I work on a cardiac/telemetry floor where the ratio was supposed to be 4:1. Now it's usually 5:1 and occasionally it's 6:1. This happened so incrementally that it became the norm. We have, at best, one tech and there are 30 beds. Meanwhile, ward clerks quit left and right because of the workload -- so it is impossible (or seems so) to stay abreast of the constant changes in the patient's orders. A few weeks back, a patient (not mine, but it could easily have been) actively infarcting was totally overlooked, for instance. It's crazy. I rarely feel safe and always feel like I am drowning.
So I look on the internet with search terms like "safe staffing" and "nurse-to-patient ratios" and stuff like that, and I constantly read, "Nurses must stand together to resist unsafe staffing," and blah, blah, blah, and I have to ask: what is that, exactly? Everyone complains, but nothing is done. Our supervisor says (if he responds at all), "Oh, everything will be fine." ??? If I refuse a sixth patient, because I already have one too many with probably two cardiac drips, a post-cath and another who is completely confused and pulling out his IVs (and God bless that fifth patient, who is just there for observation and I must totally ignore), that just means a co-worker will get her sixth and she won't refuse -- in other words, nothing works.
I don't know what I am looking for here. Company maybe? Any advice? I want to be a really good nurse. But all I feel like I do is try to just keep my head above water.
