What is the Registered Nurse Patient Ratio at your hospital?

[LinenP]

Dear all nurses,

Well...first of all, I need to tell that I am doing the research about the Registered Nurse to Patient Ratio for each department in the hospitals in the US. And it's necessary to refer to the hospitals in the US since I think the hospital system there is standardized and can be used as a good source of reference.

I tried searching before but found many about the theory, the abstract, the blah blah blah but no exact number of the required ratio I'm looking for.

That's why I need to ask you guys a favor on this. Please share the Registered Nurse to Patient Ratio. You may tell your department and the ratio. Telling your hospital name too would be excellent but I understand if some of you find it uncomfortable. You can even PM me or leave me a message to PM you for your privacy.

I can guarantee I won't take the information I get to do anything else but for my project only. I'm from a country in South East Asia and just need the reliable data.

I would love to hear from you all soon

[DoeRN]

Wow some of these are scary for me. We staff based on level of care.

ER anywhere from 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, maybe 4:1 (all very basic if we're slammed and short, not common).

Med surg is 4:1 or 3:1

Surgical and Intermediate trauma 3:1

Neuro 3:1 or 2:1

Tele mostly 3:1, only 4:1 if they are very basic/obs)

All ICUs 2:1, 1:1, or 1:2

Oncology 3:1, can be less if level of care necessitates

Wish all states had mandated ratios I think a lot more nurses and patients would be happier. It will increase those patient satisfaction scores too.

[socal1]

Sitters watching 4 patients at a time?!? And ETOH lol

[socal1]

Well thats because texas is a red state and they always choose the corporation over the commoner

[Mandychelle79, ASN, RN]

Our unit is based on overall ratios

1:4 with a minimum staff of 3 days/eves

1:9 with minimum staff of 3 on nights

nurses can have up to 13 patients to chart on (some entire assessment others just the physical portion) on days/eves

nights nurse can have 26 patient

psych unit so most are medically stable

[smf0903]

I work in a rural hospital on a med surg floor. We usually have 1:4, sometimes 1:5. The RNs refuse to take more than 5 patients so the ratio is never more than that. (Forgot to add that I work nights.)

[nynursey_]

Urban/Metro Hospital in NY

High Acuity Med/Surg = 1:4 (as it should be standard), 1:5 (when our ANM refuses to assist in taking an assignment), or 1:6 (when the ANM refuses an assignment, there are call outs, bed access increases the census, and there are no floats available).

I can't speak for other units, unfortunately, because we have so many separate specialty units, it's hard to know what their census' are, and what their ratios are. I will say that our new CNO has since decided it should be standard on my unit to do a 1:5 assignment as a flat ratio. I disagree very much with that decision.

[NotYourMamasRN]

Mine have been: Tele 1 to 6, ER 1 to 4, ICU 1-2 with 2-3 Tele holds during cold and flu season, SNF 1 to 30 skilled floor, 1 to 40 mix of skilled and LTC floor. Not a single one of these places ever factored acuity levels into their ratios and staffing. For example, on Tele when your Pt turns into an ICU hold on a Vent.... guess who still has 5 other patients? Or in the ER you get one ICU hold and still had 3 other patients. That to me is the most unfortunate of situations.

[_firefly, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I'm in California. The rule is you can have 5 patients on med-surge as long as none are tele. If one or more are tele, 4 is the max. ICU is 2 patients.

[freckles23]

I work on med-surg/tele night shift and it can be anywhere from 6 to 9 patients a night per nurse. They only staff us with 4 nurses a night and maybe will add on a 5th nurse if nursing administration is feeling generous. Gets very overwhelming!

[definit1on]

I work on a mix oncology/med surg/ tele floor and our ratio is 1:5 however sometimes we flex up to 6.

As a home hospice nurse you can have 18-20 patients in home health seeing maybe 4-5.

Nursing home on the acute rehab side can be 1-15 and if some one calls out it is 1-30 with the supervisor help.

Nursing home Long term is 1-30 and at times 1-60 if the nurse calls out. There will be the med tech and at times the supervisor would help.

[MPKH, BSN, RN]

General Internal Medicine unit here. It 4-5:1 on day and evening shift, and 7-8:1 on night shift

[smartassmommy]

North Central West Virginia. Peds unit with adult med surg an RN and LPN take up to 10 patients. After a certain time, 20 or less patients cuts us down to 1 CNA.