whats your nurse pt ratio for ED?

[E.D.ucated]

Im in Houston, ours is 1:3 currently. My nurse mgr wanted me (just me!) to take 4 tonite for 12 hr shift. Im a new nurse (1 1/2 years) and I told her I was uncomfortable with this because Ive tried to do it and gave poor nursing care. She told me I had to do it if she told me to. Is this true? How many pts do most E.D. RNs take? We mix all acuities (stable, urgent, emergent, whoever's next) Thanks for info!

[Calfax]

I'm a military ER nurse, and I'd classify the facilty I work at as a level 3 community hospital. My standard patient ratio is 9:1 (18 beds total) If I'm lucky and we have an extra reservist RN, then it goes to 4-5:1 This includes every type of patient from peds to gyn to MI.

That's bad. What's worse is that the most experienced nurse per shift usually has only 2-3 yrs nursing experience total with 1-2 yr or less in the ER.

We are lucky we don't kill people every day. The only reason our administrators get away with it is that our acuity is generally very low......and we have become experts at transferring patients.

We do spend a lot of time training, perhaps more than our civilian counterparts because the military pays for it.

So be grateful of where you work....my old night surgical ward ratio was 12:1.