Lack Of Medical Professionals Be Adequately Trained

For over a decade researchers have been performing studies examining the effects patient-to-nurse ratios have on adverse outcomes, mortality rates, and failure-to-rescue rates of patients and on job dissatisfaction and burnout experiences of nurses. Aiken, Sloane, Sochalski, and Silber (2002) performed a study which showed that each additional patient per nurse increased patient mortality within 30 days of admission by 7% and increased failure-to-rescue by 7% as well. This same study also showed that each additional patient per nurse resulted in a 23% increase in nurse burnout and a 15% increase in job dissatisfaction. Additionally, Rafferty et al. (2007) performed a study in which the results showed that patients in hospitals with higher patient-to-nurse ratios had a 26% higher mortality rate and nurses were twice as likely to have job dissatisfaction and experience burnout. Blegen, Goode, Spetz, Vaughn, and Park (2011) performed a study where results showed that more staffing hours for nurses resulted in lower rates of congestive heart failure morality, infection, and prolonged hospital stays. The same study also showed that increased nursing care from registered nurses resulted in lower infection and failure to rescue rates and fewer cases of sepsis.

Significance: Because nursing is the largest health care profession and nurses provide most of the patient care, and as an acute nurse, I can relate to how unsafe nurse staffing/low nurse-to-patient ratios can have negative impact on patient satisfaction and outcome, can lead to medical and/or medication errors and nurse burnout. It can also bring about anxiety and frustration, which can also clouds the nurses’ critical thinking. Most patients might not know the work load on a particular nurse and can assume that her nurse is just not efficient. Doctors also can become very impatient with their nurses because orders are not being followed through that can delay treatments to their patients. There is also delays in attending to call lights resulting in very unhappy patients who needed help.

From a social perspective, H.B. 476 may help narrow the widening gap in supply verse demand of professional nurses needed in acute care settings. Nurses experience high levels of burnout, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment when compared to other health care professionals (Khamisa, Peltzer, & Oldenburg, 2013). The authors relate such high levels of burnout in nurses to the emotional strain they encounter from providing direct personal care to sick and dying patients. Consequently, this has a direct impact on job satisfaction and nurse retention. A survey by the American Nurses Association (ANA) found 74% of nurses proclaim acute or chronic effects of stress and overwork

One of the most serious issues in nursing, that can affect a nurses career is nursing burn- out. According to the article “Where have all the nurses gone”, current nurses that are practicing, report high rates of job dissatisfaction (which is part of burn out) and 1 of 5 nurses may quit nursing in the next 5 years (Dworkin, 2002). Burnout is associated with nurses not coming in to work, not feeling satisfied when doing their job, high turnover rates and a lack of commitment to the work (Katisfaraki, 2013). If a nurse becomes burned- out, they may not take care of their patients as well and could make mistakes with medication administration. A study performed in the United States by Dr. Jeannie Cimiottti, shows that hospitals with

When nurses experience high levels of job satisfaction, they have increased morale and organizational commitment, and are more inclined to stay in the organization and in the profession. Nursing job satisfaction is also important to patients, families, and healthcare practitioners because it's been linked to positive patient outcomes and quality care. Although there's no one definition of nursing job satisfaction, for nurses working in acute care hospital settings, contributing factors include the intrapersonal, such as age, the interpersonal, such as autonomy, and the extrapersonal, such as pay. (Coladonato and Manning

Nurses find themselves in the middle of a complex health care system between the financial side and patient safety. A professional nurse’s goal is to provide safe, quality, patient care. However, nurses often fail to meet this goal due to the variability in patient acuity, the unpredictable workload of nurses, and institutional budget constraints (ANA, 2014). According to the American Nurses Association (2014) research shows that lower staffing levels of registered nurses correlate with poor patient outcomes, as well as negative nurse outcomes, such as physical injury and ‘burnout.’

In critical care areas, nurses are frequently faced with difficult situations in which they are asked to provide emotional support and comfort to patients and families “experiencing significant emotional pain and/or physical distress” (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Lombardo & Eyre (2011) go on to describe fatigue, short attention span, exhaustion, frequent headaches and/or stomachaches, low resistance to becoming ill, depression, and anger as symptoms of compassion fatigue. According to the 2015 National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report, the turnover rate for bedside RN’s has increased over the last 4 years from 11.2% to 16.4%. RN vacancies continue to trend negatively with 24.2% of hospitals reporting a vacancy rate of 10% or greater. The average cost of turnover for a bedside RN ranges from $36,900 to $57,300 resulting in the average hospital losing $6.2M. Critical Care RN’s have

Working with the available staff increases the nurses’ workload and the risk for patients’ negative outcomes. Heavy nursing workload adversely affects patient safety and negatively affects nursing job satisfaction (Carayon & Gurses, 2008, p. 1). Furthermore, a study on the hospital nurse shortage and the California legislation about minimum hospital patient-to-nurse ratios concluded that the nurse staffing levels affect patients’ outcomes detrimentally; for each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 7% increase in the likelihood of dying within 30 days of admission and a 7% increase in the odds of failure-to-rescue. In addition, this study concluded that 23% of the nurses were associated with burnout and a 15% increase in job dissatisfaction (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski, & Silber, 2002, p.

