Nurse Staffing In Nursing

Introduction
Health care organizations are focused on providing high quality and safe patient care. There are numerous organizational factors that may directly affect patient care and outcomes, but one of great importance is nurse staffing. Low nurse staffing levels are a major problem that I have encountered during both my clinical and management experiences. There is a significant relationship between inadequate staffing levels and adverse patient outcomes; however, as I observed during my experiences, there may be increased awareness about this issue, but it has not been sufficiently addressed. In order to ensure patients’ safety and positive outcomes, as well as to improve nurse satisfaction, it is imperative to effectively address low staffing levels.
Presentation of Data
Low nurse staffing levels are an issue hospital-wide at St. Vincent Healthcare, particularly observed during my management hours with a House Supervisor. A responsibility of a House Supervisor is to ensure efficient utilization and allocation of nurses among the floors, so I have had the opportunity to thoroughly discuss and personally observe a variety of causes and consequences of low staffing with my preceptor. A primary reason for inadequate staffing appears to be due to finances; along with making patient safety a continuous priority, St. Vincent Healthcare must strive for good financial outcomes as well. There are certainly challenges that arise in maintaining a balance between providing adequate staff to deliver safe patient care and delivering services at lower costs. Other causes of low staffing are employee conflicts, management and/or leadership discrepancies, heavier patient loads/higher acuity patients, floating to other units, or decreased job ...

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...y training. This would require sufficient funding and time, as well as qualified instructors and appropriate settings. Nurses would be given the opportunity to volunteer for cross-training, and unit managers would recruit any others whom are deemed capable. Incentives and recognition could be given to nurses who have finished the program and are adequately cross-trained. Evaluation of this solution would be done through annual skill check-offs and verbal evaluations. On a bigger scale, staffing levels, nurse morale, job satisfaction/performance, patient outcomes, and costs would need to be evaluated to ensure that cross-training remains beneficial. Low nurse staffing levels at St. Vincent Healthcare must be addressed, as the nurses are key to the provision of high quality health care; a commitment to excellence would be further ensured through cross-trained nurses.