Mandatory Nurse-Patient Ratios

One of the most important questions a nurse asks themselves is, “Am I providing my patients the best care?” That question can come up in an array of forms such as, medicating patients on time, attending to each patient in a timely manner, and the basic nursing process; assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing and evaluating. More times than not, a nurse is faced with providing proper patient care or getting tasks done in a timely manner. A nurse’s ethical practice is compromised when he or she must decide between providing quality patient care or just completing tasks. The choice should always be proper patient care, but the reality is that is doesn’t always happen. There are many reasons as to why there can be a decrease in quality of care, but it seems that one of the most common reasons to why patient care is compromised is high nurse-patient ratios. …show more content…
According to Tevington, 2011, “support for mandatory nurse-patient ratios is drawn from the belief that regulated registered nurse (RN) staffing will increase positive patient outcomes, decrease nursing shortages, and increase nurse recruitment and job satisfaction” (p. 265). The next problem that is faced when looking at the nurse-patient ratio is proper nurse staffing because these two factors are parallel. “Greater numbers of nurses at the bedside help increase patient satisfaction, improve quality of care, and increase nurse morale, satisfaction, and retention” (Martin, 2015, p.