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Author	Patient Ratios is Vic - conditions in other states?
lokisare (offline) Joined: Sep 2007 Location: Posts: 37	Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:09 pm As a student nurse in Vic we are forever reminded how lucky we are to have legislated nurse:patient ratios. As far as I know in an acute general ward this is 1:4 however if you have patients who are full nursing care or require frequent obs even four can get hard to manage. I was wondering what conditions are like for nurses in others states, do you generally end up with more than four patients or is the workload divided up depending on the acuity of individual patients? Just wondering because with wages a good 20% higher in NSW it's pretty tempting to move states once I'm finished.

tropicana (offline) Joined: Mar 2007 Location: Posts: 62	Sep 13, 2007, 06:21 pm I have heard of the 1 in 4 ratio. It is brilliant. Here in the NT it is 1:5 mane, 1:6 late, and up to 1:9 at night. How do they guarantee it? Are there enough nurses around to staff the wards adequately? What happens if they can't get the staff? How often do the staff do overtime in order to maintain these numbers.

lokisare (offline) Joined: Sep 2007 Location: Posts: 37	Sep 13, 2007, 08:21 pm If they are lacking in permanent staff then they call on hospital nurse pool or bank nurses ... then if they still can't get staff then they call agency. So at worst you'll have too few nurses until the agency nurse arrives (an hour or so). I've only seen anyone doing a double shift to fill a spot once (in 10 weeks of placement) to fill in often they'll offer the shift to permanent staff as overtime but I've seen a lot of pool and agency staff used. Anyone else from other state want to comment?

KingAaron (offline) Joined: May 2006 Location: Adelaide Posts: 51	Sep 13, 2007, 10:59 pm Hey It is ok untill you can't get agency nurse's, and that is generally every shift. Here in Adelaide, 5 out of the 7 day week, I have NUM's and Coordinators on the phone screaming for EN's and RN's, as no agency can supply, due to the demand. I no nursing staff who work a double shift every couple of days. We all know it isnt common nor safe practice, but if they didn't then the ward would be one down if not more. Regards, Aaron

Rotator Cuff (offline) Joined: May 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 85	Sep 14, 2007, 04:43 pm Yeah, we too have had a lot of agency nurses lately, some splendid workers and some not. But when we cant get any agency, guess what? Yeah its the poor old permanents that do it. BTW unfortunately we dont have many casuals only about 5 or 6 and they mostly do mornings. NEED MORE CASUALS but who wants to do this type nursing. And what makes it worse is that when we do have agency and they are foreigners, most likely born in Aust, Residents say don't want that person showering me etc. YOU do it and guess who YOU is poor old permanents. How racist is that! probably the era they have been bought up in. Or get a load of this........ if Agency is a little on the big side (weight wise) Don't wont them either. It makes my blood boil. RC

KingAaron (offline) Joined: May 2006 Location: Adelaide Posts: 51	Sep 15, 2007, 02:18 pm Hey RC I fully second what your saying, sometimes the residents can be worst then people our own age. I remember one resident informing me as a TL on shift this one evening she didn't want this agency PCA attending to her ADL's as he was a bit "funny" Upon investigating and asking more questions I found out this care worker was gay and she didn't approve. I had a chuckle, and ask what the difference was between the agency carer and myself (other then nursing this resident for the last 4 months) and she was rather shocked when I informed her that I was gay as well. cut a long story short, the gay care worker ended up showering this resident, and for the next several months didn't hear one complaint from her. At the end of the day, we are all their to do our own jobs, but we all work as a team to get the job done, regardless whether they are gay, straight, black, white, pink, or even eat the weirdest of weirdest foods for lunch. The residents come first and we are working in their home, so to speak, so if they are uncomforble then we need to sometimes be accomodating to their requests, no matter how much they shit us off lol .. Aaron

Rotator Cuff (offline) Joined: May 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 85	Sep 17, 2007, 01:36 pm Hi KA Yeah guess your right, it is their home in a way and their body as well. Guess you cant change them if that is the way they are/way they have been bought up. Anyways life goes on. This does not have much to do with Staff/patient ratio. Just needed to have a gripe.

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Patient Ratios is Vic - conditions in other states?