staffing problems

[Bratty]

I am the new charge nurse on my unit. We hold 30 patients. Our patient turn over is killing us. We might start off with 22 patients, send 10 home, & get 12 admits. We can only staff for the patients that we have at the time. We get alot of cath/angio patients with lines. We also have post CABG patients. How does your unit deal with turn overs like this? We work 12 hour shifts and can barely walk out of here when the day is done. I am trying to get us some more staff. Any information or suggestions on how to deal with this would be appreciated.

[RNonRun]

I am the new charge nurse on my unit. We hold 30 patients. Our patient turn over is killing us. We might start off with 22 patients, send 10 home, & get 12 admits. We can only staff for the patients that we have at the time. We get alot of cath/angio patients with lines. We also have post CABG patients. How does your unit deal with turn overs like this? We work 12 hour shifts and can barely walk out of here when the day is done. I am trying to get us some more staff. Any information or suggestions on how to deal with this would be appreciated.

Not a darn clue... but if you need a really good Cardiac Nurse I know one who may want the job. NO Promises.

--leslie

[ascnbe, ADN, RN]

The problem is nationwide. Nurses are unfortunately viewed as an expense since we do not charge for nursing care. It is part of the hospital bill. So we are in the same category as the maid when you get a motel room. It has always aggravated me that if you are one patient short of the "magic" nurse patient ration number they will cancel a nurse or send one home, but they don't stop adimitting. Then they hand you this line of feces that "We can't staff for probabilities, we have to staff for the physical number of patients." Well anyone that has been a nurse longer than 4 hours knows how ridiculous that statement is. If you have 8 Tele beds open and your ER is open, they are going to fill those beds. I have been in the ER for 10 years and it has gotten out of control. We have patients now staying in our ER for up to 5 days or more because of the shortage of beds. Then when they have beds they don't have nurses to cover them. I don't know what it will take to end this madness. DKA's end up getting treated and discharged from the ER without ever making it to ICU or a floor. They stay in the ER with no bathroom and no privacy for days. In our ER we have cubes that are designed to hold 4 patients, it usually has 6 and then we treat patients on stretchers in the hallway. Nurses have to get together, no one else knows or cares about the plight of the healthcare system.