More handpicked essays just for you.
Effectiveness of nurse to patient ratios
Nurse ratios and patient outcomes
Nurse ratios and patient outcomes
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
THE NURSE'S ROLE OF ADVOCACY IN HEALTHCARE Why is the legislative process relevant in the field of Nursing? Legislation, as a whole, is responsible for shaping and molding the health care policies in America. It takes a large body to influence a change in our current health care system. We, as Nurses advocates in health care, have this ability – through our skillfulness, positions, and our numbers. This paper will describe the legislative process which includes four key elements – bills, committees, Senate, House, and Presidential decision making. Additionally, the topic of Nurse-to-Patient ratios will be investigated.
PART ONE
LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
In the United States, 1 in 44 women voters is a nurse, 1 in 100 adults is a nurse and there
…show more content…
To be a successful nurse, these qualities need to be achieved: being competent in an advanced skill-set, collaborating with all parts of the health care team effectively, and most of all – doing the best that she/he can for the patient for their desired outcome. These factors are vital for success. Nurses who abide by the vision, the corresponding goals, and the plan to implement and measure progression of the patient is required for better outcomes (American Nurses Association, p. 55) Also, treating colleagues with respect while engaging in teamwork together to have safer outcomes for the patient is vital to success (American Nurses Association, p. 56). Although ratios are high right now in central Ohio hospitals, the whole healthcare team works together to do the best they can with the resources that are available to …show more content…
The investigators of this study approximated that the difference between 4:1 and 8:1 patient-nurse ratios may be approximately 1,000 deaths in a bracket of this size (Shekelle, MD, PhD, 2013). The increase of Nurses to patients being cared for will lead to decreased illness and death rates based on a theory that increased attention to patients is the major factor (Shekelle, MD, PhD, 2013). Another study shows the positive effect of changing Nurse staffing ratios. In 2004, a California law required minimum nurse-patient ratios in acute care hospitals. This act mandated patient-nurse staffing proportions of 5:1 for medical-surgical units, 4:1 for pediatric units, and 2:1 for ICU’s. The study was followed two years later, where patient satisfaction levels improved, patient outcomes were significantly enhanced, and overall, nurses were more satisfied in their
In the case of nurse staffing, the more nurses there are the better outcome of patient safety. When there enough staff to handle the number of patients, there is a better quality of care that can be provided. The nurses would be able to focus on the patients, monitor the conditions closely, performs assessments as they should, and administer medications on time. There will be a reduction in errors, patient complications, mortality, nurse fatigue and nurse burnout (Curtan, 2016). While improving patient satisfaction and nurse job satisfaction. This allows the principle of non-maleficence, do no harm, to be carried out correctly. A study mentioned in Scientific America showed that after California passed a law in 2014 to regulate hospital staffing and set a minimum of nurse to patient ratios, there was an improvement in patient care. Including lower rates of post-surgery infection, falls and other micro emergencies in hospitals (Jacobson,
The problem, as defined for my argument research paper, is that to cut costs, hospitals have been steadily increasing the number of patients nurses must care for. In many areas it's not uncommon for one nurse to have to assess, give medications to, and manage the care of as many as 12 patients. This puts tremendous strain on nurses. Many of the studies I have seen in my research indicate that a high ration of patients to nurses increases the rate of death or other poor outcomes for patients. It also leads to increased nurse burnout and higher turnover, though at this point I believe my paper will focus on patient outcomes.
Health care reform has been a major issue over the past decade. The Nursing industry has in particular experienced a period of unpredictable change. On Dec 24, 2009, a landmark measure was passed in the senate by a vote of 60 to 39. This decision to pass the health care reform will change America forever. Nurses will constitute the largest single group of health care professionals. They will have a huge impact on quality and effectiveness in health care. The nursing industry will help hold this new program together by acting as the glue (The nursing industry will be the glue holding the new health care in tact.) It is estimated that by 2015 the number of nurses will need to increase to over 4 million. Nurses are the backbone of the health care industry thus creating better polices for this profession will help ease the workload and high demand. A nurse’s main concern is always to insure quality care and the safety of their patients. Under the new health care reform several new measures have been set into place to ease the transition and improve the quality of care for all patients. One program is designed to fund scholarships and loan programs to offset the high costs of education. Nursing shortages and the high turnover has become a serious epidemic. Health care reform is supposed going to solve many of these problems.
On April 17th 2013, Senator Barbara Boxer (California) introduced a federal bill that is aimed to reduce nursing shortages by establishing a minimum nurse-to-patient ration in hospitals. She is also ordering whistleblowing protection for nurses who report quality-of-care violations. The law requires that every hospital implement a written hospital-wide staffing plan that will guide the assignments to...
Needleman, J., Buerhaus, P., PKankratz, V. S., Leibson, C. L., Stevens, S. R., & Harris, M. (2011). Nurse Staffing and Inpateint Hospital Mortality. The New England Journal of Medicine , 364, 1037-1045.
