Nurse staffing and nurse-patient ratios have been a contentious issue whose importance has escalated, eliciting concerns not only in the United States but also globally. In the face of financial constraints and tightly regulated budgets, it is not uncommon for health care facilities, employers, and policymakers to desire to hire a limited number of nursing staff to meet their budgetary requirements. Health care facilities in most states have failed to hire the appropriate number of nursing staff. This has created shortages in hospitals, derailing service provision and consequently endangering the lives of the patients. According to a study by the International Journal of Nursing Studies, every extra patient assigned to a nurse above the recommended patient number increases the chances of patient mortality by 7 percent (Bean, 2017). A study by Griffiths et al., (2015) suggested that inadequate nurse staffing is the shortage of registered nurses (RNs) has driven health care facilities to rely on unregistered nurses. This in part is because unregistered nurses provide a cheaper alternative in the face of financial constraints.
In a move meant to curtail the effects of nurse understaffing, states and the federal government have enacted policies to set the patient the threshold nurse-patient ratios. California set the precedent for other states in enacting the nurse-patient ratio laws. Fourteen states had enacted similar legislation as of the end of 2015. In 2017, Senator Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky reintroduced the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (Schakowsky, 2017). The bill was sponsored on the premise of increased workload on the health care practitioners that compromised patient safety. Low nurse staffing in health care facilities not only affects the nurses, but also all other health care employees as they all strive to deal with the high workload. Nursing leaders play an integral role in ensuring the realization of adequate and effective nurse-patient ratios by sponsoring and supporting legislation and policies both at the state and federal level. Nurse leaders are the link between the practice nurses and policymakers. They, therefore, have a better analysis of the situation and are well placed to represent the entire nursing profession.
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References
Bean, M. (2017). Study: Every extra patient on a nurse's caseload increases mortality risk 7%. Clinical Leadership and Infection Control.
Griffiths, P., Maruotti, A., Saucedo, A. R., Redfern, O. C., Ball, J. E., Briggs, J., ... & Smith, G. B. (2018). Nurse staffing, nursing assistants and hospital mortality: retrospective longitudinal cohort study. BMJ Qual Saf , bmjqs-2018.
Schakowsky, J. (2017). Schakowsky and Brown reintroduce the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act.
