Nurse Staffing In Nursing

What is the projected demand for workers in the health care field over the next 20 years?

Moreover, several studies have been conducted to examine the effects of low nurse staffing on patients hospitalization experiences, as well as its effect on nurse careers in the long run. A recent study by Frith, Anderson, Tseng, and Fong (2012) to explore the relationship between nurse staffing and medication errors, demonstrated that medication errors were higher in a cardiac care unit and non-cardiac care unit when staffing levels were lower. In addition, Frith et al. (2012) pointed out that medication errors increase by 18% for every 20% decrease in nurse staffing below the average due to failure to follow medication administration protocol As mentioned earlier, nurses perform the last and the most important step of medication administration. Thus, having adequate time to assess each patient efficiently and following the medication rights is critical to provide safe patient care and prevent errors.

I regard nurses as a different or high breed of professionals advocating for patients daily and playing a crucial role to deliver the optimum patient care. Nurses are typically known “called to serve” and unlikely to put their interest s behind those of their patients. However, it is very important for nurses to have a voice collectively to represent them via labor union. Some of the reasons of unionization include better wages and benefits, better working conditions, and job security. More often, the desire to unionize can typically be attributed to workers’ perceptions of management as unfair and when they feel that they are not valued or respected by their employer, and other reasons that cannot be measured by dollars (McConnell, 2011,

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. Throughout this paper, I will explore both the pros and cons of mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in order to resolve the question, does nurse to

Nursing is known as professional discipline (Donaldson & Crowley, 1978). Nurses shortage is one of the significant issues in current nursing in Singapore and also in other countries. According to Buchan et al 2008, nurses shortage has a significant connection with a country’s historical staffing levels, country 's resources and it also estimates the demands for healthcare.

Every day nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas. Challenges in these situations are becoming more and more complex due to increasing workload and sicker patients. When a nursing unit is understaffed not only are nurses more likely to become burnt out, but their patients are far less likely to receive the quality of care they deserve. The problem is that the Federal regulations require hospitals who participate in Medicare to “have ‘adequate’ numbers of licensed nurses (RN, LPN, CNA) to provide care to all patients as needed,” but the regulations

Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners: The impact if statutes limiting PA and NP were eliminated

Staffing agencies in the medical field play a critical role of merging qualified staff with jobs. Health Care Recruitment Counselors Staffing (HCRC) is one such agency that specializes in medical employment. The Philadelphia based HCRC Staffing uses a detailed oriented approach that incorporates medical and staffing knowledge to enhance the hiring process. Employers can tap into the large HCRC database to find active physicians, podiatrist, medical jobs, dentist opportunities, chiropractic jobs and other qualified staff. Brian Torchin is the president of HCRC Staffing. Over the years, Torchin has spent a lot of time staffing, expanding and managing HCRC offices in Pennsylvania, Florida and Delaware and in other states in the US.

Short staffing is one of the many challenges nurses encounter in the work environment. The impacts can be detrimental primarily to the patient’s outcome. To examine the effects of short staffing, research was conducted on 36,539 hospital inpatients to evaluate the amount of those exposed to an understaffed shift and how many patient outcomes resulted in a NSO (Twigg, Gelder, & Myers, 2015). NSO’s are nurse sensitive outcomes based on the nursing care provided to the patient. Patients exposed to short staffing had an increase of greater than one chance of NSO’s compared to patients not exposed (Twigg et al., 2015). Short staffing decreases the quality of care provided to each patient, as nurses develop burnout with increase workload. Implementing helpful measures can decrease nurse burnout and the affect it has on patient outcomes. For example, PCSN (patient care support nurses) are a useful resource to provide when nursing staff is low. Nurses can also benefit from applying time management measures during their shifts, such as prioritizing and delegating. The impacts of short staffing may be minimal on patient care if these the proper measures are implemented.

It can lead to reduced productivity, reduced revenue, high staff turnover, and more. According to Sirota Consulting, the share price of low morale companies saw only three percent increase in price versus an industry average of sixteen percent” (p 1) As reflected in studies by other companies “Several studies find not only do employees experience steep losses in morale after restructuring programs, they also judge those programs to be much less successful than management does.” Further demonstrations and studies found that, “Reengineering systems and processed in one thing, but reengineering employee attitudes in another. “ (Begley, 1995,

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. Improvement of nurse staffing levels will improve the quality of care our patients receive.

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

An organizational analysis is a critical component in identifying problems or insufficiencies a business or organization may have. The organization’s culture, mission, values, and beliefs are evaluated. By performing an organizational analysis, one may be able to strategically develop a plan to correct issues. This paper will discuss healthcare systems as complex adaptive systems (CAS), evaluate Baptist Health System (BHS) as an organization, and explore BHS’s readiness for change.

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 becomes difficult to manage when the midwife has several women and babies to care for, as well as having time to mentor students such as myself.

I am very fortunate to have worked over 17 years in the nursing profession. I currently work in the Critical Care Unit at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, Texas. Recently, I have become concerned with the legislative impact on health care policies and I am writing in regards to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) Healthy Work Environments Initiative. Given your background in the nursing profession, I know you will be able to sympathize with the unhealthy work environments some nurses must face and the negative impact it has on patient safety and workplace errors. The AACN has identified a major area for improvement and this organization encourages nurses to play a role in developing and promoting healthy