Effects of Nurse Staffing on Quality of Patient Care Essay

The purpose of this article is to discuss appropriate nurse staffing and staffing ratios and its impact on patient care. Although the issue is just not about numbers as we discuss staffing we begin to see how complex the issue has become over the years. Many factors can affect appropriate nurse staffing ratios. As we investigate nurse staffing ratios we can see the importance of finding the right mix and number of nurses to provide quality care for patients.

Stanton, M. R. (2004, March). Hospital Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care. Research in Action. Rockville, MD, USA: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Mandatory staffing ratios have been suggested as a way to meet nursing staffs’ concerns of high nurse to patient ratios. Mandatory staffing ratios are used as a way to reduce workload and patient mortality and are aimed at addressing the perceived imbalance between patient needs and nursing resources. (American Nursing Association, 2014). However, issues have been raised on applicability of staffing ratios since it could lead to increased costs without the guarantee of improvement in the quality of health care and could also lead to unintended consequences including unit closures, limited infrastructural development and limited access by patients (American Nursing Association, 2014).

The broad research problem leading to this study is the belief that nursing shortage in facilities leads to patient safety issues. The review of available literature on this topic shows strong evidence that lower nurse staffing levels in hospitals are associated with worse patient outcomes. Some of these outcomes include very high patient to nurse ratio, fatigue for nurses leading to costly medical mistakes, social environment, nursing staff attrition from the most affected facilities. The study specifically attempts to find a way to understand how nurse

Inconsistent nurse-patient ratios are a concern in hospitals across the nation because they limit nurse’s ability to provide safe patient care. Healthcare professionals such as nurses and physicians agree that current nurse staffing systems are inadequate and unreliable and not only affect patient health outcomes, but also create job dissatisfaction among medical staff (Avalere Health, 2015). A 2002 study led by RN and PhD Linda Aiken suggests that "forty percent of hospitals nurses have burnout levels that exceed the norms for healthcare workers" (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski & Silber, 2002). These data represents the constant struggle of nurses when trying to provide high quality care in a hospital setting.

Issues such as staffing levels affect nursing sensitive outcomes negatively by causing increases in medical errors, patient infections, increased mortality, increased injuries to the patient and staff, and cause longer hospital stays. The positive side of staffing levels occurs when staffing is at an optimal level. This allows nurses to give better patient centered care, increases opportunities to educate the patient, and advocate for the patient more. In essence, staffing levels can ultimately affect patient safety outcomes and quality of care.

This is a sobering statistic: “the odds of a patient dying in hospitals with an average workload of 8 patients per nurse are 1.26 times greater than in hospitals where the mean workloads of 4 patients per nurse” (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Lake & Cheney, 2008). A rubber band can only stretch so far before it breaks. It would follow that attempts to improve patient care must address adequate patient-to-nurse ratios and workload.

In recent years, the healthcare industry has seen a significant decline in the quality of patient care it provides. This has been the result of reduced staffing levels, overworked nurses, and an extremely high nurse to patient ratio. The importance of nurse staffing in hospital settings is an issue of great controversy. Too much staff results in costs that are too great for the facility to bear, but too little staffing results in patient care that is greatly hindered. Moreover, the shaky economy has led to widespread budget cuts; this, combined with the financial pressures associated with Medicare and private insurance companies have forced facilities to make due with fewer

Nurses are crucial in providing quality care in the health care industry. It is imperative to maintain the proper staffing ratio to ensure that nurses can maintain high quality care for their patients. Studies have shown that the increasing workload of nurses can be linked to increased patient deaths, medical errors, hospital-acquired infections, longer hospital stays, and many other complications. (National Nurses United n.d. ) Leaders and managers play a vital role in developing

nurse staffing ensures quality nursing care for patients and can be a challenge for nurse

There are nursing shortages all over the US and something needs to be done about it. Nurses become overworked and stressed out. If there were more nurses it can lead to a better outcome for the nurses and patients. This paper will discuss a broad overview of the patient outcomes, data to prove we need more nurses, nursing issues that specifically impact the patient outcomes, and how to collect data on the lack of nurses.

Despite many efforts to improve staffing numbers, there is often still a staff shortage among staff in hospitals and acute care settings. While the most obvious solution to short staffing is to hire more nurses, there are also other ways to make staffing more effective. A patient acuity tool is a staffing instrument that can be used to decide how much time and attention each individual patient requires. By knowing the acuity level of each patient, charge nurses can decide how many patients each nurse can be assigned to at a time. This essay describes the way a patient acuity instrument improves healthcare outcomes by promoting patient-centered care and improving on key nurse competencies including teamwork and collaboration, quality improvement, and safety measures.

Throughout the United States, staffing issues are an ongoing concern which can impact the safety of both the patient and the nurse. Every healthcare facility is challenged with finding optimal nurse-patient ratio to ensure safe patient outcomes. Quality of care and patient safety is related to nurse to patient ratio. In order for care to be delivered safely the number of patients a nurse is caring for during his/her shift should be based on the level of acuity of care. Lowering the nurse to patient ratio will help increase patient safety. Tevington (2011) noted that by decreasing the

The primary goal of the research conducted in this study was to identify a relationship between nursing staffing levels and patient outcomes. Researchers conducted this study over a course of 12 months at two hospitals in England, and included the inpatient patient population on both low acuity and critical care units. This retrospective study, extracted data from patients admitted to the hospitals from the calendar dates of January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009. However, the data extracted had its limitations that was dependent upon accurate clinical coding in ICD-10 format. Data collected was nursing specific and did not take into considering ancillary staffing ratios and physician participation. Regression models used showed the nurse staffing

Staffing is an issue of both professional and personal concern for nurses today. In fact, issues related to staffing levels, unit organization or inequitable assignments are one of the top reasons nurses leave a hospital job, according to Karlene Kerfoot, PhD, RN, and vice president of nursing for API Healthcare. As healthcare costs increase, decreasing the number of staff nurses is often seen as the logical way to combat it. Inadequate staffing and/or increased job responsibilities both cause problems and stress for nurses. One solution that can help alleviate this problem is if other states follow California’s lead in adopting a Safe Staffing RN Ratios law. Sadly this is not an easy task, it took California 12 years for the state to have this legislation approved. As for now, National Nurses United is working on implementing federal legislation to establish nationwide nurse-ratio guidelines. Although the hospital staffing crisis is a long drawn out problem, is intensifying as healthcare costs are increasing. Chen (2012) says, this problem may be worsening due to more hospital CEOs investing in advanced medical technologies and failing to pay attention to maintaining adequate staff levels. Corporate greed has seemed to have taken precedence over safe patient care as well. Chuck Idelson, a CNA representative, voiced this concern by telling In These Times, “The problems are systemic, primarily because the focus of the corporate giants that control most hospitals now is on