Nursing Practice Issue Inadequate staffing can be the downfall for any organization and when inadequate staffing effects the healthcare field, the ramifications can affect patients and the nurses caring for them with negative ramifications. Nurses face dilemmas such as patient safety, patient satisfaction, nurse burnout, as well as a decrease in job satisfaction. These dilemmas can be attributed to inadequate staffing of facilities. Creating an adequate staffing model would reduce medication errors, patient complications and mortality, increase patient satisfaction, reduce nurse fatigue and burnout and improve job satisfaction. It is pertinent that healthcare leaders collaborate to create strategies to provide safer outcomes for patients and
…show more content…
In the healthcare field providers rely on Evidence Based Practice to provide the most recent, up to date care for their patients; to include appropriate staffing levels of the facility. A search of CINAHL narrowing the search for Evidence Based Practice and using key terms such as “evidence based staffing”, “safe staffing” “nurse staffing”, “nurse patient ratios”, “mandatory staffing” and “nurse staffing outcomes”, many results were provided. There is mixed research, however, there was a common denominator. The common finding is a correlation between nurse staffing and patient outcomes. Evidenced based practice for nurse staffing issues show a relationship between increased nurse staffing and more positive outcomes among patients. Studies have found significant correlations between staffing and failure to rescue, readmission rates and 30-day mortality rates of the surgical patient (Subirana, Long, Greenhalgh & Firth, …show more content…
Planning should be done in a perspective that include adaptations for acuity and volume of census. It should also include a proactive method to accommodate unplanned staffing deficits. Nurse Administrators should monitor the facilities census and increase or decrease staffing as needed. Plans should have well established guidelines that are measurable and nurse to patient specific. Nurse should also have an active role in in staffing decisions to ensure needs are able to be met for the patient (Weston, Brewer & Peterson, 2012).
Nurse staffing issues are complex. Each facility is different in the type of patients that they cater to and services they provide. The facility should look at factors beyond just staffing the unit based on a nurse to patient ratio. Factors such as patient complexity, acuity, number of admissions, discharges and transfers, and nurse skill levels should be evaluated in order to implement the safest outcomes.
Evidence Based Practice on what the nurse to patient ratio should be is limited. The facility must analyze all factors that may affect patient safety and positive outcomes. Nurse job satisfaction and low nurse retention rates have also been directly correlated to inadequate staffing. An effective staffing plan would also have positive outcomes on nurse
In the healthcare field providers rely on Evidence Based Practice to provide the most recent, up to date care for their patients; to include appropriate staffing levels of the facility. A search of CINAHL narrowing the search for Evidence Based Practice and using key terms such as “evidence based staffing”, “safe staffing” “nurse staffing”, “nurse patient ratios”, “mandatory staffing” and “nurse staffing outcomes”, many results were provided. There is mixed research, however, there was a common denominator. The common finding is a correlation between nurse staffing and patient outcomes. Evidenced based practice for nurse staffing issues show a relationship between increased nurse staffing and more positive outcomes among patients. Studies have found significant correlations between staffing and failure to rescue, readmission rates and 30-day mortality rates of the surgical patient (Subirana, Long, Greenhalgh & Firth, …show more content…
Planning should be done in a perspective that include adaptations for acuity and volume of census. It should also include a proactive method to accommodate unplanned staffing deficits. Nurse Administrators should monitor the facilities census and increase or decrease staffing as needed. Plans should have well established guidelines that are measurable and nurse to patient specific. Nurse should also have an active role in in staffing decisions to ensure needs are able to be met for the patient (Weston, Brewer & Peterson, 2012).
Nurse staffing issues are complex. Each facility is different in the type of patients that they cater to and services they provide. The facility should look at factors beyond just staffing the unit based on a nurse to patient ratio. Factors such as patient complexity, acuity, number of admissions, discharges and transfers, and nurse skill levels should be evaluated in order to implement the safest outcomes.
Evidence Based Practice on what the nurse to patient ratio should be is limited. The facility must analyze all factors that may affect patient safety and positive outcomes. Nurse job satisfaction and low nurse retention rates have also been directly correlated to inadequate staffing. An effective staffing plan would also have positive outcomes on nurse