Mandatory Staffing Ratios Research Paper

Improved Essays
E. mandatory staffing ratios Establishing mandatory staffing ratios is essential for proper patient care, regardless of the location of the hospital. Staffing ratios are important for many reasons that accumulatively account for better patient care, whether directly or indirectly. One main focus of establishing mandatory staffing ratios is also beneficial to nurses as well. Staffing ratios help prevent nurses burning out as a result of a job. These ratios ensure that each nurse carries an equal load and is not faced with an overbearing amount of responsibility or patients. It is in the patients’ best interest that there is always a sufficient and established number of staff on-hand in case of an emergency. An unbalanced ratio can ultimately

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Case Study In Nursing

    • 1888 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The quality of nursing care is reliable upon many factors. When nurses accept assignments and responsibility of patient care, individual characteristics such as knowledge, competency, years of experience, fatigue, time management, the availability of resources and support and the culture and working conditions of the unit, can either aid or impede the safety and clinical outcomes of patient care. These all contribute to the quality of care a patient receives and sheer imbalance can lead to poor or deadly patient…

    • 1888 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Clinical Question To evaluate the essence of inpatient nurse to patient staffing ratio The initiative indicates that there should be a minimum of nurses to patients This is designed with the aim of addressing the growing concerns that there has been harm on patients through inadequate staffing, thereby paving way to increase in complexity and severity of the illness during the care (American Nurses Association, 2014) Search Criteria/Results Search Criteria The research conducted ensured that extensive research was carried out on numerous databases such as PubMed, CINAHL and in different areas that related to nurse to patient ratio Search Results:…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Safe Nurse Staffing Ratios Danielle Scott Vermont Technical College Safe Nurse Staffing Ratios In the last few years, there has been a rising need for an increase in registered nurses in the hospital setting. This rise in registered nurses is related to increasing acuity of hospitalized patients and a shorter duration of stay. The safety and quality of patient care is closely associated to the quantity and skill of the nursing workforce.…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Theresa Brown in her piece, “When no one is on call”, argues the importance of having adequate nurse staffing. She addresses the issues that understaffed hospitals face. More specifically, Brown discusses how crucial nurses are to the health of each patient. Brown builds an argument through the use of statistical evidence, emotional anecdotes that appeal to her audience, and logical reasoning describing the benefits of a fuller nursing staff. To begin, Brown implements statistical data in order to add power to her argument.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    High patient to nurse ratios takes away with the nurse communicating with the patient and family effectively and developing trust. Relieving patient fear and anxiety can be a challenge when the nurse has less time to spend with the patient because of increased patient load. This does not allow the nurse to develop trust with the patient and family and discuss details about the patient and their treatment. There are ways to improve this type of care, but it will take dedication and a hospital wide effort.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Nurse staffing is taking center stage in the legislative arena because of the ongoing nursing shortage and the imminent retirement of many nurses. “Identifying and maintaining the appropriate number and mix of nursing staff is critical to the delivery of quality patient care. Numerous studies reveal an association…

    • 1775 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nurse Patient Ratio Essay

    • 1527 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Mandating Nurse-Patient Ratios • Data shows that lowering the nurse-patient ratio similar to the California mandated ratios will result in lower mortality rates (Aiken et al., 2010). • When the workload is decreased nurses are more successful in identifying a change in patients’ health status, therefore able to intervene and provide a better outcome for the patient (Aiken et al., 2010). • Reports of job dissatisfaction and nurses’ burnout decreased when the nurse-patient ratio in other states were equaled to the California mandated ratios (Aiken et al., 2010). • Research shows that lowering the amount of workload for nurses’ results in fewer mistakes, improved nursing care, a supportive staff, and an overall better working environment (Aiken…

    • 1527 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Mandatory Staffing Ratio

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Creating a mandatory staffing ratio between nurses and patients will prevent many medical errors. Medical errors account for 98,000 preventable patient deaths each year, these can be caused by distractions, interruptions, ineffective communication, etc (Townsend, 2013). Over working our nurses can create higher nurse burnout and worsening health. We don’t need research to show that fatigue and sleep deprivation causes memory problems, slower reaction time, longer information processing time, and many other issues that leads to unsafe outcomes for patients and nurses themselves. On top of high patient to nurse ratios, most hospitals in the US are still allowing nurses to work 12 hours shifts because that means they don’t have to hire as many…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The AACN suggests nurses nurse staffing must ensure an effective match between nurse skills and patient needs (AACN, 2016). Not only does inappropriate staffing lead to medical errors, it can also bring about stressed and overworked nurses. The unit I work on is often short-staffed leading nurses to take on more than they are used to and leaving charge nurses scrambling to assign duties and calling in reinforcements. To the best of my ability, I will try to match my nurse’s abilities to the patient’s acuities and request critique if the assignments do not work effectively with current staffing. In order to address the staffing needs and the workflow that changes hour to hour, I believe the implementation of a resource nurse role will help address the staffing needs when patient loads become hectic.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Safe Staffing Ratios on a Med-Surge Unit Angela Lyons Eastern Gateway Community College Abstract Nurses have an integral and important role in the health care system. In order to retain nurses and have quality patient care, acceptable nurse to patient ratios must be obtained. Three of the many benefits of adequate nurse to patient ratios are quality patient care, retention of nurses, and patient safety.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Low Staffing Census Scheduling Policy, Nurse to Patient Ratio Many nurses work with a high patient census and have done so for many years. This has many negative consequences on nurses and their careers but by being understaffed because of a new census scheduling policy can leave the unit unsafe; lead to poor patient care; and even patient death. It is cause for concern for not only nurses but for patients and their families.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The let-down on ensuring the equate amount of nurse staffing has revealed such a damaging impact on the patient. This problem cannot be based on just adequate staffing, it is also a problem with the patient care and…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The argument I will be addressing in my persuasive essay will be about the unfair workload of nurses. I will be arguing that nurses are overworked and do not have the support of the administrators. My main argument is to have the administrators hiring more nurse staff or to lower the ratio of nurse to patient. This argument is derived from my field of work. I am an RN, and I work in the same circumstances.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A nursing shortage provides opportunities for future nurses; however, it causes consequences as well. The impacts of low nursing levels have several negative effects, such as increased risk for medical errors, death, workplace injuries, etc. For a healthcare facility to work efficiently, effectively and safely, there needs to be a sufficient number of working nurses and experienced nurses available to care for patients. Since there is a close connection between patient safety and nurses, staffing levels have become a concern for the public, government and healthcare…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I am aware of my tendency to over-analyze situations, especially ethical ones, as I search for solutions. As my paper indicated, when the nurse staffing is not appropriate, patient outcomes are poorer. Families are affected when they know their family member is not receiving the best of care. Healthcare works are affected as their stress levels increase which often results in job…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays