“ICU nurse can have no more than two patients”
Is this a union pushed thing? Whenever I’ve been in an ICU as a visitor, I never seen nurses hovering over a patient half-time.
Any med folks out there that can explain this?
My impression is that ICU nurses have the lowest workload but the most frequent crises. You can’t deal with three crashing patients at once. Sort of like fighter jock vs infantryman.
The ICU patient to nursing ration is 1:2 typically. There are certain assignments (CRRT / IABP etc) that are 1:1. And a really sick patient may be 2:1 Rn to 1 nurse. That is pretty rare.
This is not a union pushed thing, however RNs tend to be extremely liberal and have little compunction about walking out or striking in California. That being said, the RN shortage has existed LONG before any required mandates of vaccinations. Currently a traveling contract will pay 3 -5 x the amount of a standard staff RN contract by a hospital. Many nurses are leaving to travel — often getting assigned in their own hospital at far higher pay.
I do not believe for a minute that this is being exacerbated by “vaccine mandate”.