Why Is It Important For Nursing Homes?

In a different review of literature on staffing and patient outcomes, Heinz (2004) describes the relationships between staffing and mortality, length of stay, and complications of patients. At first the article paints a clear picture of the future of nursing as it starts to feel the shortage which is approaching due to aging of present nurses, lowered nursing school admissions, and other hospital issues including financial hardships. In looking at the impact of ratios on mortality there were five different studies identified that showed that the lower the ratio, the lower the risk of mortality of patients. A patient's length of stay was also influenced negatively with higher nurse-to-patient ratios and positively with specialized units and care from nurses. The impact of staffing on patient complications also showed that there was an inverse relationship between the two. Heinz concludes that the key to solving these problems in nursing and reducing negative patient outcomes is nursing recruitment and retention (Heinz, 2004).

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems related to inappropriate nurse-patient ratios and provide suggestions that may improve the problem. The American Nurses Association advocates for proper number of nursing staff for delivery of quality patient care. However, hospitals are faced with problems related to decreasing staff levels. The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015 provides for patient protection by establishing safe staffing levels. This bill requires the staff nurse to be actively involved on committees and in the development of unit-based staffing plans. The formation of the Protest of Assignment allows nurses to advocate for change to ensure proper patient care. Nurse recruitment is another challenge that is

1. Present your informative speech’s anticipated topic, general purpose statement, specific purpose statement, and thesis statement. - Topic: The impact of media in society, The experiences and joys of nursing homes facilities - General Purpose Statement: Is to inform the audience on how nursing homes facilities are beneficial as well as common for elderly people to embrace as their live out their latter or rehabilitation years. - Thesis Statement: In todays’ world, nursing home facilities purpose is to bring health and awareness to those who are in need of special treatment and care. 2.

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.

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).

Federal and state ensured that nursing home residents are covered of legal rights- to include privacy, dignity, money, protection from abuse and exploitation, freedom, self-determination, and freedom to exercise their religious, political and sexual practices (Img. 2).

Benefit provisions vary from one state program to another, but federal guidelines require all states to provide a minimum benefit package, including hospital inpatient and outpatient care, physician care, and many other services. In the area of long-term care, all states are required to pay for nursing home care, and they must also pay for home healthcare for those who are “nursing home eligible” which are those who would need nursing home care if they did not receive home care. And although federal guidelines do not require it, an increasing number of states also pay benefits for home and community-based services. These services may include personal care, home health aide services, rehabilitation, therapies, intermission care, homemaker services, and other services. In addition, a few states pay for long-term care services received in an assisted living residence. Unlike Medicare, with its highly restrictive conditions for payment of nursing home or home care benefits, Medicaid generally meets the need for long-term care (for those who eligible). Medicaid pays benefits for personal and supervisory care even if skilled care is not needed, and the program covers ongoing care needed to cope with a chronic impairment, not just care required for a short time to facilitate recovery from an acute illness or injury. However, there are some important limitations to Medicaid long-term care benefits: (1)

With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming- almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored and deprived of social contact and stimulation. Because of insufficient and poorly trained staff commonly found in

The American Nurses Association say the shortage is the product of several trends, including: a diminishing pipeline of new students to nursing, a decline in RN/CNA earnings in comparison to other career option, aging nursing workforce and an aging population that will require health care services (Writer, 2016). With the shortage of staff and the baby boomers turning sixty and many already in retirement, healthcare staff members are going to have to pick up more shifts and a tougher workload. Healthcare industries need to focus on recruiting and retaining staff because hiring more nursing staff is expensive in the short term. But having too few staff leads to being burned out. Having the right amount of CNAs and nurses is essential for manageable workload distribution. Facilities need to prevent and protect current employed nursing staff from being overworked and stressing out because good health care workers only quit when they are overwhelmed. Most are afraid that they are not providing the best care anymore and feel like they can not do what they love the most anymore (Cimiotti, 2017).

Thesis Statement People think that putting their loved ones in senior home centers or assisted living centers will benefit them due to the way they think they're going to be treated. When in reality most of the time it's not that way. Many are very unorganized,they abuse the elderly, and patients aren't getting the attention they need. Senior homes are meant to make the patients feel like they're at home.

Nursing home facility is for patients who need extended care because they are very sick or unable to function without continued nursing and supportive services in a formal health care facility. These patients are sick and/or are in need of assistance but they are not ill enough that they require the intense treatment and care offered at a hospital. About forty-seven percent of all nursing home facility care is paid for by Medicaid and residents and their families pay approximately one-third of the cost for the facility services. In recent years the length of time one stays at a nursing home has greatly decreased. Even with the decrease in stay there is still a fifty percent chance of an individual in his/her lifetime having to spend some time in a nursing facility. Both of these previous mentioned trends is reflective of the nursing facilities moving toward becoming more technologically sophisticated as well as being able to function as more of a

Nurse-Patient staffing ratios have created debate among health care professionals for years. Who determines where, when and how many patients a nurse can handle on any given shift? Who determines the acuity of the patients handled by the nurse? Does the floor nurse have a say in what she or he can feasibly handle during their shift? At what point does patient care begin to suffer? These questions and many others have led to federal and state legislation coming to light to better serve the care of a patient. “The varied agendas and the inability of nurses, hospital administrators, and financial experts to communicate toward a single purpose, as well as the complexity of meeting staffing needs, have moved the issue into the political arena (Hertel, 2012, p. 1)”. Several states have already instituted mandatory nurse-patient ratios. While you can debate for or against political involvement, I will look at many factors regarding care and safety of patients.

Although nursing homes are here to stay, frequent illness and hospitalization that exist because of a lack of primary prevention in them require unnecessary healthcare costs (Graverholt, Forsetlund, & Jamtvedt, 2014). This problem stems from a downward spiral: As the seven dimensions of health lower from a societal neglect of primary care, susceptibility to illness becomes higher, and the toll illness takes on the patient drives his or her health even further downward. For example, Jim, my uncle, was paralyzed, transferred to a nursing home, and then hospitalized within a week for pneumonia. Immediately after, he was diagnosed with MRSA, transferred to a different nursing home, diagnosed with depression, and hospitalized within three months for a kidney infection. Now he is still in the hospital awaiting another stressful transfer. In the long run, this preventable hassle actually drives up U.S. health care costs by spiking future chronic disease. Patient quality of life also suffers. (U.S. National Diabetes Education Program, n.d.)(Ornish, 2010). Thankfully, etiological risk factors of health deterioration, also defined as causative factors of preventable patient quality of life decline, have been investigated for nursing home residents. Unsurprisingly, the main

The federal government is responsible for setting out regulations for nursing home facilities all over America. It requires that require that these facilities to adhere to the codes of conduct, uphold the constitutional rights of residents in these facilities and uphold professional conduct (G.J.Jorgest, 2006). In many states such as Iowa, the local government include clauses that are aimed at making the lives of those in these facilities more bearable either as they brave their illnesses or as they age. These clauses are designed to be consistent with the regulations set by the federal government and are in most cases stricter.

The risk that a person turning 65 will need nursing home care is very likely. According to Fledstein, he informs to the reader that, as we age, it is likely that Long-Term Care (LTC) is needed (p. 566). Eventually, LTC is needed more after the age of 65. In addition, 19 percent will be in a nursing home for more than five years (p. 568). In a similar case, a patient who does not have family members to take care from, they are in need of LTC. According to June Schroeder, a certified financial planner (CFP) and a Registered Nurse (RN), she shares her story on Aging.com on how she had to spend down on medical bills and assets for her aunt to qualify for Medicaid. In other words, her aunt could not qualify for Medicaid because she had too much