...Nurse Staffing Models, Nursing Hours, and Patient Safety Outcomes Problem: The lower the proportion of professional nursing staff employed on a unit, the higher the number of medication errors and wound infections. The less experienced the nurse, the higher the number of wound infections. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different nurse staffing models on costs and the patient outcomes of patient falls, medication errors, wound infections, and urinary tract infections. Hypothesis: Limited research has been conducted examining the effect of nurse staffing models on costs and patient outcomes. Evaluate the credibility and validity: A descriptive correlational study was conducted in all of the 19 teaching...
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...Lowering Nurse Staffing Ratios The growing need of more nurses in hospitals is becoming an issue in hospitals all over America. The patient’s safety is being put at risk due to the number of nurse to patient ratios (Welton 1). A low nurse to patient ratio will cause a lack of care for the patients. Nurses will have to take on more patients then they are capable of which will affect the health of the patient and the nurse. John M. Welton, an RN (Registered Nurse), said that “the safety of patients is directly related to the size and experience of the nursing staff” (Welton 1). A high nurse to patient ratio can be on the costly side for the hospitals. “Hospitals will not receive any additional revenue for providing more patient care”...
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...It is my utmost belief that safe nurse staffing is a top health policy of our country right now. I concur with the American Nurses Association’s (2017) proposition that somewhere along the line of health care staffing, there is a failure to associate patient health outcomes and nurse staffing. I also agree with ANA it is vital to have a nurse-driven staffing plan specific to the needs of the designated work areas by establishing an upwardly adjustable and flexible staffing that accounts for changes such as admissions, discharges, and patient acuity. As a medical-surgical/telemetry nurse, I experience inadequate staffing almost all the time. I love being a nurse but that does not mean I would not speak up for patients’ safety. It is protecting not just our patients but also advocating for ourselves as nurses....
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...Due to the problem of inadequate nurse staffing levels it has lead hospitals to experience complications in their budgets. This problem all begins with hospitals not making any money because there aren’t enough patients to care for. In the article “How The Nursing Shortage Affects Patient Care and Healthcare Services” provided by Nurse Grid explains how new registered nurse graduates find it difficult to get a full time nursing job due to hospital's budget restrictions. These restrictions don’t allow hospitals to meet their full potential because it prevents them from expanding any type of research that is being done by physicians, considering medical research requires lots of money. Again in Jim Gogek’s article “Inadequate Staffing Harms Quality...
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...Can Adequate Nurse Staffing Improve Patient Outcomes? Nursing is more than caring for the sick and injured. It is a twenty-four hour inpatient monitoring system. It is well known that nurses spend significantly more time caring for and looking after patients than any other profession. They routinely monitor and report changing patient conditions around the clock that aid physicians in modifying and updating treatment plans to improve health and prevent complications. The level of safety of hospitalized patients and the degree of quality care that they receive has more to do than fixed nurse-to-patient ratios. It has been well established in the literature that when nursing workload increase to unmanageable levels; weather it be from the addition of patients, increases in acuity and/or care complexity, or from high levels of fluctuation in patient turnover, that nurses ability to perform patient surveillance is disordered, putting patients in undue risk (Needleman, et. al, 2011). Furthermore, excessive workloads contribute to burnout and dissatisfaction leading to nurse attrition that further compounds to the staffing problem. Hospitals need to be held accountable for providing safer nurse staffing levels. Payers and purchasers of care should demand compliance, but should also stimulate better quality and patient safety by providing financial incentives. In addition, a more comprehensive, proactive team approach to nurse staffing can help keep patients safer...
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...Safe Nurse Staffing and Patient Outcomes Regina Valenzuela Northern Arizona University Abstract Proper nurse staffing has been a debate since the modernization of nursing for many years. This paper examines the results of five researched based articles on the effects of nurse staffing and the outcomes of patient care within a hospital setting. The articles do vary in their methods of gathering information. One study used organizational data from 799 facilitates in eleven states to examine the outcomes of care from the type of nursing care received (Needleman, Buerhaus, Mattke, Stewart, & Zelevinsky, 2002). Another study examined the outcomes of care of intensive care patients in 65 hospitals in the United Kingdom (West, Barron, Harrison, Rafferty, Rowan, & Sanderson, 2014). A third study that was reviewed used cross-sectional patient outcome data from a a nationwide project that provided information from 77 Level I and Level II trauma centers (Glance, Dick, Osler, Mukamel, Li., & Stone, 2012). The fourth article was a synthesis of research publications that examined the outcomes and mortality of patients based on specific determinants (Tourangeau, Cranley, & Jeffs, 2006). The fifth article is an investigative report on nurse to patient ratios and nurse work hours associated to patient care (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2007). The fifth article was also prepared for the United States Department of Health and Human Services based on a survey...
