venting

[rashan1053]

I know nursing is a difficult profession...I have been living it for the past year now! I moved hear about 6 months ago and was told in my interview that at nights it was usually a 8:1 ratio occasionally going up to 9:1. But i usually start at 8:1 and go to 9:1. I love my co-workers, but having that type of load on a ortho/neuro/truama stepdown unit is overwhelming. Is this ratio normal for all of the hospitals in the Vegas area!!! Do any of the other hospitals have a lower ratio at night!!! Or is this the norm in nursing and I should stop my crying and just suck it up!!!

[Straydandelion]

I am not familiar with ortho step-down unit though worked in ortho...what type of patient are we talking about, how acute?

[rashan1053]

acuity depends...we get patients from the icu with trachs, peg tubes, etc... Most patients have had ortho surgery and get get up on their own. It is hard when you have nine patients all needing pain meds. I feel like I am passing narcotics all night and doing post pain med documentation all the time!!! Confused patients trying to get out of bed, pull out their trachs, pull out their iv's. Wow.......feels good to get this off my chest.

It is a trauma step down unit along with ortho/neuro

Thanks for just listening

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

I'm sorry to hear you have that kinda of load every night. Vegas traditionally has some of the worst conditions for nursing in the country. A lot of for-profit hospitals trying to stretch the capacity of human nurses beyond their means.

I just moved to Vegas because my spouse has job prospects, but I'm nervous. I am starting a travel contract soon and hopefully it won't be a nightmare.