What is your Nurse to Patient Ratio

[dRN1]

We have a 4 : 1 rato that we try to stick to. Occaisionally we end up with 5 if we are short a nurse. But as you know that you may have HAD 6 throught the shift if you had 2 discharges then got 2 admits. (aaahhh day shift)

[KAYBDT6, BSN, RN]

5 to 1!

[livinthedreamRN]

Day shift might start out 4:1 to 6:1. Evening shift starts 6:1 and midnight shift could have as many as 8:1. However we don't have any consideration of acuity. I could end up with five of the worst patients on the floor while another might have 5 walky-talkies.

[nurseiam08]

I work on med/surg tele floor in Massachusetts. On day shift we have 4 or 5:1, eves 5 or 6:1, nights 6 or 7:1, can take up to 8. We almost always have CNAs and secretaries. On noc one secretary for the whole hospital, so Rns often have to enter all the orders themselves. I wish the supervisors took acuity into consideration, but they usually don't. Assignments are made relying on numbers only. They do try to give you the same pts from previous day, and they group patients into blocks of nearby rooms.

[nurseiam08]

The acuity score system that COBBER describes on pg 2 makes a lot of sense. I would like to see it applied in my hospital.