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How many residents are there per nursing home staff members?

On Behalf of | Sep 30, 2020 | Nursing Home Neglect |

The number of residents in a nursing home may not change much on a day-to-day basis. There is only so much capacity in the building. Due to the nature of the business, there is turnover, but the facility’s goal is to be filled with the same number of residents almost all the time.

What can change, of course, is the number of nurses, aides and staff members who actually show up for work each day. That number creates a ratio between staff members and residents, and it is often that ratio that determines the level of care everyone gets. What should it look like?

Optimally, some statistics appear to show that it’s best to have under 15 residents per nurse or aide. On some days, it may fall under 10. That’s great, and the staff can take care of that many people. Unfortunately, it sometimes gets far higher than that.

For instance, on the best days, one facility had about 13 residents per nurse and 7 residents per aide. On the worst day, this only fell to 16 residents per nurse and 9 per aide. These are all manageable numbers.

At another facility, though, there were 17 nurses and 7 aides per resident on the best days. On the worst days, that fell to 29 residents per nurse and 11 residents per aide.

Imagine being a nurse in a situation like that. Ideally, you should have around 13 people to care for. Instead, you have almost 30. Is it any surprise that the level of care declines?

That said, your loved one deserves better care than that. If they get neglected, you must know what options you have. Speak with an experienced attorney about the situation.

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