Everything Nurses >> Nursing Polls >> Poll: How many patients are you assigned?
Poll: How many patients are you assigned?
Poll: How many patients are you assigned?
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Posted over 3 years ago Not |
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| Posted over 3 years ago The med surg nurses on the unit where I teach typically have 6-8 patients. But the number of patient's "assigned" is a misleading number that doesn't take into account admissions and discharges. You yourself note, Mrbrown, that you have up to 12 patients in a shift. This is a part of why management cannot understand nurses complaints about staffing. They ignore the sheer voluem of work that goes into a discharge or an admission, and the fact nurses are really caring for more people than the beds they are actually assigned to. One of the ERs where I worked dealt with this problem by adjusting staffing based on the busiest hours of the day: as the day went on staffing went up. Early in the morning hours, staffing decreased as the ER cleared out. It worked. |
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| Posted over 3 years ago The first place I worked in Florida was the PITS. On night shift I had on average 20 patients (med/surg unit). On day shift, I had between 9-12 patients. We had usually 1 CNA or an LPN who was working as a CNA. Errors were more of the norm, than the exception. This was a med/surg unit. We had GSW's, Post-ops, urology pts, medical patients, and even Gyne pts. It was insane. This was a well known hospital. I'm much happier where I'm at now, 5 patients and usually have a CNA. |
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| Posted over 3 years ago Well, I was in California when they instituted the staffing ratios. They made a HUGE difference. Things could still be a lot better, but ratios are the way to go since management just doesn't get it when it comes to patient safety. |
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| Posted over 3 years ago When i worked as an LPN at a hospital on the medserg unit my average was between 14 and 19 patients on a good night and a Lazy RN working with me, and on a bad night it was 22-26 pts. Now that i work at a Nursing home i have usually between 24 and 27 pts when we are fully staffed and 36+ when we work short. Ok i take that back about the 36. My nursing home's censes is at a all time low at the moment so they have 2 nurses covering 2 halls a peice at the main circle so that makes it between 48-54 pts each. God took one pair of angels wings, one halo heart of gold
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| Posted over 3 years ago 40 patients up in a government hospital, and that is no joke "happiness depends upon ourselves" |
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| Posted over 3 years ago Gosh! I was going to complain, but after reading all the posts, I think I must have had it easy! I was a traveller, and at one of the hospitals, their limit was 10 patients. I had 9, and explained to the Super why I couldn't take the 10th at 0615, since I had one lady circling the drain, and I had to move her to ICU, plus call all her doctors and let them know what was going on, get orders, give report to ICU. At every hospital I've worked (6), acuity was never taken into consideration, except in ICU. Patients were assigned according to their location. Nurse A gets rooms101-104, Nurse B gets 105-108, etc. If it was "your turn" for an admit, it didn't matter what room it was. I had 2 admits one night, and because of their locations, I had to give report to 3 different nurses! For a total of just 7 patients. This post comes with an admission. This all happened over 5 years ago. I have not been working since then (after a MVA). I think I want to go back to work now, but...do I really? |
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| Posted over 3 years ago Its hard to believe but its happening here in the PI most especially in government hospitals, you give the meds, you attend to all the needs of the patients, from taking their vital signs to emptying their urine bag, doing charting, admitting patients etc, etc. Yeah, we have no choice, we could only have a breather when there are student nurses assigned in our ward, that's the only time we could loosen a little bit of our loads. I worked in the OB ward and most of our patients come from indigent families. "happiness depends upon ourselves" |
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| Posted over 3 years ago I say 5, b/c recently that's been the average at the start of the day, however if you count the discharge and admit activity, it's more like about 8-10 as the day wears on. Discharges and transfers in the hospital where I work are the nurses responsibility, meaning we are usually moving the pt's by w/c or bed out of the facility or to another unit or floor. I find this ridiculous, but the liabilty factor does`n't seem to dawn on the hospital. Claire Kruszka |
