Nursing Shortage And Provision Of Safe Nursing Care

Primarily, it is crucial for health care organizations to focus on ensuring safe and quality patient care, as well as improved job satisfaction by enforcing an optimal and adequate nurse-to-patient ratio and creating innovative and long-term strategies through a collaborative effort. In order to ensure the safety of patients and nurses, state-mandated safe-staffing ratios are necessary. Adequate nurse staffing is key to patient care and nurse retention, while inadequate staffing puts patients at risk and drives nurses from their profession. As baby boomers age and the demand for health care services grows, staffing problems will only intensify. Consequently, safe-staffing ratios have become such an ever-pressing concern. In 2004, California became the first state to implement minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, designed to improve patient care and nurse retention. Subsequent studies show that California’s program measurably improved patient care and nurse retention.

H.R. 5052- Safe Staffing for Nursing and Patient Safety act of 2018 was introduced by Ohio representative David Joyce. House bill 5052 is critical to both nurse and patient safety. Proper patient to nurse ratio decreases the incidence of medical error, retention of staff and the accountability of a hospital wide staffing plan for nursing services. Mandated nurse staffing committees, Input from RN’s who provide direct care, a long side accountability of Medicare participating hospitals through evaluation and data collection in my opinion, is why Bill 5052 must pass.

Inadequate professional nurse staffing levels integrate many social, ethical, economic, and political considerations which can directly impact patient quality outcomes. Requiring hospitals to utilize staffing committees to assign safe professional nurse staffing standards to each unit, reduces the risk for adverse patient measures. High-quality empirical research found a correlation between the professional nursing staff and the quality of patient outcomes (Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee, 2012). By implementing H.B. 476, safer nursing care can be provided and excellence in patient outcomes can be achieved.

Extensive research has shown that there is a correlation between staffing and patient ratio and patient outcomes. Better outcomes particularly are shown with lower patient to nurse ratio. However staffing issues remain an ongoing concern which greatly impacts the safety of the nurse and their patients, and also impacts cost of healthcare. Evidence shows that adequate staffing causes reduction in mortality, nurse burnout and job satisfaction, and reduction in medical errors.

I am writing to you in regard to safe patient ratio bill titled Safe Nurse Staffing for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act. My name is Angelina David and I am a registered nurse and practicing in the surgical intensive care unit. I am also enrolled in the Adult nurse practitioner program to further advance my knowledge in nursing. One thing I have learned is that as nurses no matter what the level of care or which facility you are practicing; patients’ safety is our number one priority. Patients’ safety and their quality of care have improved over the year. However, oftentimes nurses are still placed into a situation where it is unsafe to practice because they are required to care for more patients than it is safe.

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.

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.

Since the IOM report in 1996, more research has been done showing better client outcomes with more favorable staffing of registered nurses (Cho, Ketefian, Barkauskas, & Smith, 2003, pp. 71-79). Therefore, S. 991: Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2003, 108th Congress: 2003-2004 was introduced in the Senate. This bill was to amend part D (Miscellaneous) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to:

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.

Central to health care reform is the emphasis on value based health delivery.Nurses comprise the largest clinical subgroup in hospitals; a common avenue for cost containment is to reduce nurse labor hours and their associated costs.This strategy is short-sighted ,however,as appropriate safe nurse staffing and skill mix levels are essential to optimize quality of care.The determination of appropriate safe nurse staffing challenges the profession to create dynamic and innovative staffing solutions that are adaptable to the evolving nature of the populations cared for and healthcare environment.This work is essential to save lives,prevent harm,and demonstrate the ?business case for nursing?, or the return on investment (ROI).

Due to the current worldwide nursing shortage, delegation is an essential aspect of the nursing profession. Delegation provides a way in which professionals can assign other employees tasks both to decrease workload and increase satisfactory patient care. However, many individuals within the healthcare system, including myself, do not fully understand the concept or importance of delegation. After doing my research, I have gained a new perspective of delegation, and some of the issues involved. There are many actions being taking to educate students as well as professionals of the true meaning of delegation and what all it entails.

Mandating safe staffing levels for registered nurses in acute care settings has been an important topic of discussion for many years. As the demand for registered nurses continues to rise, so does the clinical demands on the nurses currently working. If there are no specific policies in place that mandate safe and appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios for all acute care facilities, registered nurses (RNs) may be required to take on even more patients than the already high numbers currently given to many of them. Inadequate RN staffing has the potential to cause increases in adverse patient events (American Nurses Association (ANA), The registered nurse safe staffing act, 2015) as well as an increase in nurse injury (Musick, Trotto, & Morrison,

In the challenge of the increasing demand and pressures on health attention from the general public, the aging populations, and development of new technologies calls for policies that are ready to embrace the new patients’ needs. Registered Nurse safe staffing Act was introduced to US senate in April, 2015 and the goal is that every healthcare provider or hospital stablish an appropriate number of registered nurses provide direct patient care in each unit and on each shift of the hospital to ensure staffing levels that: address the unique characteristics of the patients and hospital

Nurse staffing and how it relates to the quality of patient care has been an important issue in the field of nursing for quite some time. This topic has been particularly popular recently due to the fact that there is an increasing age among those who make up the Baby Boomer era in the United States. There will be a greater need for nurse staffing to increase to help accommodate the higher demand of care. Although nursing is “the top occupation in terms of job growth,” there are still nursing shortages among various hospitals across America today. The shortage in nurses heavily weighs on the overall quality of care that each individual patient receives during their hospital stay (Rosseter, 2014).