As a new graduate registered nurse, I know that when I begin my first job the reality shock will occur. I will be overwhelmed at times by anxiety, fear, failure, and disappointment. Burnout is higher for new nurses, and it is my responsibility to help combat it for my fellow graduates and for myself. For years nurses have felt the increased impact of compassion fatigue, with patient safety and satisfaction rates plummeting. Nurses are faced with sicker patients with shorter hospital stays everyday. The pressure to treat the patients, but get them out of the hospital as soon as possible; without making any mistakes is a huge burden most nurses will feel at some point in their career. There have been countless studies, thousands of hours, and billions of dollars for research spent on finding a solution to the problem. In order to find a solution one must first understand the problem. These are three separate issues with one common problem, high nurse-patient ratios.

The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis estimates that “the supply of nurses will be 29% less than what is needed by the year 2020, based on a projected increase in demand of 40% and only a 6% increase in supply” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). This shortage is due to many factors, one of the most significant being newly graduated nurses leaving their jobs or the profession of nursing all together within the first year of practice after graduating (Harrison, Stewart, Ball, & Bratt, 2007). Some of the most commonly cited reasons for leaving include a feeling of a lack of clinical competence and confidence, a disconnect between what was imagined and the ‘real’ world experience, and a lack of support in the workplace (Chappy, Jambunathan, & Marnocha, 2010).

The issue of healthcare personnel scarcity continues to be an ongoing challenge across the globe. Invariably, nurses are at the pinnacle in the delivery of quality care in any healthcare setting. The ever-increasing demands for care stem from a patient populace that is emergent, growing older and needing more care due to the escalating shift in their disease process. Hence, nurses are torn between balancing an overloaded schedule, working extra hours and maintaining astuteness and professionalism. This transcends to compromised patient care, nursing burnout makes it difficult for them to experience the rewards of caring for patients in the way they had expected; thereby, adding to the shortage of

Overwhelming workloads of hospitals nurses present a considerable problem for the American health system. With the growing nursing shortage resulting from an aging population and the pressure felt by health care organizations to reduce nursing staff in response to massive budget cuts, nurses are being forced to care for too many patients at one time causing severe work stress, fatigue, and burnout. Consequently, the quality of patient care suffers. Implementing a safe staffing strategy to assess the needs of registered nurses (RNs) in the acute care setting would ensure better patient outcomes and guarantee the diminution of the current healthcare crisis.

Stressful work environments, long work hours and inadequate sleep all contribute to an increase in physical and mental exhaustion amongst nurses. Typically, people choose nursing as a career to help others and to make a difference in their lives, without realizing the number of duties this career demands. Nurses may suffer in silence when they are experiencing stress. The effects can impact safe and reliable care by decreasing job satisfaction, decreasing productivity, causing poor personal health, and compromising patient care. Many facilities would benefit from implementing evidence-based strategies to address nurse fatigue and burnout.

The number of physicians in the country has been decreasing at such a great rate that the government and other stakeholders in the health care sector are trying to camouflage this by increasing the number of foreign doctors practicing in the country. The American Medical Association has been trying to promote these re-entry programs designed for physicians since the year 2009 to help curb this problem. There are many people who can see what the problem is, but it is not possible for them to do much about it. Physicians also see this problem, and they are well aware of why the shortage is arising, but they are also unable to do much to prevent the issue. There are many problems that lead to the shortage of physicians, and unless something is done, it will continue escalating ADDIN EN.CITE Lynch19721573(Lynch, 1972)1573157317Lynch, MichaelThe Physician "Shortage": The Economists' MirrorAnnals of the American Academy of Political and Social ScienceAnnals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science82-88399ArticleType: research-article / Issue Title: The Nation's Health: Some Issues / Full publication date: Jan., 1972 / Copyright © 1972 American Academy of Political and Social Science1972Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science00027162http://www.jstor.org/stable/1040122( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_6" o "Lynch, 1972 #1573" Lynch, 1972).

Job satisfaction is a concept that encompasses a variety of definitions. While this concept is a fairly simple idea, it consists of multiple factors that contribute to an employee’s feeling towards their employer. Examples of these factors include, but are not limited to autonomy in the work place, pay, interaction between nurse and physician, management styles, organizational behavior and change. Job satisfaction can also be defined at a cognitive level including an employee’s emotional feelings towards their position and employer. Six articles from the nursing discipline were used to help define job satisfaction and its various components. Two articles were used from the field of psychology to help define job satisfaction and its various components in relation to a field outside of nursing. While multiple tools have been used to measure job satisfaction in the separate fields, the main measurement tool of focus will be the McCloskey/Mueller Satisfaction Scale for nursing job satisfaction.