Staffing a telemetry unit

[ShayRN]

What are the standards in your institutions? On days we have 1 RN for 4-5 patients with an LPN to cover at least one of those patients. On Evenings we have 1:5-6 with an LPN cover and on nights it is about the same. We do try to have 1 extra LPN on evening shift. Also, how many patients do you think is reasonable for an LPN?

[csaperr]

I work a tele unit and I was told our ratio was 4-5. When I have 6 and a couple of them are walkie talkies I can manage but when at least three of them are very sick and there is any kind of turnover it gets scary. I only have a year experience but I see nurses with 20 years of experience struggling. I think it depend on acuity level and the demographics of your patient population. For instance: my patient population is poor, uneducated and really ghetto....It makes the workday a lot busier for many reasons.

[csaperr]

that is awful and disheartening

[tonums]

before I left for acute care rehab (hard, hard HARD job) I did tele, (maybe 1 1/2 years ago, and we had 5-6 pts with a CNA to do accuchecks as well. No drips unless I had to start a nitro gtt before shipping off to the unit, no AMi's, real bad chf's went to ICU. The work wasn't bad, it was all the "extra" stuff we had to do, like customer service stuff, and paperwork. The actual patient care wasn't terrible. In any given shift I would have one "bad" pt, and one total care, and 3-4 stable r/o type patients going for ECHOS, Caths, scopes, CP, CHF, Copd, drug seekers, post caths (no pulling sheaths). Like I said, the actual caring for the patients wasn't the hard part.....

[NocturneNrse]

Yikes - our range (Nights) is from 6-9 pts. Scary...