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Nurse to patient ratio and safety
Importance of adequate staffing for nurses
How many studies have been done on nurse patient ratio
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Evidence shows that nurse to patient ratios impacts patient safety. The analysis titled "Nurse-to-Patient Ratios Must Increase to Improve Safety" was chosen for review as possible research material for my chosen health care topic of nurse to patient ratios (Duffin, 2012). The analysis is a concise glimpse of the problems that occur with high patient loads and those that suffer because of it. However, the analysis is just that, a glimpse. It is too short to provide any substantial new evidence or add to any existing research on this topic. This essay will evaluate the targeted audience or discourse community as well as the author's relevance or kairos in the writing of this brief analysis. The analysis's discourse community is directed at the nursing community, which includes floor, or unit nurses, ward sisters also known as charge nurses in America, and hospital administrators. This analysis was published in a journal written in England, so that narrows the discourse community a small fraction, but the information in it is still relevant for any hospital that has high nurse to patie...
Gordon, S., Buchanan, J., & Bretherton, T. (2008). Safety in Numbers: Nurse-to-Patient Ratios and the Future of Health Care (pp. 1-2). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
For my research paper, I will be taking the position that low nurse-patient ratios (the number of patients a nurse is assigned to care for during their shift) are beneficial to patient safety and should be adopted on a larger scale. What made you interested in this topic? I am interested in this topic because when I graduated from nursing school last year, I accepted a job where I am comfortable with my workload, while many of my classmates ended up in work environments where they are responsible for taking care of as many as 9 patients at a time while working as the Charge Nurse on the unit. Several have expressed to me that they feel their patients aren't safe because of the workload they face as nurses. How is it related to your field of study, major, or to what you plan on doing after you graduate?
In the case of nurse staffing, the more nurses there are the better outcome of patient safety. When there enough staff to handle the number of patients, there is a better quality of care that can be provided. The nurses would be able to focus on the patients, monitor the conditions closely, performs assessments as they should, and administer medications on time. There will be a reduction in errors, patient complications, mortality, nurse fatigue and nurse burnout (Curtan, 2016). While improving patient satisfaction and nurse job satisfaction. This allows the principle of non-maleficence, do no harm, to be carried out correctly. A study mentioned in Scientific America showed that after California passed a law in 2014 to regulate hospital staffing and set a minimum of nurse to patient ratios, there was an improvement in patient care. Including lower rates of post-surgery infection, falls and other micro emergencies in hospitals (Jacobson,
In the health care industry, nurse to patient ratios is often a controversial issue. Registered nurses know and continue to reiterate the importance of safe staffing levels in health care facilities. Reductions in nursing budgets, coupled with the expanding nursing shortage, has resulted in a reduction of available nursing staff. As a result, the employed nursing staff are forced to work longer hours with more acutely ill patients. Consequently, patient care is compromised and ultimately perpetuates the nursing shortage because of this negative work environment. Providing safe quality health care is expensive. Health care facilities are always in search of ways to trim spending while maintaining the same quality of care. One of the methods in which hospitals trim the spending budget is through labor reduction. Tempting as this may seem, this method presents a massive dilemma to providing safe quality care. Less staff coupled with large patient workloads will lead to adverse patient outcomes. Evidence shows that it is more cost effective to maintain safe staffing levels and prevent adverse patient outcomes versus the estimated savings of labor reduction. Maintaining safe nurse to patient ratios reduces patient
Nurses are the largest and the most trusted professional group in the health care system. They are highly educated and skilled in their areas of practice. However, today’s nurses are experiencing an ever increasing workload, which negatively impacts their ability to deliver safe patient care (Berry & Curry, 2012). This paper explores four published journals that report on survey results on nursing workload and their direct correlation with patient care outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to address the ongoing nursing workload issues and explore the reasons behind it.
Many nurses face the issue of understaffing and having too much of a workload during one shift. When a unit is understaffed not only do the nurses get burnt out, but the patients also don’t receive the care they deserve. The nurse-patient ratio is an aspect that gets overlooked in many facilities that could lead to possible devastating errors. Nurse- patient ratio issues have been a widely studied topic and recently new changes have been made to improve the problem.
Hughes, R. G. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Retrieved from http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/
The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of nursing staffing ratios in the healthcare industry. This has always been a primary issue, and it continues to grow as the population rate increases throughout the years. According to Shakelle (2013), in an early study of 232,432 surgical discharges from several Pennsylvania hospitals, 4,535 patients (2%) died within 30 days of hospitalization. Shakelle (2014) also noted that during the study, there was a difference between 4:1 and 8:1 patient to nurse ratios which translates to approximately 1000 deaths for a group of that size. This issue can be significantly affected in a positive manner by increasing the nurse to patient ratio, which would result in more nurses to spread the work load of the nurses more evenly to provide better coverage and in turn result in better care of patients and a decrease in the mortality rates.
