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. Identifying and maintaining the appropriate number of mixed nursing staff, RN/LPN/CNA, is critical to the delivery of quality patient care. Many studies reveal an association between a higher level of experienced RN staffing and lower rates of adverse patient outcomes (“Nurse staffing plans,” 2013). The nurse-patient ratios will in turn improve the nurses working conditions, decreasing the risk of errors to patients. The first step is for the hospitals to have a nurse driven staffing committee, which will create staffing plans that reflect that needs of the patient population and match the skills and experience of the staff for each shift. The second approach is for legislators to mandate specific nurse-patient ratios in legislation or regulation. The third approach would be a requiring of facilities to disclose staffing levels to the public and/or a regulatory body. On April 17th 2013, Senator Barbara Boxer (California) introduced a federal bill that is aimed to reduce nursing shortages by establishing a minimum nurse-to-patient ration in hospitals. She is also ordering whistleblowing protection for nurses who report quality-of-care violations. The law requires that every hospital implement a written hospital-wide staffing plan that will guide the assignments to... ... middle of paper ... ...ck, T., Anen, T., & Soto, E. M. (2013). Nurse staffing: The illinois experience. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/815065_3 Needleman, J., Buerhaus, P., Pankratz, S., Leibson, C. L., Stevens, S. R., & Harris, M. (2011). Nurse staffing and inpatient hospital mortality. England Journal of Medicine, Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsa1001025 Nurse staffing plans & ratios. (2013, December). Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/Policy-Advocacy/State/Legislative-Agenda-Reports/State-StaffingPlansRatios Shekelle, P. (2013). Nurse-patient ratios as a patient safety strategy. 158, 404-409. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com V ́ericourt, F., & Jennings, O. B. (n.d.). Nurse-to-patient ratios in hospital staffing: a queuing perspective. Retrieved from https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~fdv1/bio/ratios3.pdf
It is clear that statewide mandated nurse-to patient ratios result in drastic financial changes for every hospital impacted. Hospitals often have to compensate for hiring more nurses by laying off support staff. Mandated ratios also result in an increase in holding time in emergency rooms . (Douglas,
There is a shortage of all health care professions throughout the United States. One shortage in particular that society should be very concerned about is the shortage of Registered Nurses. Registered Nurses make up the single largest healthcare profession in the United States. A registered nurse is a vital healthcare professional that has earned a two or four year degree and has the upper-most responsibility in providing direct patient care and staff management in a hospital or other treatment facilities (Registered Nurse (RN) Degree and Career Overview., 2009). This shortage issue is imperative because RN's affect everyone sometime in their lifetime. Nurses serve groups, families and individuals to foster health and prevent disease.
Nursing standards are the building blocks that lead to excellent patient care. The ANA (American Nursing Association) has standardized sixteen common practices for the best quality care of patients by nurses. Nurses are only able to facilitate minimal standards to patients due to time restraints derived from patient ratios and lack of support from administration. The hope to achieve the best possible outcomes in patient care are limited to the minimal standards expected of nurses from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (ANA, 2010). Patient ratios have been seen as a huge issue across the realm of nurses and health care facilities in deliverance on patient care. Addressing the issue of nursing shortages and the effects on ...
A chronic nursing shortage has been a reoccurring problem that impacts the future of our health care system and, even more so, the future quality of long-term care in this country. Currently, there are several federal and state initiatives, organizations, and agencies dedicated to solutions of the shortage. However, we continue to lack the necessary number of RNs needed to deliver quality care to a population with growing health care demands.
Needleman, J., Buerhaus, P., PKankratz, V. S., Leibson, C. L., Stevens, S. R., & Harris, M. (2011). Nurse Staffing and Inpateint Hospital Mortality. The New England Journal of Medicine , 364, 1037-1045.
