Survey: Has your facility implemented nurse to patient ratios?

turquoise · Apr 19, 2006

acuity? i've never heard of that (actually i have but i'm pretending) generally 6-8:1 and it does not matter if you have 8 pt with arterial sheaths or 8 fresh open hearts with chest tubes or 8 frequent flyers that sleep all night and set their alarm to wake up every 3 hours for pain med and cookies. Why is it that the more pt safety goals institutions set forth the more dangerous things become??

psalm_55 · Apr 24, 2006

in our area, on a 38 bed med-surg unit, the floor is divided into 3 RN teams with a ratio of 1 RN to 13 patients. the floor is also divided into 2 teams for the lpns and cnas -- with an lpn and cna sharing 19 patients!

coolmalenurse · May 6, 2006

We have no nurse to patient ratio. I am the supervisor and sometimes we are so short it is scary

Krystalsmiles · Jul 3, 2006

Here are the results of last months survey question
Has your facility implemented nurse to patient ratios? :

Please feel free to read and post any comments that you have right here in this discussion thread by clicking the "Post Reply" button.
Thanks

I work in Long term care. We never implemented a nurse to patient ratio. But ours would be 30+ residents to 1 nurse. See a problem, because I sure do. :redlight:

tatgirl · Jul 3, 2006

I work in LTC too. We have a 150 bed facilty split into 3 units:

Unit 1 51 pts: 2 nurses and 4 CNAS

Unit 2 34 pts I nurse, and 3 CNAs

Unit 3 56 pts: 2 nurses and 4 CNAS

sure wish we could get better staffing ratios.

Wendy

LPN

ibmissy · Aug 6, 2006

I work in Long term care. We never implemented a nurse to patient ratio. But ours would be 30+ residents to 1 nurse. See a problem, because I sure do. :redlight:

I know this thread is pretty old...But currently we have been working short at our facility. I work 7pm-7am. From 11-5am we are always short nurses. We had only three nurses in the building last night..(And this is frequently happening more.) I had 65 patients last night. My supervisor had 65 patients. And the rehab unit has around 20 patients. This is in a LTC facility. Some nights we only have 2 aides for each unit too. Our facility minimum is 2 nurses in the building and 5 aides. There has to be at least one RN in the building. I am starting to get fed up. One morning I had only me and two aides on the floor...2 falls, and two med passes, because the lady from administration who came in to do med pass, took 30 minutes to hand out two meds. I finally asked her to do the careplans on the falls and contact the drs and I did her med pass.

anndoodle · Aug 8, 2006

Wait a minute....just how does a "lady from administration" come in and pass meds? What state are you in? Or is this person a medication administration aid, which is allowed in some states?

At one point at the nursing home (where I USED to work) I was the only nurse for 86 (yes, that's EIGHTY-SIX) residents. Administrator told me to my face that he only had to have 1 LPN for up to 120 residents, and I should be thankful that he "allowed" two nurses to usually work 11-7 shift.

Heard he was recently fired from that facility....perhaps they finally came to their senses. Funny, I came to my senses 2 years ago!!!!!!!

jcat01 · Sep 2, 2006

I'm working at my facility as an aide right now, but I also just started the nursing program earlier this week (wish me luck!!). Our facility does not have a regulated nurse/patient ratio-although it seems better than some of the previous posts (7-9 patients is better than 13)-acuity not taken into consideration. As an aide-depending on the census I can have anywhere from 5 to 11....usually with just one nurse, but sometimes I have 2 or three nurses that I am an aide for. Fortuantley for my nurses I bust my butt to make sure that patients are taken care of -baths, snacks, glucoses taken on time, they are always aware of abnormal vital signs, rooms are cleaned etc etc...I figure the more I get in there and do now, the more I will appreciate aides when I am a nurse...and the more I can learn from my nurses that I can use when I do practice. Ok-off topic now, but I have decided that once I become a nurse I would like to practice where a low ratio has been implemented. Patient saftey/satisfaction are my main concerns-and in my opinion they cannot be well addressed with a high ratio.....

AfloydRN, BSN, RN · Oct 15, 2006

Yes, 3:1 ICC and 2:1 ICU, funny though, ER is now 5:1?????????

Sheridan80 · Apr 29, 2007

I've worked agency for the past seven years, (LPN for 23 years) and I find

working here in the Tacoma WA. area ratios do often vary. There are two

major Hospital Orgs. here, each with several hospitals. One has pretty good

ratios 1:5-6 and the other with their Hospitals averages 1:8-10. guess

which one I prefer to work at?

JeannieT · May 17, 2007

Our Hospital has a 5:1 ratio days for med/surg and 6:1 ratio for nights.

However, I know that must not always be the case because I work PCU and we often get 5:1 days and 6:1 nights. 3:1 in PCU rarely happens (if you are lucky, for half the shift and then you get another admit or two).

shull · Jun 26, 2007

Lakelady45 Did you check online with the state board, check out the CNA section. I know in NJ and PA it is pretty standard for a day shift CNA to have 8-10 patients and that includes bath etc.