Nurse Staffing Ratios and Patient Safety



The Impact of Nurse Staffing Ratio and Patient Safety

Introduction

The researchers have been studying the healthcare system and ways to improve the services. They have identified an association between the ratio of nursing staff and quality outcome of the care provided to the customers. The presence of nurses is imperative for the care of patients. The role of a nurse is quite needed as to connect with the patient more intimately. Less number of nurses may hinder the provision of designed care process to the patient in the healthcare system. Understaffing will do nothing but will enhance the pressure on staff. It will lead to the make staff performs under. The issue lies within the supply of nurses in the healthcare system to meet the demand that is caused with the increasing number of patients (DeNisco & Barker, 2012) (Stanton, 2004).

According to Stanton (2004) the issue will have great impact in future since the baby boomers are growing older and older. This will cause the demand in healthcare rise. The staffing ratio will have to be increased with the rising demand. If the same ratio is continued, one can find the future implications. It will result in the presence of one nurse to more than five patients which is not at all a good ratio. In the end, the community will have to suffer. In the societies where healthcare receives the preference people will lose their trust in governmental procedures. It is the government that mainly manages the healthcare system in majority of the countries. The ideal and minimum staffing ratio is 4:1, which if not attained will have negative impact on the quality of services in the sector (Stanton, 2004).

There are communal lobbies with the help of researchers have raised this issue on bigger platforms. Now social media has been involved in expanding the awareness and capturing the attention of the government. However, the government has not given considerable attention to the matter. If it is the other way round, 1:4, it has enormous benefits on the outcomes regarding the attention of a nurse onto patient. This research confirms that staffing ratio has some kind of significant connection with the quality of the services in healthcare (DeNisco & Barker, 2012) (Clarke, 2008).

Background

There have been periods of rise in vacancy rates for registered nurses (RNs) yet the existing shortage is one of its kinds. According to the report by the Workforce Commission of the American Hospital Association (AHA) there is a change in work attitudes, work satisfaction, career expectations and demographics. The report also suggests that this identified trend will continue to grow in the coming years. A study by Federal Government suggests that the nursing demand or vacancies will rise to 29% by 2020 whereas the number of nurses can grow by 6% as per the expectations by 2020. On other hand, the demand of the nurse will grow by 40% (Stanton, 2004) (Clarke, 2008).

Social

According to Clarke and Donaldson (2008) the communities ...