Impact of Staffing Levels on Nurse Burnout and Job Satisfaction

1367 Words3 Pages

A rising issue in nursing in recent years is how staffing levels effect nursing outcomes including, but not limited to, nurse burnout and job satisfaction. Three types of staffing contribute to nurse workload; they are staffing by hours per patient day, staffing by ratios, and staffing by acuity. Following is an in depth analysis of how nurse staffing affects nurse job satisfaction and burnout.
Nurse workplace environments have only really been studied during the last decade. There is growing research in this area especially due to the nursing shortage. International consensus is if you identify opportunities to improve working conditions for nurses, you will have a higher probability of maintaining staff (4). The success rate of retaining …show more content…

The number of patients assigned per nurse has been directly linked to nurse job satisfaction and patient outcomes; with a ratio of four patients to one nurse being the ideal ratio (7). Research has shown that the addition of just one patient per nurse has been associated with a higher risk of death for patients and an increase in nurse job dissatisfaction and burnout (2). This is significant because nurses wish to provide the best quality of care for patients and with increased patient to nurse ratios, nurses are unable to maintain their ideal quality of care; which leads to job dissatisfaction and nurse burnout. Originally, after the passage of the California nurse staffing act, which set mandated nurse-patient rations, overall job satisfaction appeared to increase (1). However, several longitudinal studies have suggested that direct care nurses are still dissatisfied despite increased nurse to patient ratios (1). From the results of these longitudinal studies, it has been found that there is still some shortcomings with staffing systems based solely on nurse-patient ratios. Therefore, even though the ratios staffing system accounts for appropriate patient care, it does not take into consideration different patient complexities and needs for nursing care (10). Staffing by acuity is the third and final staffing system that is considered when looking at nurse burnout and job

More about Impact of Staffing Levels on Nurse Burnout and Job Satisfaction

Open Document