RN/LVN Caseloads HCS Service Providers

I currently work for a private facility with 157 HCS consumers, 20 TxHml consumers with nursing, 17 group homes and 6 Votechs. We live in a rural area so we cover 300 square miles, traveling extensively.

We have one RN, me whose also the DON, and two LVN's to cover all the duties, requirements, assessments, meetings and so forth. I am the ONLY RN who is responsible for all the RN duties including Comprehensive Assessments, Nursing IP's, in addition to the areas where I do not have a LVN, I am also responsible for the LVN duties.

I would like to petition my supervisor and possibly the board of directors, if I don't get anywhere with the supervisor, about hiring additional nurses (I'm always told it's not in the budgets at this time).

Could you all give me an example of your caseloads please?

Your job sounds like mine - I have 36 consumers in 6 group homes I am primary RN, Medical case manager do the assessments, IPs etc..,. I am pretty well paid and I have a lot of autonomy which is worth the headach. Budgets are tricky with this type of nursing because the funding comes from medicaid and medicare - the cost of caring for these folks continues to go up while reimbursements have remained static for the past ten years and health care reform is cutting deeply into these reimbursements as well so I wouldn't count on getting more help any time soon.

Hppy