The American Nurse 's Association

Providing the best care to each patient starts with providing the proper amount of staff members to each unit. Looking at the needs of different units not only allows administration to see areas for improvement, but also areas that are being handled correctly. Utilizing the indicators provided by The Joint Commission, 4 East, a pediatric medical/surgical floor, has a high rate of falls and nosocomial pressure ulcers that appears to be related to the increase overtime nurses have been working for that floor (Nightingale, 2010). Research has shown increases in adverse events have been related to nurses working over 40 hours a week (Bae, 2012).

This article establishes that there are many differences in patient outcomes based on nurse-patient ratio in ICUs, looking at infection control in particular. One strength of this source is that the study has a lot of detail, and the methods are solid. It does back up my thesis that nurse-patient ratios are needed to save lives and reduce complications in hospital inpatients. However, a weakness of the source is that it was conducted in an ICU. Most patients in ICUs receive a high number of invasive

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.

However, data over the last decade reveals that it is not to the advantage of the nurse or the patient to continue in this fashion. This is an important issue, since patient outcomes and quality improvement are at the crux of every issue in health care. Increased medication errors, falls, inadequate discharge preparation and instructions and consequent early readmissions are all undesirable events in health care facilities and can affect reimbursement as well as hospital ratings. Risks to nurses are prevalent as well, including needlesticks, musculoskeletal injuries, and physical as well as psychological fatigue. Eventually this results in increased nurse burnout, lower retention rates by hospitals, and increasing shortages which perpetuates the overtime cycle.

Safe and adequate nurse staffing levels are an essential part of the health care policy in providing safe and high level of quality care for patients. Nurses play a fundamental role in the health care system in delivering quality care and safe guarding patients both in the hospital and in the community settings. Most evidence-based studies associated lower patient mortality rate with safe nurse staffing levels. Although, healthcare organisation stress nurses’ on providing high quality care but financial cost of the health care organisation is first taken into consideration (Sheward et al 2005). Consequently, the surgical wards nurse staffing levels are experiencing severe shortage of nurses with increased workload causing “burnout” and high

Nursing is the powerhouse in the delivery of safe, quality patient-centered care in the healthcare industry. To ensure continued safety of the patient and nursing staff, the issue of inadequate staffing must be addressed. Consequently, patient’s mortality rate has been linked to the level of nursing staff utilized in ensuring an utmost outcome (Aiken, 2011). This paper will outline the issue associated with inadequate nurse to patient staffing ratios in the hospital setting; essential factors such as economic, social, ethical and political and legal affecting the issue will be established; current legislature and stakeholders will be ascertained and policy option, evaluation of bill and the results of analysis will be reviewed.

care units indicated that the ratio of nurses to patients was inversely related to falls and urinary tract infections among patients. Additionally, increased nurse workload due to excessive number of patients per nurse was associated with respiratory tract infections and other nosocomial infections.

The greatest common risk to patients is the understaffing of nurses. “ A nurse may make a critical mistake, and a patient might die. They have to live with the error, but the real culprit, the cause is that they were understaffed and overworked and a mistake was made”(Institute of Medicine). On average when health providers work over twelve and a half hours they are three times as likely to make medical errors. Health care providers should not perform more than four extra hours of overtime work, because when they are exhausted they are less perspective with details. When nurses are understaffed they do not recognize when a mistake or malpractice is made that can negatively impact a patient. According to Healthline, “Inadequate nurse staffing

Over the past twenty years, research has established a clear correlation between insufficient nursing staff and poor patient outcomes. An increased incidence of medication errors, infection, pressure ulcers, sepsis, falls, and death rates have been reported due to inadequate staffing and unmanageable workloads (The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, 2012). When patients come to the hospital they rightfully expect that nurses will have the time and ability to manage their care in a holistic and safe manner. Instead, nurses are given unmanageable patient loads and end up rushing through care, negatively impacting the well-being of the patient, the nurse, and even the health care system.

