 aids on a floor of 27 - 32 censes.... Some nights ARE calm, but 85% of the time we are changing, turning, toileting, or assisting residents, the other 15% of time we are taking our breaks, 2-15min 1-30min, and paper work......

May I suggest you stay the WHOLE shift and several shifts to see some hearty action.......... 99% of our shifts are hectic, not calm as you describe

scooterRN52 · May 8, 2005

For a 33 bed peds specialty unit (some vents, some trachs, most with G tubes, all with some kind of neuro issue) we have 5-6 RN's plus one charge nurse (and 2-3 techs). Not bad, huh?

Sounds pretty good to me, although, are they fresh trachs and vents? If they are then you should have more staff. :)

smokinkaterpillar · May 8, 2005

1

donmomofnine · May 8, 2005

:angryfire Perhaps you should not have "came in on" a shift to judge.... I work with 1 lpn and 2 aids on a floor of 27 - 32 censes.... Some nights ARE calm, but 85% of the time we are changing, turning, toileting, or assisting residents, the other 15% of time we are taking our breaks, 2-15min 1-30min, and paper work......
May I suggest you stay the WHOLE shift and several shifts to see some hearty action.......... 99% of our shifts are hectic, not calm as you describe

Actually I was there for two night shifts.... not to "judge" but to get the information I need to make a wise decision. How else am I to know what goes on? Geez! Folks complain that a DON "doesn't know what it's like" and then when she tries to find out, that's not welcome either! I am sincerely trying to find out, by going into work during the night and asking here how it is at your facilities! Don't shoot me for that! Oh, and actually, one of the nights I went in I was helping to do the recaps for the next month's orders.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · May 8, 2005

On our 60 bed unit with 2 Rn's, 1-LPN and 3-4 CNA's, The Rn's and LPN do paper work, makes out assignments, assists with care, (ie) pulling residents up in bed, turning, and code browns, give PRN meds and a PRN nebulizer tx here and there until medication time at 0500. We have 2 G-tubes also, a few straight catheterizations for PVR's a couple of tx's that are done when we give the residents their meds. Nothing major, just ointment applications. Some times we work with 1 Rn and an LPN until 0600 when another licensed person comes in to assist with meds. If that person doesn't come in, then we split that extra med cart have a cart and a half to do. Having three licensed on for the entire shift really helps in emergency situations. Our nurse practicioner comes in at 0600 and she is a God send, Too bad she's leaving next week. It's pretty much low keyed though, but other nights it seems like you never stop. And when an emergency occurs, it throws you all off so that you're behind with everything and then have to stay over to finish up. We usually get OT when it happens. As far as the supervisor, he/she does the staffing, makes rounds and collects the 24 hour report from each unit, assists in emergencies, gives inservices, checks narcotics once a week on each unit with a licensed and makes rounds with the DON once a month.

Can you explain "Checks narcotics once a week"?? Don't you do shift count every day? 60 patients...3 nurses and 3 aides?? Zowie. We have 60, 1 nurse and 3 aides....and may I assume a code brown is what I think it is :coollook:

samros · May 9, 2005

I work in a high level aged care facility with 1 RN and 2 nursing assistants. 47 upstairs and 15 down in a dementia wing

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · May 9, 2005

Actually I was there for two night shifts.... not to "judge" but to get the information I need to make a wise decision. How else am I to know what goes on? Geez! Folks complain that a DON "doesn't know what it's like" and then when she tries to find out, that's not welcome either! I am sincerely trying to find out, by going into work during the night and asking here how it is at your facilities! Don't shoot me for that! Oh, and actually, one of the nights I went in I was helping to do the recaps for the next month's orders.

I still think your building is over staffed on nights :uhoh3: but heck if you can, why not? In PA, you don't have to staff that well. And yes, I've worked all three of the shifts for a good many years, so I can give an educated opinion. Our old DON would never even think of coming in on 11-7, helping with recaps, asking an opinion or even helping out. We will see how our next one will be.....hopefully a leader and team player?

donmomofnine · May 9, 2005

Thanks Michelle! I hope you get a good one!:)

vjohn · May 9, 2005

How many licensed nurses on nights for how many beds? Do you have a supervisor as well? Thanks!

The hospital I worked for was very short staffed 2 rn's and only one aid, I also had a problem with one nurse that always went to sleep on the job.

She would sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours each night and was getting away with it. So needless to say I left that hospital.

dkubota · May 17, 2005

The reason I ask is that we have 90 beds, usually a census of 80, and I have two charge nurses, one supervisor and five nursing assistants. I am trying to cut back to two charge nurses, no supervisor, and am getting a lot of resistance. Our facility is very low key, a couple G tubes, nothing else complicated. They have no treatments and do no resident care, other than checking if an alarm goes off or helping turn residents. I came in on 2 11-7 shifts and saw very little action.

Hi,

I'm still in school taking pre-requisites to some day become a nurse.

Interesting to read how many nurses are on duty at night. Actually I thought it was mandatory to have a 1:6 nurse to patient ratio at all times. This sounds scary to me. You never know what can or will happen.

Am I wrong in my thinking?

Please let me know.

Thanks,

D

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · May 17, 2005

Hi,
I'm still in school taking pre-requisites to some day become a nurse.
Interesting to read how many nurses are on duty at night. Actually I thought it was mandatory to have a 1:6 nurse to patient ratio at all times. This sounds scary to me. You never know what can or will happen.
Am I wrong in my thinking?
Please let me know.
Thanks,
D

This started out as a staffing question for LTC night so the staffing ratios will be different. In the hospitals, the staffing ratios are different also depends on acuity.