Essay On Mandated Staffing Ratio

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Recommended: Nurse Staffing Ratios and patients

In my opinion, federally mandated staffing ratios are necessary until better solutions are found. Even though staffing ratio doesn’t solve nursing shortage, it is the first step to having an organized schedule. Staffing ratio creates an opportunity for charge nurses to create a schedule outline according to a nurse administrator (Kerfoot, 2016). The outline can be used to assign skilled nurses to critical patients. However, the mandated staffing ratio does have its advantages and disadvantages. According to a nursing article, studies have shown that the mandated staffing ratio has reduced fatigue and medical error among nursing staff while promoting patient safety (Votroubek, 2017). The staffing ratio creates an environment where the nurses are not easily burned out. The ratio gives the nurses less patients compared to before. A friend of mine has told me that she has taken care of over 10 patients in the past and she was grateful for the mandated staffing ratio. The mandated staffing ratio has created a better …show more content…

The existence of staffing ratio creates an urgent need for the hospital to hire more nurses. Due to the increased cost, the hospital might not be able to hire more nurses, which could result in nursing shortage. According to an article, the staffing ratio might cause patients to wait longer to be admitted into an unit due to nurses having maximum patients already (Votroubek, 2017). I disagree with medical/surgical staffing ratio in certain cases. Not all nurses have similar skills or experiences (Marquis & Huston, 2017, p. 437). If an experienced nurse is assigned to most of the high acuity patients, it could potentially create a mental strain by following the staffing ratio since the nurse would have to take care of 2 or 3 other low acuity patients at the same time. I personally feel like medical/surgical staffing ratio should be 1:4 to reduce strain on the experienced

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