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 on a critical care unit nights. We generally have 3 to 4 patients with once in a great while 5 if staffing is short. If we are titrating drips then we try to keep it at a 3:1 ratio
Sorry but no ICU nurse would/should accept 5 or even 4 patients. Sounds like this is a step-down unit?
I work on a med surg floor that is adding telemetry beds. Days usually have 3-4, they'll start out with 3 and get an admission or have 4 all day. I work 3-11 and usually start off with 4 then have an admission or discharge, not usually more than 5 though!
I work at an acute rehabilitation hospital. Our ratios during the day range from 6-9 and 8-10 at night. It can get ugly since we get quite a few acute care patients, but are still staffed like it is just rehab. Sometimes I would like to find whoever is screening our patients and take them out back if you know what I mean. I don't know how many times I am admitting a new patient and they tell me they just left the IMU, or we get labs on a brand new patient and they immediately need a blood transfusion, and the best is having 4 out of the 7 be on contact isolation for MRSA or C-diff. Luckily I love my job, but I would love to see safer staffing. One day last week I had 2 discharges and somehow only had 5 patients the rest of the day. Those peeps got the best care EVER!!!! hahahahaha
I am from a SMALL town, with a SMALL hospital. I recently left my job on the med/surge unit there because of this exact issue. Some days I had 9-10 patients!! Once I even had to refuse an 11th!! That's not safe and everyone can't get everything they need in a timely manner. So the patients would be cranky and and get attitudes with me and I would end up in a foul mood as well. Not to mention staying super late to chart because there's no time during the day.
Tele/Oncology floor, they shoot for 1:4 on days and nights. Occasionally day nurses will have 1:6, and a little bit more frequently night nurses will also be 1:6. Never more than that though. Mid-sized town in Midwest, decently big hospital.
Eep! Some of these ratios are giving me palpitations!! At my old hospital, my patient load was generally 4-5 patients (med-surg/trauma floor, no telemetry, level one trauma center). Rarely, but sometimes, 6 patients. Our step-down units had 1:2 or 3 (nurse to patients). I honestly can't even imagine having 8 patients (or more) from this heavy population on a regular basis. I think I would hate nursing
Now I typically have 5-6 patients. But they are way (WAY) less acute. However, due to a customer service focus, I'm still busy and a shift goes by quickly.
Specializes in oncology, geriatrics, psychogeriatrics.
When I worked in oncology, each nurse had an entire hallway of patients to take care of. Which translates to roughly 12-15 patients a nurse (depending on how many double rooms there were in that particular hallway). We did have three CNA's though who took care of all the bathing, changing and feeding stuff so that took a huge load of our shoulders.
sapphire18
1,082 Posts
Sorry but no ICU nurse would/should accept 5 or even 4 patients. Sounds like this is a step-down unit?