Nursetraveler. (1999). The original bill that put staffing ratios in place! Retrieved September 10, 2011, from http://nursetraveler.org
These articles have many similarities when discussing the issue of staffing shortages. For patients, their loved ones and the general population, they don’t understand the ramifications and strain that staffing shortages have on nurses. People expect and deserve complete, competent and safe care when they are patients. These articles bring to light all the struggles that nurses have to deal with. Nurses are fearful that they will make mistakes, will harm patients, and will harm themselves. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001; Martin, 2015) Overtime can be overwhelming and exhausting, which can lead to errors being made. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001) These articles perceive that it may be beneficial for nurses, patients, and healthcare facilities to decrease the nurse-to-patient ratio, however, this option is not always
Nurse staffing ratios have been a topic of debate for many years. Inadequate staffing ratios can lead to patient, and staff endangerment, a decrease in patient and staff satisfaction, and a high turnover rate, along with employee burnout. Thus, sever staffing models have been implemented to aid with staffing rations, and federal and state requirements have been implemented. Although, nursing managers and leaders my approach nurse staffing differently, a professional approach should always be used to ensure satisfaction and safety.
Thousands of nurses throughout the nation are exhausted and overwhelmed due to their heavy workload. The administrators do not staff the units properly; therefore, they give each nurse more patients to care for to compensate for the lack of staff. There are several reasons to why
Nurse to patient ratios are extremely paramount in assisting with overall patient mortality and wellness of our nurses. It is an issues which unfortunately affected by legislation of our government (which is affect specifically on a monetary basis). My research via Academic Search Complete allowed me to identify topics that assist my PICOT question, and enables me to further analyze and research to find out what issues directly affect is matter. Proper nurse to patient ratio, operational costs, government regulation, nurse work life and health, patient wellness, and nursing procedures and duration of those procedures are all affected by this topic and we must ensure that all are properly balanced.
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.
Solutions for the nursing shortage beyond implementing safe nurse staffing ratios include: ongoing long-term workforce planning; institution of an education and practice system to promote more equitable compensation in the health care community based on a better understanding of the educational preparation required for different health care roles; implementation of specific strategies to retain experienced nurses in the provision of direct patient care, investigating the potential for using technological advances to enhance the capacity of a reduced nursing workforce; and advocate for increased nursing education funding under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act and other publicly funded initiatives to improve
Bedside nurses want to change staffing levels to assure that they have enough time to both keep up with the constantly evolving health care and to provide safe patient care. Yet, healthcare employers consider that reducing nurse patient ratio is an unnecessary expense that has not been proven to improve quality of patient care (Unruh, 2008). Employers emphasize that raising nursing staffing level is not cost-effective. In fact, in accordance with ANA’s report (2013), a study, in the Journal of Health Care Finance, confirmed that reducing patient-nurse ratios increased hospital costs, but did not lower their profitability. Higher hospital costs were attributed to wages and benefits allocated to newly hired nurses. Yet, according to Cimiotti et.al (20112), it is more costly for hospitals to not invest money on nursing.
In conclusion, the staffing matrix provides a balance between the patient care needs and staff qualifications. Relying on an evidence-based approach, the acuity-based matrix system schedules, matches and assigns nurses to cases where their skills are need most as the top priority (Yoder, 2013). Additionally, the system allows improvement in operational consistency and continuity of care. Employing new nursing staff using the new acuity based staffing matrix eliminates guesswork and improves patient outcomes. According to studies released by the American Nurses Association, “appropriate nurse staffing helps to achieve clinical and economic improvements in patient care” (ANA, 2016). Moreover, the ANA (2016) outlined positive patient outcomes
It surprises me that only one state has enacted nurse patient ratios. Nurse to patient ratios are so important in patient safety as well as adequate staffing. It is hard to staff adequately with the nursing shortage that we have in our country. I know that in our hospital many staff are floated to other units. Liability could be lowered by only floating seasoned nurses to other floors. Seasoned staff some times are still uncomfortable floating to other floors but at least they are not new to being a nurse and new to that unit. Another way to reduce liability and to increase patient safety is to have a charge nurse or seasoned core staff member available to staff members to answer questions and assist with procedures. I work in the float pool