What is reasonable staffing?

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Another post about staffing. I just had an RN quit today because she said there was "just too much work to do". It's a 41 bed rehab/subacute floor with 7 or 8 long term residents mixed in. On day shift we have 3 nurses on the med cart...so that's 14 patients each, a unit manager, 5 CNA's and a secretary. Maybe it's me, but is that all that horrible? I know the patients are sicker than they used to be,but at the moment, we have only 1 IV and no g-tubes. Am I expecting too much of an RN, who by the way is a nurse practitioner as well, to be able to handle 14 patients?

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Specializes in ER CCU MICU SICU LTC/SNF.

To compare staffing ratio in your area... http://www.medicare.gov/

Click on Compare Nursing Homes

Click on Zip Code

Enter zip and distance

>Continue

>Choose your facility

>Next step

>Click "View all info about this NH"

>Click tab on top "Staffing"

>Scroll down and compare your staffing ratio w/ the national average and your area's.

You have enviable staffing. But what's a nurse practitioner doing w/ a med cart?

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

Hi, I'm new and was reading through the forum when I found this thread.

Thanks for the link, I've bookmarked it.

I work a station with 20 beds and right now I have 19 residents. It's busy, hectic even, but it makes the day go by! LOL The facility is private, for the most part and attached to a exclusive retirement community. The facility has a medicare unit, assisted living and 3 stations of skilled nursing. Of those three stations, one is a lock down, advanced dementia unit.

In searching out my facility on that site, I made an interesting discovery. When determing the staff to resident ratio, only the medicare unit was evaluated. I wonder if there are other facilities which may fall into those same circumstances? Additionally, an RN works the medicare unit while LVN's work the rest of the facility.

This is the first job I've held as an LVN, so I am unable to make any comparisons. There are also a number of areas (hiring more nurses for starters) my facility could work on to boost morale. That said, I feel good about where I work. If one nurse is feeling overwhelmed (getting number of admissions/discharges, resident's being sent out, tons of orders or even a violent resident) other nurses, from the other stations, are only a phone call or radio call away. As a new nurse, I've found that very reassuring.

I guess I'll have to remember that it could be SO much worse the next time I find myself griping at work! LOL

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I would love that staffing. We have 70+ patients, 2 nurses and 6 aides on days, occasionally we have a med tech. Evenings are much worse. Had she ever worked LTC before? I think it does overwhelm some people.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

The only position we had open at the time was a med/treatment nurse. We are going to have an NP on staff as soon as corporate okays it...it's in the works for most of the centers in our district. We hired this woman with the intent of having her be the NP but she said she couldn't stick it out.

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capecodmermaid

in my ltc facility one unit has (like yours) rehab/subactute and long term.

daytime and evenings: there is one rn, one rn/lpn for meds, 4 cnas.

during the daytime the receptionist/secretary in the office answers the phone.

evenings the rn answers the phone.

[color=white].

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Specializes in ABMT.

Talino, thanks for that Medicare link. Very useful.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

Your staffing sounds like cake to me. Often in LTC there would be one nurse (me), one to three aides for 39 patients. No UC. That's all. This was on a continuing daily basis. And this was pretty much par for the course.

Another place I worked there were 52 patients on the unit and there were 2 nurses and 3 to 5 aides, no UC, in fact I've NEVER worked in or heard of an LTC in this area that HAD ANY UCs!

She surely must not have been used to LTC.

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I just begun orientation at a LTC facility and was wondering the same things you were about staffing(of which I am very concerned about) 93 residents at night yesterday RN supervisor acting as lpn with one other lpn and 4 aides? What's your opinion? Stay or run? My position would be Rn Supervisor.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

RN supervisor acting as LPN?? What do y'all mean by that? The nurse manager was out today so I had to do most of her job....we were supposed to have 6 (yikes) admissions but ONLY (HA!) 4 came....6 is too many new people for one floor to assimilate in one day.

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No LPN For the floor, So RN supervisor had to do her job plus the LPN's. Telling this facility tomorrow. Do not want to jeopardize my license. Most of the staff is new because they have fired so many people and they are all new, so who do you go to for help, no older more knowledgeable staff are there anymore, take that as good or bad but I don't think it is the place for me. Plus some of the stuff that was said and I had seen makes me very leary of the type of care given and it scares me enough to not go back.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

I could do it with my eyes closed!!!

Another post about staffing. I just had an RN quit today because she said there was "just too much work to do". It's a 41 bed rehab/subacute floor with 7 or 8 long term residents mixed in. On day shift we have 3 nurses on the med cart...so that's 14 patients each, a unit manager, 5 CNA's and a secretary. Maybe it's me, but is that all that horrible? I know the patients are sicker than they used to be,but at the moment, we have only 1 IV and no g-tubes. Am I expecting too much of an RN, who by the way is a nurse practitioner as well, to be able to handle 14 patients?
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