Nurse Staffing Levels

Improved Essays
Nurse staffing levels have made a difference in the way a nurse practices, as well as the care that the patient receives. The profession of Nursing, is said to be one of the greatest job growths of all US professions, and one that holds continued practice (Zinn, Guglielmi, Davis, & Moses, 2012). Furthermore, nursing is considered an often rewarding job, as there is a great sense of fulfillment to be able to help someone who is in need of care. Many times, patient’s will often look to a nurse as a source of management of care and as their advocate, as these nurses partake in the patient’s care as an autonomous partner. Despite all the efforts to have a sufficient amount of nurses, there have been many challenges that have been brought over the …show more content…
It is projected that these shortages will only increase over the next decade, which is frightening to learn, especially as the population continues to grow and continue to live longer (Zinn et al., 2012). In order to have this issue improved, ideas have emerged to help to resolve the nursing shortage. This discussion not only presents itself with finding a remedy that will alleviate this, but also looks at the legality and policies that need to be in place in order to safe guard patients, and to ensure that the patients care is the number one priority. As there are many nursing acts that have been placed and policies within the hospital, there is still continued work to mandate and enforce the changes needed within each state, and to have the appropriate number of staff for the unit itself and the additional care that the patient may need to receive. In creating the positive changes to the work environment with the right number of staff, it is crucial to not eliminate other important resources that the staff may need as a way to save on certain

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Nurses have an integral and important role in the health care system. In the long run, suitable nurse to patient ratios will reduce spending and recruitment and retention of quality nurses will improve. Staffing needs and problems will intensify as the changing need for health care grows in our society. In order to retain nurses and have quality patient care, sufficient nurse to patient ratios must be obtained. Hiring additional staff is an economic issue, however, the outcomes could offset the cost.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nurse Wound Care Specialist Preventing Pressure Ulcers Pressure ulcers is an issue that nurses have been trying to solve for years, yet it is still a current issue in long term hospital stays and long term care facilities. Pressure ulcers could better be prevented if facilities had a wound care team to provide skin assessment and management of pressure ulcers. The need in facilities is to have nurses that are responsible for preventing pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcers occur on boney prominences like the sacrum, heels, or scapula’s.…

    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved 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
  • Improved Essays

    The nurse’s role is boundless and is vital to the health care system in providing high-quality of care. Nurses play a huge role…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Nursing Shared Governance

    • 1598 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Over the past several years, the demand for nursing staff has increased tremendously. In fact, the nursing shortage in the United States is anticipated to grow to 260,000 by 2025. (Buerhas, Auerbach, & Staiger, 2009). This foreseen shortage in nurses builds off of the knowledge that the average age of nurses is increasing, whilst the demand for nurses increases. More nurses are retiring or are close to retirement and an equal amount of nurses are not being recruited to organizations to take over the jobs of nurses that have left.…

    • 1598 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Lobbying for safe staffing goes hand in hand with what a labor organization represents. The American Nurses Association works to ensure safe working environments for nurses on a national and state level. Labor laws protect nurses through collective bargaining by encouraging hospital management and executives to follow guidelines on patient-to-nurse ratios for safer practice (Budd et al., 2004). The legislation for safe staffing is needed to strengthen the power of labor laws in all states nationally to ensure safe patient-to-nurse ratios occur in every…

    • 1775 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Grace Kondourajian Mrs. Klenke English III, Period 4 3 December 2015 Nursing Needs The nurses of every hospital are the glue that keeps things running smoothly and proficiently. Decades have suffered from the shortage of nurses all around the world. The shortage of nurses is an issue that affects almost every branch of health care. USA today addressed the topic with some shocking statistics:…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nursing Shortage Analysis

    • 1800 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Nursing Shortage and its Adverse Effects on Patient and Nurses How would you feel if you had to wait an incredibly long time to receive care every time you went to a healthcare facility because of a nursing staff shortage? You would probably feel neglected, irritated, and frustrated. It might be understandable occasionally, but if care was frequently delayed, you would probably be inclined to find a new provider. Not only is the nursing shortage upsetting for patients, a patient to nurse ratio greater than 4:1 is associated with significantly worse patient outcomes (Hairr & Salisbury, 2014). The staffing shortage affects the quality of patient care, and has an adverse effect on nurses as well.…

    • 1800 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Registered Nurse Staffing Act (2015) will address all the concerns of the stakeholders, hospitals, patients and registered nurses in regards to safe staffing practices. The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015 amends the title XVII Medicare of Social Security Act to mandate that each hospital funded by Medicare, implements a hospital-wide staffing plan for all nursing services provided by the institution. This plan requires that an appropriate, yet not fixed, number of registered nurses provide direct care on each of the hospital’s unit during each shift. The staffing plan will allow for variation in the number of nurses on each unit/shift based on the characteristics of the patients and the unit. This will result in the delivery of safe quality care.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved 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

    Essay On Nursing Shortage

    • 2146 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Within the next ten years, more than one million registered nurses in the United States will be eligible for retirement. This will potentially leave the nursing profession with the largest shortage in history. The need for health care is only growing due to the aging baby boomer population. “Nursing researchers have noted that the projected nursing shortage, if not rectified, is expected to affect health care cost, job satisfaction and quality patient care” (Lartey, 2014, p. 1027). Without an adequate number of nurses’ patient safety is at risk, resulting in medical errors due to understaffing.…

    • 2146 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    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…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior 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

    In doing research, one tends to find several “causes” for the current nursing shortage, but hospital administrators are still not in agreement regarding any one main cause. Hospitals and researchers have no idea what could be the cause. All that is known is that ”Prolonged shortages also might reduce the quantity of patient care, increase operating and labor costs, and decrease the efficiency and effectiveness of care provided” (Buerhaus et al.). With the cause being unknown, it becomes even harder to keep nurses in the work…

    • 1446 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nurses play an essential role in the healthcare business, providing care to patients and filling leadership roles at various hospitals, health systems and other organizations. According to the world health organization (WHO) nursing is defined as an autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. It includes the promotion of health, the prevention of illness, and the care of the ill, disabled and dying people. However, it is a tough profession that requires a lot of dedication and commitment however there are many challenges that nurses’ face today. The two problems that really stand out to me as a nursing student are the shortage of staff and the daily hazards that our job exposes us to on a daily basis.…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays