High Nurse Patient Ratio

Hospitals all over the world are having patient discontent due to their nurses being too occupied to aid them. When ill people go to a hospital, they are expecting to get sufficient care and heal relatively quickly. Although nurses intend to give their patients the best care they can, it is not always possible. They have numerous patients that require full attention, and they are running on a short amount of rest. Taking care of eight patients a day while working a twelve-hour shift can be a strain on the nurses and can cause their attention to be focused elsewhere. Careless mistakes are made every day because of the harsh working conditions nurses everywhere must work in. For the well-being of patient care, nurses should be scheduled for shorter …show more content…
The standard nurse-to-patient ratio is four patients per one nurse, but a large amount of hospitals do not follow that ratio. The article, “What Happens to Patients When Nurses are Short-Staffed or Work with a High Nurse-to-Patient Ratio?” states, “When nurses are forced to work with high nurse-to-patient ratios patients get sent home too soon” (What Happens to Patients When Nurses are Short-Staffed or Work with a High Nurse-to-Patient Ratio?). Patients are getting sent home too early, and it is causing many to come back within three to four weeks with the same conditions or possibly worse. Patients depend on their nurses to do whatever is possible to assist them in healing properly, and when that is not happening it can result in severely wounded patients and an unpleasant reputation for the hospital or the individual nurse. In the same article, it is stated that, nurses can take better care of their patients when they have fewer to care for (What Happens to Patients When Nurses are Short-Staffed or Work with a High Nurse-to-Patient Ratio?). Nurses can have more individual time with their patient when they have less to be concerned about and can sufficiently educate them or assist them on ways to remain healthy. For nurses to be able to give their patients the attention and care they need, hospitals must start regulating …show more content…
Patients all over the world die because they could not be properly taken care of, simply because their nurse had too many other patients to take care of. The article, “What Happens to Patients When Nurses are Short-Staffed or Work with a High Nurse-to-Patient Ratio?” states, “The nurse researchers found that if hospitals reduced nurse burnout from 30% to 10% Pennsylvania alone could prevent 4,160 infections” (What Happens to Patients When Nurses are Short-Staffed or Work with a High Nurse-to-Patient Ratio?). If hospitals come up with a better nurse-to-patient ratio nurses will not be as spread out between patients, so they can prevent infections more proficiently for each patient. That same article states, “A study by nursing researchers Linda Aiken and colleagues found that 11 to 14% fewer patients would have died in Pennsylvania and New Jersey if those states had patient-to-nurse staffing ratios like those of California” (What Happens to Patients When Nurses are Short-Staffed or Work with a High Nurse-to-Patient Ratio?). If one state can find a way to treat their patients in a manner they deserve, others can too, and will prevent unneeded death. The world needs to be able to trust the hospital staff when a family member is in need of help. A nurse’s job is about helping people be healthy, and if their working conditions prevent them from being able to do that then