Nursing care can impact the patient outcomes in a negative way when there are less nurses available to help the patients. Since there are more patients in hospitals, it is harder to satisfy the patients. Another reason for unsatisfied care is because of condensed hospital stays and the clients are more aware of what is going on (American Nurses Association, 2016). Nurses are conscious that these problems can lead to safety issues for the patient and the nurse (American Nurses Association, 2016). Nursing care can impact the patient outcomes in a positive way when there are more nurses available to help the patients. Adequate nursing staff can decrease treatment errors, reduce patient problems, Decrease death, and gain patient gratification (American Nurses Association, 2016). Nurses need to be in the right state of mind when caring for patients; otherwise, it can lead to inadequate nursing care. When there is less strain, it leads to nurses feeling replenished (American Nurses Association, 2016)

The revolutionary transformation of the healthcare delivery system, sparked by The Affordable Care Act (2010) is changing the way nurses provide care, patients receive care, and hospitals profit from care (ANA, 2015). The goals of The Affordable Care Act (2010) focus on expanding access to high quality, and cost effective healthcare (ANA, 2015). The emphasis on value-based healthcare, uses incentives and penalties based on the healthcare organization’s ability to meet quality outcomes and cost-cutting measures. The emphasis on value-based healthcare makes it essential for appropriate staffing levels to optimize quality of care and patient outcomes (ANA, 2015). Implementing a safe staffing matrix, when compared to other life-saving interventions is extremely cost effective. Healthcare organization administrators are challenging nurses to take care of 10-12 patients at one time. Evidence demonstrates the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time directly impacts the quality of nursing care provided (ANA, 2015). Research reveals, establishing a a safe nurse to patient ratio, saves lives improves outcomes, and reduces preventable adverse events (NYSNA, 2016).

We all have those experiences in the Emergency Room where we spend many hours waiting for assistance in health related issues. The pain of waiting for care only makes the pain more unbearable. Nurses also require their own wellbeing in order to provide the correct diagnosis for their patients. With nurses working overtime, they may be unqualified to provide care due to a shortage of sleep, rest, and personal care. However, hospitals are very unpredictable, so this area of caution sometimes may be unavoidable. “We need much better staffing ratios. It’s really that simple” (Lampert, 2016). The staffing of nurses should be closely and carefully monitored due to the amount of people who are injured that require medical care.

Increased patient to nurse ratios has the potential to produce negative outcomes for the patients, families, health care staff, and the health facility. The overabundance of patients and decreased nursing staff leads to increased morbidity and mortality rates for the patients and healthcare facilities. Nurses with increased workloads become physically and mentally exhausted, which leads to inadequate nursing care and hazardous errors. The incidence of falls increase when efficient time is not permitted for the individual care that is needed. Improper maintenance and protocol adherence increases the rate of infections, such as: pneumonia, urinary tract

The research question for this study is two-fold. The researcher wanted to know what type of nursing care was commonly missed in acute care hospitals on medical surgical units and what reasons the nursing staff give for failing to complete these care aspects (Kalisch, 2006). The idea that nurses may be overlooking important quality of care issues and not having acceptable reasons for these oversights is a troubling issue in many hospitals (Aiken, et al, 2002; Kalisch, 2006).

With modern medicine and advancing technology in the field of health people in America are living longer than ever before. Along with longer life expectancy, the american population has increased by twenty percent since 2002.This growing population means that more people are in need of hospital care. Every day millions of people across The United States go to a hospital for a variety of reasons. In recent years hospitals have been cutting down on nurses due to increasing health care cost. With more people needing hospital care and less nurses to care for them creates a stressful and hectic environment for the workers, patients and the hospital in general.The remaining staff are forced to work longer shifts, and have much more responsibility placed on them. Understaffing of nurses in American hospitals are becoming an increasing problem that can leave devastating long lasting effects on patients, the hospitals, and employed nurses.