The Safe Staffing for Nurse and Patient Safety bill requires that hospitals establish committees composed of at least 55% of the direct nurses to create nurse staffing plans that are specific to each unit. The purpose of developing nurse staffing plans is to ensure that there is an adequate number of nurses to meet patient needs and safety (Lingo, 2018) . The bill, however, raised many arguments with those supporting it stating that patients face high risks of more extended stays in hospitals, increased infections and avoidable injuries due to understaffing. Nurse retention due to understaffing is also lower due to the heightened burnout and high rates of injury. The opposers claim that healthcare is a field that is constantly changing and may not be flexible to account for changes in technology design and innovation. Also, increasing the nurse-to-patient ratio would increase cost in many healthcare facilities.
Nurses play an integral role in the healthcare system, therefore, to ensure the safety of patients and nurses, the nurse-to-patient ratio legislation is necessary. Appropriate nurses staffing helps in the achievement of both clinical and economic improvements in patient care. When the number of registered nurses is low, the necessary care for patients is more likely to be missed. Necessary care involves administering medication on time, constant patience surveillance, adequate documentation, and comforting patients and pain management. A low nurse-to-patient ratio leads to high patient mortality which could be avoided if the staffing ratios could be increased. According to Livanos (2018), the evidence is seen in California which was the first state to enact the nurse-to-patient ratio legislation where research has shown that patients who undergo surgery at hospitals that provided better nursing environments displayed lower rates of mortality with similar costs.
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Safe-staffing can reduce nurse burnout which is categorized by physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. Burnout is associated with detachment, dulled emotions, and reduced motivation (Ericksen, 2018) . Where the number of nurses compared to that of the patients is low, burnout can occur as such situations lead to long shifts and high-stressing environments which cause fatigue. Due to burnout, nurses may be unable to deliver quality care to their patients and may also miss crucial patients’ symptoms or details. The health of the nurses is also compromised seeing that it can cause depression. Other nursing work-related sicknesses include hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and musculoskeletal injuries and disorders. Nurse burnout also leads to job dissatisfaction which increases the rates of turnover as most nurses choose to move to other professions. With reference to Livanos (2018), the job satisfaction i n California significantly rose after the implementation of the nurse-to-patient ratio legislation.
Safe staffing is an essential move that should be adopted by all states; it can ensure the delivery of quality care to most patients at all times. When nurses have to take care of multiple patients at the same time, the cons are numerous and ultimately the death rate of patients increases. In order to gain the most value from RN’s, safe staffing should be encouraged. The main issue preventing the implementation may be costs and flexibilities, but at the cost of human lives, the two aspects can be fixed with the help of the government and safe staffing models.
References
Ericksen, K. (2018, February 27). Nursing Burnout: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It | Rasmussen College. Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/nursing/blog/nursing-burnout-why-it-happens-and-what-to-do-about-it/
Lingo, A. (2018, March 28). Safe Nurse Staffing for Patient Safety Legislation - PassportUSA. Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://passportusa.com/safe-nurse-staffing-bill/
Livanos, N. (2018). A Broadening Coalition: Patient Safety Enters the Nurse-to-Patient Ratio Debate. Journal of Nursing Regulation , 9 (1), 68-70. doi:10.1016/s2155-8256(18)30056-5