Routson, J (2010) Healthcare Reform and Nursing: How the New Legislation Affects the profession; HEALTHeCAREERS.com. Retrieved, September, 16, 2011 from: http://www.healthecareers.com/article/healthcare-reform-and-nursing-how-the-new-legislation-affects-the-profession/158418
In the past two decades, there has been a push for appropriate staff to client ratios. However, measuring client needs and nursing efforts have been around since 1922 (Lewinski-Corwin, 1922, pp. 603-606). The earliest recorded effort was by the New York Academy of Medicine. Superintendents and nurses from ten training schools documented the time spent providing bedside care. From complied information, the researchers revealed each client required an average of five hours and four minutes of care in a 24-hour period. From these observations, they evaluated staffing issues in New York City. At that time, none of the hospitals were sufficiently staffed (Lewinski-Corwin, 1922, pp. 603-606).
Without participating in a longitudinal study, it is difficult to truly assess the efficacy in mandating nurse staffing ratios. It is difficult to measure the benefits of mandated staffing due to numerous confounding variables. These confounding variables include the resources available at specific hospitals in addition to the populations that they serve. Hospital volume, RN job satisfaction and the relationship between physicians and nurses have also been shown to affect patient outcomes (Duval et al., 2007).
That saying, everything they do has a lasting and major effect. They participate directly, indirectly, and behind the scenes with the patient, family, hospital staff, and community. Going along with Gardner, nurses have the “intelligence to observe, validate, and network to articulate messages advocating for health care reform values that resonate with Republican, Democratic, and Independent Congressional members” (Gardner, 2014). With large size in numbers, nurses can effectively participate in health related politics to improve the healthcare system. Regardless, at the end of the day the patient is what matters most, meaning the nurse needs to ensure care for everyone – people below the poverty line, immigrants, and other minorities
Keller et al. (2013) stated that thousands of patients die after hospitalization and these deaths could've prevented with more nursing care. Keller et. al (2013) also stated that 4535 patients (2%) out of 232,342 died shortly after hospitalization. "The difference between 4:1 and 8:1 patient-nurse ratios may be approximately 1000 deaths in a group this size" (Keller et al.
This article is a comprehensive look at staffing on hospital units. It used a survey to look at characteristics of how the units were staffed – not just ratio, but the experience and education level of the nurses. It evaluated several different categories of hospital facilities – public versus private, academic medical centers versus HMO-affiliated medical centers, and city versus rural. It is a good source because it shows what some of the staffing levels were before the status quo of the ratio legislation passed in California. It’s main limitation as a source is that it doesn’t supply any information about patient outcomes.
Nurse to patient ratios are extremely paramount in assisting with overall patient mortality and wellness of our nurses. It is an issues which unfortunately affected by legislation of our government (which is affect specifically on a monetary basis). My research via Academic Search Complete allowed me to identify topics that assist my PICOT question, and enables me to further analyze and research to find out what issues directly affect is matter. Proper nurse to patient ratio, operational costs, government regulation, nurse work life and health, patient wellness, and nursing procedures and duration of those procedures are all affected by this topic and we must ensure that all are properly balanced.
These articles have many similarities when discussing the issue of staffing shortages. For patients, their loved ones and the general population, they don’t understand the ramifications and strain that staffing shortages have on nurses. People expect and deserve complete, competent and safe care when they are patients. These articles bring to light all the struggles that nurses have to deal with. Nurses are fearful that they will make mistakes, will harm patients, and will harm themselves. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001; Martin, 2015) Overtime can be overwhelming and exhausting, which can lead to errors being made. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001) These articles perceive that it may be beneficial for nurses, patients, and healthcare facilities to decrease the nurse-to-patient ratio, however, this option is not always
Bedside nurses want to change staffing levels to assure that they have enough time to both keep up with the constantly evolving health care and to provide safe patient care. Yet, healthcare employers consider that reducing nurse patient ratio is an unnecessary expense that has not been proven to improve quality of patient care (Unruh, 2008). Employers emphasize that raising nursing staffing level is not cost-effective. In fact, in accordance with ANA’s report (2013), a study, in the Journal of Health Care Finance, confirmed that reducing patient-nurse ratios increased hospital costs, but did not lower their profitability. Higher hospital costs were attributed to wages and benefits allocated to newly hired nurses. Yet, according to Cimiotti et.al (20112), it is more costly for hospitals to not invest money on nursing.
Nurses are at the forefront of the healthcare system and therefore must actively engage in policies that impact the healthcare system. DNP graduates can initiate the process of change by pointing out potential problems within the healthcare delivery system and spearheading legislation through lobbyists and nursing organizations. Nurses should be the middle-man between patients and policy makers. Patient advocacy has been part of nursing for a long time. Zaccagnini and White (2014) highlighted how Florence Nightingale advocated for the British soldiers’ poor living conditions during the Crimean war once she recognized the connection between policy makers and public health. Local, national and global nursing organizations provide ways for nurses to voice issues and concerns that affect public health welfare. In the United States of America, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Council of State Board of Nursing(NCSBN) can be used as a platform to raise awareness and concerns for public health and