Hi everyone,
I am relatively new to psychiatric nursing and for decades worked in critical care areas with a 1:2 nurse:patient ratio. I am now employed at a for-profit acute care psychiatric facility with a 1:15 nurse:patient ratio. The PICU does have a 1:12 ratio. Is this common in behavioral health? We are now opening a unit that accepts medically fragile geriatric unit. Right now the ratio is 1 RN : 15 Patients. My opinion is that we are dangerously understaffed. We have no CNA's, lifts and only a few hospital beds. What is the norm elsewhere?