What's your ratio where you work? I had to work a night shift the other night with 3 heavy patients: NSTEMI, STEMI with DKA, and a pediatric DKA. I was so overwhelmed, had the ER nurse to bounce thoughts off of but I was definetly not a happy nurse that night.....

We run 2:1 as our standard, but in a staffing crisis we go to 3:1 but if we are holding PCU or floor/tele patients then those are the ones we will make part of the triple assignment. We'll even move those patients next to each other on the unit to make the 3-patient assignment geographically closer if possible.

Our Trauma ICU stays 2:1 as much as possible and we'll triple the Medical ICU 1st - there are no staffing laws in NJ but the governing body for trauma centers states that a TICU ratio is 2:1 - so if we run them at 3:1 too often we could get cited - plus those patients are typically sicker, not always, but usually.

I work in the MICU and our staffing is 2:1 or 1:1 depending on the acuity. We'll only take 3 pts if they're a PCU admit/transfer but even that can be overwhelming.

Thanks ladies!

in our NICU we usually are 2:1, but its not uncommon either to have a 3:1 assignment if we're short staffed that shift. they're really good about not giving you a really high acuity baby with 2 others though. and of course we also get some 1:1 assignments. 

In the PICU we are 1:1 or 2:1 depending on the acuity.

The cardiac ICUs that I've worked in are 1:1 for fresh post-ops, super-sickies, pts with VADs/IABPs and CVVHD; 2:1 for stable pts. The staffing in the teaching hospital I work for now (I just came back here, but this is where I've spent most of my nursing career) was always enough to allow for 2:1 assignments, at worst.

The PRIVATE hospital I worked for until a couple weeks ago was an entirely different story. Except for the CVICU, they staffed a certain number of nurses - period. Acuity is not a factor. Everyone had 2:1 assignments if the unit was full and fully staffed, but if someone called out, a they would triple up the assignments - totally unsafe IMO.

I work in Level III NICU, and our standard is 2:1....it can be a 3:1 assignment if the babies are on a nasal cannula or room air with minimal to no medication...but usually you just have a 2:1 assignment :)

Usually we don't try to run more then 2:1 but that night the 3rd admission came in late in the night so yes we probably could have called someone in but we didn't. Everyone is doing great now so thats the best part!

I work in Med Surg but at my hospital, the ICU ratio is 2:1.