Nurse staffing is a complex issue. There are many factors which need to be considered when staffing a nursing unit. Evidence shows an association between Registered Nurses (RNs) having decreased workloads and better patient outcomes, including a decrease in patient mortality (Aiken et al., 2011; Needleman et al, 2011; How Lin, 2013; Patrician et al., 2011; Wiltse-Nicely, Sloane, Aiken, 2013). A small percentage of patients expire during their hospitalization as evidence suggests that a portion of these deaths can be attributed to RN staffing levels (Shekelle, 2013). As the reimbursement system for hospitals today emphasizes quality outcomes, this has an increase in the importance of the nurse’s role in patient care (Frith, Anderson, Tseng, & Fong, 2012). The quality of care is effected when there are higher RN-to-patient ratios. Mortality rates can be decreased by 50% or more when there is a lower RN-to-patient ratio. The morale of nursing staff and the hospital’s reputation are effected when there is a large nurse turnover and poor patient outcomes (Martin, 2015; Knudson, 2013). Having adequate nurse staffing levels saves lives (Martin, 2015). The purpose
Patient’s safety will be compromised because increase of patient to nurse ratio will lead to mistakes in delivering quality care. In 2007, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted a metanalysis and found that “shortage of registered nurses, in combination with increased workload, poses a potential threat to the quality of care… increases in registered nurse staffing was associated with a reduction in hospital-related mortality and failure to rescue as well as reduced length of stay.” Intense workload, stress, and dissatisfaction in one’s profession can lead to health problems. Researchers found that maintaining and improving a healthy work environment will facilitate safety, quality healthcare and promote a desirable professional avenue.
Safe nurse-patient ratio is a complex issue debated on for many years. Due to inadequate staffing registered Nurses are faced with high patient ratios, and nurse burn out everyday. According to the American Nurses Association, “Massive Reductions in nursing budgets combined with, the challenges presented by a growing nursing shortage have resulted in fewer nurses working longer hours for sicker patients. This situation compromises care and contributes to the nursing shortage by creating an environment that drives nurses from the bedside”. (2012) Through the nursing process, the essential role of the Registered Nurse is to assess, diagnose, and plan based on outcomes, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of nursing care. However, it is not realistic to thoroughly implement these core guidelines in a safe and effective way, when you are
Nurse staffing ratio is an ongoing issue in healthcare. For some units, it is a temporary problem until more team members are hired. Unfortunately, for others it is an everyday challenge that must be addressed. Nurse staffing ratio is usually based on number of patients a nurse should be responsible for during a shift. Unfortunately, not having enough staff is a safety concern for both the patients and the nurses. Therefore, addressing this topic should be a priority for nurse managers and leaders. According to Vantage Point (2009) a patient has a greater chance of dying while in the hospital when nurses have to care for more patients than recommended. A heavier workload will not result in
Patient safety is a large concern for practices, nurses and doctors. There are many tasks and precautions that can be taken to prevent accidents in the work place, whether it involves patients or not. Florence Nightingale once said “The very first canon of nursing, the first and last thing on which a nurse’s attention must be fixed is to keep the air within as pure as the air without”. This quote is argued to be an analogy for keeping the patient safe and to return them to the same condition as before they fell ill. Patient safety is one of many top priorities in a nurse’s creed, right next to caring for the patient and returning them to proper health. It is the nurse’s responsibility to keep the patient as comfortable as possible. This has
In response to concerns about staffing and quality of care, the American Nurses Association (ANA) launched the Patient Safety and Nursing Quality Initiatives in 1994 to address the impact of health care restructuring on patient care and nursing. To facilitate the initiative, ANA established the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) in 1997, with two goals: (1) to develop a database that would support empirical monitoring of the impact of nurse staffing on patient safety and quality of care across the nation, and (2) to provide individual hospitals with a quality improvement tool that includes national comparisons of nurse staffing and patient outcomes with similar hospi...
Patient safety is a crucial component within the nursing discipline and is of utmost importance in health care. According to Kirwan, Matthews and Scott’s quantitative nursing research article, The impact of the work environment of nurses on patient safety outcomes: A multi-level modelling approach, published in 2013 in the International Journal of Nursing Studies, contributing factors that may have an impact on patient safety may include the nurse’s work environment as well as the nurse’s education level (Kirwan, Matthews, Scott, 2013). This article has relevance in the nursing discipline across health care settings and is important to this writer’s nursing practice to reinforce the importance of the work environment and nursing