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Safe Staffing

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Submitted By sracey73
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Safe Staffing
Examine
Nurse-to-Patient Ratios
Primary health care organizations such as New York Presbyterian (NYP) are impacted by low nurse-to-patient ratios. The recent implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has required organizations such as NYP to explore many approaches to improve quality and patient outcomes that contain costs. “Numerous studies reveal an association between higher levels of experienced RN staffing and lower rates of adverse patient outcomes” (www.nursingworld.org, 2015, para. 1). For this reason, nurse-to-patient ratios is an issue that needs to be addressed at NYP in order to improve quality healthcare within their organization. The acuity of the unit in which patient care is being provided, should determine the acceptable nurse-to-patient ratio. According to the American Nurses Association (ANA), factors that influence the nurse staffing needs include: patient complexity, acuity, or stability; number of admissions, discharges, and transfers; professional nursing and other staff skill level and expertise; physical space and layout of the nursing unit; availability of or proximity to technological support or other resources ("Optimal Nurse Staffing," 2015).
Currently, New York is one of only fourteen states that addresses the nurse staffing issue in hospitals. New York State requires organizations such as NYP to disclose their nurse-to-patient staffing ratios to the public; however the state does not require a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio to be maintained at all times. As of July 2003, California is the only state that mandates minimum nurse-to-patient ratios within all their hospital organizations. The nurse-to-patient ratio in California is 1 to 5 on medical-surgical units. Ultimately, NYP will benefit by providing better staffing ratios because research has shown that lower nurse-to-patient ratios

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