Nurse Staffing Matters

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

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. This issue is not only affecting the hospital, but also the patients. In the article “When Hospital Paperwork Crowds Out Hospital Care” by Theresa Brown argues that nurses have too much paperwork to fill out about their patients. Having too many paperwork takes away from the nurses getting involved with their patients. In my opinion, neither of the arguments are valid because they lacks supporting details .Even though Robbins and Brown are passion about their topic, they both did a great job using pathos

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

Nursing leaders must collaborate effectively when developing a staffing plan to ensure safety and quality meet the institution 's mission and values as this study has done (see Figure 4 and 5). Anderson, Ellerbe, Haas, Kerfoot, Kirby, and Nickitas (2014), “Excellence and Evidence in Staffing: A Data-Driven Model for Excellence in Staffing”, stated nurses should be engaged in recognizing new models of care of which staffing enhances class and outcomes while decreasing the cost of healthcare. According to Anderson et al., (2014) sufficient staffing is typically done by accomplishing quality results, which reduces the cost of care. The evidence according to Anderson et al., (2014) demonstrates that nursing care has a direct influence on the overall quality of services

With a nurse shortage, patients are not getting the best quality care they should be getting. Archive stated that hospital nurse staffing, is a matter of major concern because of the effects it can have on patient safety and the quality care patients deserve. Nursing-sensitive outcomes is an indicator of the quality care and can be defined as variable patient or family caregiver state, condition, or perception responsive to nursing intervention. Some unfortunate patient outcomes potentially sensitive to nursing care are shock, urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia, longer hospital stays, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, failure to rescue, and 30-day mortality. Research has focused on negative rather than the positive patient outcomes for the simple reason that adverse outcomes are more likely to be documented in the medical record. 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. A heavy nursing workload can influence the care provider’s decision to perform various procedures. A heavy workload may also reduce the time spent by nurses collaborating and communicating with physicians, therefore affecting the quality of nurse-physician collaboration” (ncbi). This is important because it tells us that nurses wouldn 't have enough time to perform tasks that can affect the patients’ care. If nurses are being overworked because of a nurse shortage, then patients’ would not have the best quality care they would need, which can be a

As a nurse, it is significant for us to promote safety during the practice. Yet, some of them only focus on the surface quality but not holistic one. It was guilty about the incidents of ignoring patient safety. It urges me on reflecting the nursing practice and alters the performance

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.

Our nurses are being over worked and understaffed and no one is saying anything! There are mountains of evidence that show the adverse relationship between subpar nursing care and patient outcomes. Many people work overtime to make that overtime money because the hospital is usually understaffed. But because patient outcomes really depend on nurses to be in tip top shape, I think it is extremely important that hospitals eliminate working overtime. That is why I am asking policy makers to cosponsor the bill S. 1132: the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015. This act will mandate Medicare associated hospitals to create committees to create staffing plans specific to each unit.

Ethical issues can impact the health care system in a variety of ways. The APN is expected to provide excellent regardless of the work environment. One issue that continues to influence the entire nursing profession is staffing inadequacies. “Without sufficient staffing it is difficult to meet ethical standards of professional practice responsibilities, including protecting the rights of individual patients and families, alleviation of suffering, and preserving their integrity”(Ulrich et al., 2010, p. 1).

I view nursing as a process of continuous growth and pursuit of knowledge to provide competent compassionate care. Registered Nursing Professionals try to deliver the highest level of patient care to ensure satisfaction; however, they face many challenges and issues that hinder their ability to properly deliver client care. There are various issues in nursing that needs to be addressed and this paper will focus on three: nursing workforce shortage, nursing violence and mandatory overtime hours. These issues have a direct effect on patient care and this paper aims to discuss the impact they have on the nursing field.

Short staffing is an ongoing problem in acute hospital settings. There is either inadequate licensed nurses on the floor or nurses are extremely exhausted from recent shifts where they were assigned high patient ratios. An increase in more patients negatively affects the health of nurses causing extreme fatigue and interrupted sleeping patterns (Garnett, 2008). During an interview with a registered nurse at the Guam Memorial Hospital, the nurse described a problem with short staffing as a “vicious cycle”. He explained a scenario where Nurse A calls in sick then eventually Nurse B has no other choice but to cover the hours for Nurse A. Chances are once Nurse A recovers, Nurse B ends up calling in sick due to nurse burnout (anonymous, September

As a professional nurse I have seen many nursing care issues that affect both the nurse and patients. Before I became an RN I worked as an LPN in a nursing rehabilitation facility. While working in that facility I truly saw what it meant to be short staffed. The nursing care issue that I have identified is short staffing and mandatory overtimes. I believe these issues go hand in hand. These conditions contribute to the detriment of patient and nurse safety. A nurse who is faced with a high patient ratio and then made to work overtime is prone to errors which can harm themselves and their patients. A scenario that causes fragile patients in need of excellent care to suffer.

During the interview process, the manager will check the candidate’s credentials, ask questions to assess whether a candidate would be able to handle an open-door policy, and offer a class or module to train on good leadership skills with follow-up evaluation. Retaining nurses was the chief issue that was monitored in the group analysis of the review. The most common among the articles revealed that nurses prefer a lower nurse to patient ratio. It would allow them to have more one-on-one time with the patient, therefore providing better care. Protocols should be implemented hospital-wide. No more than four patients to one nurse at any time and if a nurse is in a high-risk area, protocol will adjust so that a nurse will have no more than 2 patients at a time. This protocol would go into effect over a 6-month to 1-year time span, beginning January 1st to January 1st of the following year to allow the hospital to hire more staff. To ensure there is no collapse in staffing, protocols would go into effect one unit at a time. Travel nurses will be hired as well as an increased hiring of newly graduate nurses to offset current practice from 6:1 patient to nurse ratios to 4:1 in order to have adequate staff. Another way to promote nurse retention is to encourage staff nurses to have more active input in decision making, such as allowing them to

The hospitals would need to fix the situation by having staffing standards. The nurses need to be staffed sufficiently to avoid nursing burnout, because when a nurse is burnt out, then the patients will also be affected. The nurses would also need their time off to rest, so that they can function properly in the hospital (Wagner, 2013).

Staffing is the systematic approach to the problem of selecting, training, motivating and retaining professional and non professional personnel in any organization. Staffing is the whole personnel function of bringing in and training and maintain favourable conditions of work. It involves manpower planning to have the right person in the right place and avoid Square peg in round hole. Staffing is certainly one of the major problems of any nursing organization, whether it be a hospital, nursing home, health care agency, or in educational organization. This is one major dissatisfaction among clinical nurses. Posting the number of nurses needed by time slot and allowing nurses to put colour pins in slots to select their own times can