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...Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction Grand Canyon University: NRS-433V 06-04-2016 PROBLEM STATEMENT: 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 staffing levels has an impact on patient outcomes and nurse retention in hospital practice. Purpose d Research Questions: With one of the most critical steps being the determination of the problem that will be studied in the research process. (Nieswiadomy, 2008, p.45). Linda H. Aiken et al states the research question as 1. Determine the association between patient-to-nurse ratio and patient mortality 2. Determine the association between patient-to-nurse ratio and failure-to-rescue (deaths following complications) among surgical patients 3. Determine the association between patient-to-nurse ratio and nurse retention/attrition. 4. Determine the association between patient-to-nurse and the facts that contributed to the stress that lead to nurse burnout ...
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...CHAPTER ONE: STAFFING MODELS AND STRATEGY Learning Objectives * Define staffing and consider how, in the big picture, staffing decisions matter * Review the five staffing models presented, and consider the advantages and disadvantages of each * Consider the staffing system components and how they fit into the plan for the book * Understand the staffing organization model and how its various components fit into the plan for the book * Appreciate the importance of staffing strategy, and review the 13 decisions that staffing strategy requires * Realize the importance of ethics in staffing, and learn how ethical staffing practice is established Introduction * Staffing is a critical organizational function concerned with the acquisition, deployment, and retention of the organization’s workforce. * Staffing is arguably the most critical function underlying organizational effectiveness, because “the people make the place,” because labor costs are often the highest organizational cost, and because poor hiring decisions are not easily undone. * Five models * The first model shows how projected workforce head-count requirements and availabilities are compared to determine the appropriate staffing level for the organization. * The next two models illustrate staffing quality, which refers to matching a person’s qualifications with the requirements of the job or organization. * The person/job match model is the foundation of all staffing...
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...Case Study 2 Jasmine Howard Liberty University Case Study 2 Part I Kaiser Manufacturing Company has been in business for over 50 years using the standard method staffing. Hiring its own employees, training, managing and all human resources issues were all handled in house. The option is now arising to use an employment agency, FSS, to relieve the burden from Kaiser Manufacturing Company. It is important to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this option before changing the entire business plan Kaiser Manufacturing Company has worked so long. The advantages include, flexible staff numbers, as of current Kaiser Manufacturing Company has a workforce of 725 production workers, 30 clerical workers, 32 engineer and professional workers, and 41 managers, who are all full time employees. This number was a perfect fit for the company when the sales were at an all-time high but as of 2008 the sales have stayed at 175 million annually. Cutting back on the cost of the workforce would be very beneficial to Kaiser Manufacturing Company’s bottom line. If and when sales are to peak or employees call out it is great to have the option to bring in more employees or decrease the number of employees staffed when necessary without adding more work to management. A second advantage would be the caliber of workers available to the company. Though the current workers are adequate to keep the business running, it may be advantageous to bring in someone temporary to help understand why...
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...• What is the effect of fringe benefits on nurse staffing? According to the Internal Revenue Service’s definition, “A fringe benefit is a form of pay for the performance of services” (Internal Revenue Service, 2014). Such benefit could range from insurance coverage, tuition reimbursement to a retirement contributions. As some positions are difficult to fill due to its nature, employers often uses benefits to encourage nurses to take on such shifts. For instance, nurses who are working night shift or weekends tend to receive increased pays. According to MecMenamin, there has been a recent change in the employer’s perception on fringe benefits: Although the wage increase trend for hospital staff RNs has been decelerating, the trend for their...
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...TITLE: NURSE STAFFING AND QUALITY SERVICE NAME: COURSE: INSTITUTION: DATE: INTRODUCTION Nurse staffing is the placement of qualified nurses in health facilities so that they can work together with doctors to deliver quality health services to the community. Hospitals with high nurse staffing levels are much likely to have good patient outcomes and satisfaction no matter the patient turn out. Nurse staffing focuses on recruiting and keeping qualified nurses in a hospital so that handling of patients becomes easy and focused on quality service to the public. It enhances the identification of individuals that are most likely to work in certain areas of the health sector and also helps to enhance the diversity of nurses by matching candidates and the communities they will provide health services to. Salary and benefits are the factors that motivate qualified nurses to work consistently in a health facility because with good remuneration, nurses are able to further their education which further improves their profession and level of knowledge in their field of operation (Sales, A. 2015). Low nurse staffing results in higher risks of disease infections particularly the transmittable diseases due to lack of the urgency of treatment because the health facility has less nurses with a high number of patients. Nurse shortage is caused by the lack of enough registered nurses that are allowed to practice, low salary offers, poor training that leads to low confidence of practice, lack of...
