Nurse : Patient Ratio

[TeleNurse4986]

Just out of curiosity, would anyone like to offer the floor they work on and the maximum Patient : Nurse ratio (day and night shifts)?

I'm just curious to see what ratios others are working.

I work on a Tele floor our day ratio is 6:1 and nights is 7-8:1

[ENARN2006]

I've spent more shifts than I'd like to remember on a tele floor - and it was common to have a ratio of 1:6, and occasionally 7.
I work in the ED now and still continue to have those numbers there - it is extremely unsafe - IMHO. Then again, we don't have techs/CNAs in the ED, so 100% of the care is from the nurses. :frustrated:

Good luck!

[MENA]

you know what?? in malta in a normal medical ward the ratio is 15:1 during the night and 10:1 during the day. there are times where due to sick leave night ratios go up to 22:1 !!!!!!

[AprilRN]

Wow- the facilities where I did clinicals..ratios were 1:4 during hte day, and 1:6 at night. One of the facilities tried to enforce 1:6 and the nurses came VERY close to strike. And with that....they had LPN's to help but the RN was responsible for full assessments on their 6 patients.

For those of you with those ratios..do you have nursing assitants? LPN's? How does the staffing work?

[cassioo]

our ratios vary a great deal in L&D and postpartum/gyn. The ideal active L&D would be 1:1 but it's often 1:2,3 or 4 if it's the 1:4 that's usually not labor it's "think they are in labor" so revolving door paperwork.
GYN postpartum we have 18 beds and depending on the day of the week it could be 18 patients with 1 RN and 1 LPN. Since we cross train if there are no labor patients it could be 3 RN's and 1 LPN.
If we are full in L&D and PP we could have 25 patients (counting one in OR or recovery which is 1:1) then for the other 24 we'd have 3-4 RN's and an LPN.
We've had days where we are turning away elective c-sections and elective inductions (which a big % of deliveries are) and the docs don't care if we're full or near full if it's their call day they'll want somebody else put in even if they wouldn't get the best care that day.

[MENA]

thats almost what happens here...wards are most of the time over crowded with pts.

apart from nurses we have nursing aids but there are only 2 per 12hr shift

[gracie1]

I work in a step down unit. Currantly, we are 4:1 day and noc. PCA/LVN is 6-8:1 We will go down to 3:1 in september, but will lose PCAs at that time. It's all a trade-off, anyway you look at it.

[TeleNurse4986]

Originally Posted by AprilRN

Wow- the facilities where I did clinicals..ratios were 1:4 during hte day, and 1:6 at night. One of the facilities tried to enforce 1:6 and the nurses came VERY close to strike. And with that....they had LPN's to help but the RN was responsible for full assessments on their 6 patients.

For those of you with those ratios..do you have nursing assitants? LPN's? How does the staffing work?

Our floor actually does have Techs/CNA's. Usually on days we'll try to have about 4-5 techs (doesn't always happen that way) and on nights about the same number. Our techs are in charge of giving pt baths, blood draws (unless the pt has a central line), helping patients eat, turning them every 2 hours if necessary. So it's always a huge help when we have enough techs to do these tasks. It still takes plenty of time to input all the assessments and notes on 6 patients (7-8 on nights). I don't think our hospital hires LPN's, maybe just on our TCU.

It's so unfortunate being understaffed though b/c then you get away from actual patient care and become strictly task-oriented...and that's not nursing.:39:

[zippyRN]

in the trust i work for

Level 3 critical care beds 1:1 (ITU + the vent beds on burns)

level 2 critical care beds /NIV beds / coronary care 1:2 or 1:3

Assessment units 1:7 generally although on 2 of the sites some ofthe assignments are 1:8 due to the layout of beds

general beds depends on the layout of the unit but often 3:22- 28 depending on unit layout days and 2:22- 28 nights (+ HCAs) some units are better staffed based on acuity

A+E is the incredible elastic department

kudos the Clinical site managers, some ofthe chest pain assessment nurses and the critical care outreach nurses for supporting under pressure areas and we've even had our (lay)service manager making beds ....

[cassioo]

[QUOTE=zippyRN;42832]

general beds depends on the layout of the unit but often 3:22- 28 depending on unit layout days and 2:22- 28 nights (+ HCAs) some units are better staffed based on acuity

QUOTE]


I used to do that 15 patients at night thing it's crazy.