Inadequate Nurse Staffing

hence when nurse are understaffed, the patient centered safety culture is broken, health care provided in safe manner and safe environment is essential for patients wellbeing, but when the nurse/patient ratio is compromised, the nurses are unable to perform quality care and often leads to deterioration of health standard for the public leading to more mortality and morbidity. She also highlights that profit motivation becomes the main driving engine for the corporate driven hospitals and the health care system thus compromising on the patient safety. So with the understaffing of nurses, some of the common health care needs of individuals and communities lay threatened. The very first need of the individual to get a standard quality health care is being compromised.

A study in 2003 found that over 40% of nursing employees in a hospital setting were experiencing job dissatisfaction (Steinmiller,

There is a need for greater reimbursement for nurse staffing for health care organizations. Nurses make up the bulk of medical personnel and are the frontline caregivers and health care providers. I agree with many experts’ opinion that adequate nurse staffing results in favorable patient outcomes and must therefore be financially supported. Dunham-Taylor (2015), argues that “effective workforce management is a key factor contributing to organizational success” (Dunham-Taylor, 2015). Moreover, the author asserts that adequate nurse staffing leads to better patient outcomes, better reimbursement, positive patient satisfaction scores, greater workforce satisfaction, increase employee retention, financial success and organizational stability

Further research stated that the American Nurses’ Association have guidelines for making decisions on staffing, which “suggest that the number and acuity of the patients, the level of staff working

Nurse staffing is a significant region of worry because it can place a strain on patient safety as well as quality of patient care. With cost effectiveness in mind, hospital administrations have elected to reduce nursing staffing ratios and substitute licensed nurses using cheaper unlicensed personnel. This increases uneasiness as the quality of care in hospitals might be undesirably reduced. The necessity to evaluate nurse staffing is essential.

Due to hospital care reaching an all-time high in America, we need nurses now more than ever before. Currently in America, we have an issue with nurses having too many paperwork to fill out. In the article “We Need More Nurses” by Alexandra Robbins argues we need more nurses in the hospital. Nursing shortage has been a common issue throughout the world. Because of this issue others are being affected in many different ways.

State-mandated nurse-to-patient ratios remains a controversial topic in healthcare. Sufficient nurse staffing is key to ensure adequate patient care, while scarce staffing effects patients’ safety and puts nurses at risk for burnout. Determining nurse-to-patient ratios in nursing facilities remains a challenge for the nursing profession. There are many factors to consider when determining staffing methods, such as cost, nurses’ satisfaction, patient outcomes and safety. Mandating ratios is one attempt at ensuring nurses’ workloads do not exceed what is needed for adequate patient care and safety.

In less acute circumstances, long term outcome of understaffing can also be detrimental to patient condition. Often, when a staff member is overwhelmed with the workload, nursing actions which are perceived less critical may be pushed to the back burner. Debilitated patients may not be turned and repositioned resulting in hospital acquired pressure ulcers, which not only affects patient outcome, but also taxes the hospital

This is important evidence because it gives us conditions and results of what can happen if patients get lower quality care. Patients’ are not having enough time getting checked up by a nurse, and nurses would miss some diagnostics. Patients are getting sick because of the poor care they are receiving from nurses. The care patients can get is affected by a nurse shortage, “Nursing workload definitely affects the time that a nurse can allot to various tasks. Under a heavy workload, nurses may not have sufficient time to perform tasks that can have a direct effect on patient safety.

Understaffing in hospitals is a major problem that has been affecting healthcare workers and patients for many years. I have chosen to highlight understaffing as a patient safety issue because of the consequences that can arise from it. Shortages in staffing can result in an increase of infection rates (Stone et al., 2007) leading to complications and poorer patient outcomes (Needleman et al. 2002). This particular issue is of interest to me because I have experienced and witnessed it myself. As a midwifery student in a busy maternity hospital, I can appreciate the hard work and dedication each midwife gives to their patients.

This occurs when nurses provide care to more than the assigned patients, thus increasing patient workload. It affects the patient’s quality of care, increasing the risk for NSOs and other patient complications. Not only are patient outcomes affected, but nurses are experiencing increased burnout and fatigue. A safe nurse is necessary when providing care to ensure a safe and stable patient outcome. These concerns can be preventable by implementing and assigning the necessary tools to minimize effects on nurses and patient

Large patient loads combined with a stressful work environment affects nurses’ abilities to provide quality healthcare. Patient safety should never be compromised. It is our responsibility to learn from research and improve our current nurse staffing ratios. Nurse staffing is key and affects all other outcomes. Without nurses administering the right treatment at the right time to the right patients, all other healthcare interventions are not effective.

Empirical Referents Empirical referent studies support Watson’s theory by affirming the existence of a positive relationship between patient satisfaction and nurse caring behaviors in numerous clinical settings. Nursing education plays a significant role in the achievement the caring concept and is accentuated throughout the nurse's professional career (Labrague, Mcenroe-Petitte, Papathanasiou, Edet, & Arulappan, 2015). Patient satisfaction is a measurable component used to determine the care received from nurse clinicians. Stroehlein (2016) indicates that although there is a large constituent of many occupations, caring in the nursing occupation assumes an exceptional meaning with a higher purpose. Caring is multifaceted and comparable have determined individuals whose intention is to open the eyes of the society through rendering high quality patient care (Stroehlein, 2016).

Nurses play an essential role in the healthcare industry. The nurse workforce is made up of licensed nurses: registered nurses (RNs), licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs), along with nurse aides. Registered nurses are responsible for assessments of patients’ needs, development of care plans, medication administration, and treatments, while licensed vocational nurses perform specific care under the delegation of the registered nurses and supervisions. Nursing aides perform activities of daily living (unskilled attention) to the patient. Adequate nursing staffing is essential to both patient care and outcomes, also to the retention of nurses while inadequate staffing creates problems for both the patients and

Buchan and Aiken (2008) stated that the nurses shortage problems may be due to the nurses that not willing to work as a nurse under the current conditions in working environment. A real shortage is circumstances where experienced people are not available for a certain vacancies due to some reasons (Wildschut&Mqolozana, 2008). A news article written by Salma Khalikin in Straits Times stated that according to current situation Singapore may not be able to create enough nurses for upcoming years. The impact of nurses shortage may causes increase work load for nurses which subsequently may increase the risk for nurses made errors in clinical, the risk of increase hospital acquired infections which cause by viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens. More over the impact of shortage of nurses may also increase death rate, and also increase the risk of occupation injuries and exposure in working environments.