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...External Conditions and Associated Risk Factors Sarah A.T. Harris HiNursing Hawaii Nursing LLC (HiNursing) is a nurse staffing company that operates under HiHealthcare, which is a subsidiary of The Hawaii Group family (HiGroup). HiNursing is a legacy of Scott Craun, RN and the company he started, Island Nurses, which was acquired by HiGroup on December 1st, 2012 (Silverstein, 2012). The company provides registered nurses (RN), certified nursing assistants (CNA), and medical assistant (MA) positions statewide to places like hospitals, clinics, assisted living facilities, hotels, schools, insurance companies, and correctional facilities (HiHealthCare, 2014). A staff of six people currently work underneath the umbrella of HiHeathcare and oversee HiNursing and HiHomecare, its sister company. HiNursing currently has a highly dynamic compliment of approximately 25 nurses that they use to staff various facilities throughout Hawaii. When the company was first acquired in 2012 they had 73 nurses available for placement around the islands (Silverstein, 2012). The company saw approximately $1 million in revenue for 2012 and an estimated $2 million in 2013 (Silverstein, 2012). None of the companies under HiGroup is publicly traded. HiNursing is still trying to build a brand name but they are committed to fulfilling the last wishes of Scott Craun who established a fund that annually sends Multiple Myeloma cancer patients to the mainland for treatment. Every year HiNursing participates...
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...20% shortage of nurses in hospitals in the United States (Punnakitikashem 1). Short staffing in nursing has been a recurring problem since 1998 (Buerhaus et al. 854). With a constantly growing population comes an increasing number of newborns and elders that demand care from nurses around the world (Punnakitikashem vi). This constant demand places a heightened stress upon nurses in hospitals. Because a shortage is present in the United States, nurses are faced with an excessive workload and the demand from patients cannot be met with complete satisfaction. Research shows this conflict leads to a decreased quality of care given to patients in hospitals. Also, it creates a higher chance of...
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...PROVIDING QUALITY CARE Nurse staffing, quality of nursing care and nurse job outcomes in intensive care units Sung-Hyun Cho, Kyung Ja June, Yun Mi Kim, Yong Ae Cho, Cheong Suk Yoo, Sung-Cheol Yun and Young Hee Sung Aim. To examine the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse-rated quality of nursing care and job outcomes. Background. Nurse staffing has been reported to influence patient and nurse outcomes. Design. A cross-sectional study with a survey conducted August–October 2007. Methods. The survey included 1365 nurses from 65 intensive care units in 22 hospitals in Korea. Staffing was measured using two indicators: the number of patients per nurse measured at the unit level and perception of staffing adequacy at the nurse level. Quality of care and job dissatisfaction were measured with a four-point scale and burnout measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to determine the relationships between staffing and quality of care and job outcomes. Results. The average patient-to-nurse ratio was 2Æ8 patients per nurse. A fifth of nurses perceived that there were enough nurses to provide quality care, one third were dissatisfied, half were highly burnt out and a quarter planned to leave in the next year. Nurses were more likely to rate quality of care as high when they cared for two or fewer patients (odds ratio, 3Æ26; 95% confidence interval, 1Æ14–9Æ31) or 2Æ0–2Æ5 patients (odds ratio, 2Æ44; 95% confidence interval, 1Æ32–4Æ52), compared...
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...Registered Nurse to Patient Ratio LLM Various participants in different states across the nation has lobbied the state legislatures and the United States Congress to proclaim laws that will recuperate the overall working conditions of hospital and clinical staffing. Proposed nurse to patient staffing ratios has become a huge discussion in the healthcare field. It has developed a huge concern that patients and nursing staffs are being harmed related to the inadequate nurse to patient ratio staff. This issue alone has caused an increase in severity of illness, fatigue, hospital stay, and harm to patients. With the increase in complexity of care per patients, nurses grow weary thus increase the negative impact of the inability to improve the quality of hospitalization outcomes for the patients. It is prominent that we identify and maintain the appropriate number of the nurse to patient staffing ratio, as it is critical key of delivering the optimal quality patient care. In the pass few years and even up until now, there has been a massive growth in need for more registered nurses in hospitals and clinics due to the rising acuity of patients and shorter lengths of stay. More and more patients appear looking for healthcare assistance. The safety and quality of the care patients are looking for are becoming difficult to find as registered nurses grow exhausted and drained out of energy. Inpatient working conditions has weakened in various facilities, as hospitals cannot fulfill...
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