Mandatory staffing ratios in hospitals
A nurse in the ICU comes on to her first of three shifts, and told that she is going to be receiving a transfer from a smaller hospital at some point in her shift. The patient that she is going to be receiving is a 79 year old patient that takes blood thinners and had a fall. Due to fall is believed to have both subdural hematoma and subarachnoid hematoma with a 1 cm x 1 cm midline shift. Currently on unit she is to receive report on a patient that is 66 years old that was extubated 2 hours earlier whom is having labored breathing with respiration rate of 52 breaths per minute. The third patient is a vented 64 year old patient that was admitted for acute respiratory failure related to COPD exacerbation due to lower lobe pneumonia.
