The Effects of Staffing on Patient Care

In the article “Addressing staffing shortages in an era of reform,” Stanford point out that in a time when change is necessary because of mandated healthcare requirements, there is a shortage of nurses in the field of direct patient care, because they are offered jobs with better pay to oversee office positions. “Health system leaders recognize that these shortages threaten the quality of care they can provide to patients. As a result, competition for talent is becoming more heated in several parts of the country,” (Stanford, 2013). By nurses taking on jobs in other areas of the field, we are left to find people to replace them and when that happens, it creates a shortage on the front line of patient care.

The literature, “The Unintended Consequences of Staffing Mandates in Florida

Nursing Homes: Impacts on Indirect-Care Staff,” talk about the effect that staff shortage has on the direct care staff like the certified nurse aids, activity staff and others who see and interact with the resident on a daily bases, (Thomas, et all, 2010). By increasing the number of direct or non-licensed staff members, the work of indirect care members like housekeeping and other minor jobs feel onto the burden of the direct care staff. This created a problem as they tried to complete all task as assigned to them. Once again staffing was blamed for any problems, although this time they included the staff that was not directly involved in the care of the residents. Have less indirect care staff meant that everyone had to pick up extra job duties and the indirect care staff was left to hold the bag with less than standard quality of care.

Interventions

Based on the finding of my research, a change is necessary to ensure that those who depend on lon...

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...rtages in an era of reform Healthcare Financial Management: Journal Of The Healthcare Financial Management Association [serial online]. December 2013; 67(12):42-45. Available from: MEDLINE with Full Text, Ipswich, MA

Thomas, K. S., Hyer, K., Andel, R., & Weech-Maldonado, R. (2010). The Unintended Consequences of Staffing Mandates in Florida Nursing Homes: Impacts on Indirect-Care Staff. Medical Care Research and Review, 67(5), 555-573.

Yoder-Wise, P. S. (2011). Leading Change. Leading and managing in nursing (5th ed., pp. 327- 328). St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier Mosby.

Xing, J., Mukamel, D. B., & Temkin-Greener, H. (2013). Hospitalizations of Nursing Home Residents in the Last Year of Life: Nursing Home Characteristics and Variation in Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations. Journal Of The American Geriatrics Society, 61(11), 1900-1908. doi:10.1111/jgs.12517