Nurse to patient staff ratios have been a massive issue for many years now. The role of the registered nurse is to deliver quality care to any patient admitted to the hospital under their scope of practice including skills of administering medication, providing comfort including turning to prevent pressure ulcers if the patient is immobile, assessment of their current disease process and evaluating the plan of care, and documenting or charting on the patient to hold one accountable for the care provided. Completing all of these tasks for eight or nine patients per nurse is unlikely to happen and have an increase chance of giving the wrong medication, making errors during cardiopulmonary resuscitation, having an increase in acquired pressure
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One way research has been shining light on is that states need to mandate staffing limits to hospitals and other facilities in order to prevent these patient outcomes, increase satisfaction in the workplace, and also even prevent nurse injuries from happening. Current states that have mandated staffing ratios are states such as California, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Illinois. There are far more states that are only still “planning” on implementing a possible amendment to the current staffing situation. (Tevington, 2011) Bills that are being introduced by the states include a one nurse to six patient ratio on a medical surgical unit. No more than that. (Tevington, 2011) Additionally, passing this into law, legislation could be difficult to change if new research is brought to light and proves that its effectiveness of the nursing profession could be affected negatively. Mandated staffing by state could affect the nursing profession negatively in ways such as limiting staffing decisions, accounting patient acuity in staffing, and also availability of ancillary or PRN staff. For example, flexibility in staffing decisions will be limited such as the ratio being altered due to lunch time for staff, call offs by …show more content…
Ways of fixing this problem can also be positive or negative such as mandating staffing ratios, or finding ways to increase nurse satisfaction at the work place. Overall, the patient to nurse ratio is a topic that is highly impactful in today’s medical world. We need to instill in the value that the registered nurse role plays in hospitalizations and other facilities. While hiring quality, we also need to hire quantity to take care of this demanding population becoming ill. The value of the nurse is vital and needs to be believed
One way research has been shining light on is that states need to mandate staffing limits to hospitals and other facilities in order to prevent these patient outcomes, increase satisfaction in the workplace, and also even prevent nurse injuries from happening. Current states that have mandated staffing ratios are states such as California, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Illinois. There are far more states that are only still “planning” on implementing a possible amendment to the current staffing situation. (Tevington, 2011) Bills that are being introduced by the states include a one nurse to six patient ratio on a medical surgical unit. No more than that. (Tevington, 2011) Additionally, passing this into law, legislation could be difficult to change if new research is brought to light and proves that its effectiveness of the nursing profession could be affected negatively. Mandated staffing by state could affect the nursing profession negatively in ways such as limiting staffing decisions, accounting patient acuity in staffing, and also availability of ancillary or PRN staff. For example, flexibility in staffing decisions will be limited such as the ratio being altered due to lunch time for staff, call offs by …show more content…
Ways of fixing this problem can also be positive or negative such as mandating staffing ratios, or finding ways to increase nurse satisfaction at the work place. Overall, the patient to nurse ratio is a topic that is highly impactful in today’s medical world. We need to instill in the value that the registered nurse role plays in hospitalizations and other facilities. While hiring quality, we also need to hire quantity to take care of this demanding population becoming ill. The value of the nurse is vital and needs to be believed