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 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.)
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.
Specializes in Float Pool - A Little Bit of Everything.
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.
Specializes in Informatics / Trauma / Hospice / Immunology.
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.
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!
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.
DoeRN
941 Posts
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.