Introduction
Healthcare professionals have differed on the size of adequate nursing in hospitals. Research has clearly revealed that staffing of nurses has a direct effect on quality care. Quality care, on the other hand, influences patient satisfaction and recovery. Studies show that adequate nursing promotes quality care which in turn increases the rate of recovery in hospitals. Evidence-based practices reveal that as a result of low staffing levels, patient recovery has become poor with increased cases of shock and bleeding. The same evidence reports that patients recover at a faster rate when quality care is readily available due to proper staffing. Moreover, effective staffing reduces errors and patients are sure of receiving attention and proper care. On the contrary, infections that are preventable increase and the satisfaction rate of clients and motivation of nurses is low when the staffing is poor (Rothenberg et al., 2005).
In such kind of a research, an appropriate definition of nurse staffing is needed and the research question is if proper nurse staffing can be achieved in the healthcare. According to statistics, this issue has become rampant in many countries (Rothenberg et al., 2005). The argument of proper staffing is on the rise as a result of the increasing ageing of population and lack of nurses. Despite the arguments, most countries have come up with the minimal number of nurses that should be in a hospital. However, the difference is that other countries prefer cost benefit over effectiveness. This has elicited some arguments. Some of the studies are of the view that if there is a set number of statutory numbers of nurses, healthcare providers will incur more costs as a result of the increase. Other studies state that few nurses increase mortality rates or medical errors which bring about court battles. These battles increase cost due to compensation (Rothenberg et al., 2005). Therefore, it is vital to understand this research so as to come up with a proper conclusion on the right path to go as health care providers.
Annotated Bibliography
Gaudine, A., & Thorne, L. (2012). Nurses’ ethical conflict with hospitals: A longitudinal study of outcomes. Nursing Ethics, 19(6); 727-37
This study is about the ethical dilemmas faced by nurses and how they cause distress. The study uses 126 nurses as subjects of experiment. Data is collected using surveys. The study argues that ethical issues like staffing contribute to low satisfaction and enthusiasm by the patient and nurse respectively. Staffing policy also affects the ways nurses come and resign from work.
Guadine and Thorne try to explore how poor staffing leads to burnout of nurses. This study uses nurses to show how hospital environment has an effect on the satisfaction of professionals, in this case, nurses. According to the study ethical issues, for example, proper staffing is a great contributor of distress among health professionals. It promotes physical burnout and instances of quitting.
Larson, N., et al. (2012). Staffing Patterns of Scheduled Unit Staff Nurses vs. Float Pool Nurses: A Pilot Study. Medsurg Nursing, 21(1); 27-32.
This study tries to explain the relationship that exists between staff and pool nurses. The study reveals that having pool nurses is vital for proper care. However, though these nurses are specialized in various fields, they have preferences on the places they would rather offer assistance. Moreover, they are usually complaining that it is they handle the most difficult cases. Therefore, this study is comparative. The shifts were three and subjects were given the freedom to choose which they belong to. The study concludes that pool nurses handle more cases affecting patient satisfaction.
Larson et al (2012) argues that the presence of a supportive staff goes a long way in increasing nurse satisfaction. Studies reveal that other than employing agency nurses, hospitals have gone ahead to hire float nurses to assist in emergencies. According to Larson et al this is quite good for agency nurses since they have people to assist them. However, it is the opposite for float nurses because they are always given the most challenging cases that require a lot of focus and concentration. This has made them dissatisfied with their work. Therefore, the issue of the number of staffing in a hospital is very vital since it determines the satisfaction and recovery of patients. In this study, the research methods were efficient in showing a clear difference that exists between proper and improper staffing.
Rothberg, M., Abraham, I., Lindenauer, P. K., and David Rose. (2005). Improving Nurse to Patient Staffing Ratios as a Cost Effective Safety Intervention. Medical Care, 43(8); 785-791.
The goal of this study was to establish the cost-effectiveness of the different nurse-patient ratio. The ratio selected was between 8:1 and 4:1. From the studies it was revealed that lower ratios were cost effective and efficient. Thus, the ratio of one nurse to four patients is good compared to that of 8 patients to one nurse. Rothenberg et al (2005) revealed that the “cost of effectiveness of decreasing the number of nurses has not been established” (785-786). Rothenberg et al argued that nurse to client ratio is much cheaper when it is compared to other intervention methods. In order to come up with these findings, cost effectiveness as related to the number of patients who had recovered was calculated. When the nurse to patient ration is high, in that the nurses are enough, the labor cost rises while the death of patients decreases. On the contrary, when the number of nurses is not adequate, the patient mortality rate rises considerably. This research clearly shows the fight existing in the healthcare sector. The question of reducing costs while neglecting the patient’s dignity is of contention. , the research withheld the identity of nurses since this is a critical issue that needs to be handled with care. The studies use particular subjects to depict the whole population. Furthermore, the research was carried out under strict deadlines which did not consider a long period of time.
Conclusion
Quality care is important for satisfaction and reduction of mortality rates. Though no one method that achieves this, it is of importance to ensure there is proper nursing staff. Thus, hospitals should introduce a fixed or minimum number of nurses that should be in a hospital. This should be done with the number of patients the hospital serves. Though this study is detailed, more research should be done on ways to reduce the amount of cost resulting from increased staffing.
References:
Gaudine, A., & Thorne, L. (2012). Nurses’ ethical conflict with hospitals: A longitudinal study of outcomes. Nursing Ethics, 19(6); 727-37
Larson, N., et al. (2012). Staffing Patterns of Scheduled Unit Staff Nurses vs. Float Pool Nurses: A Pilot Study. Medsurg Nursing, 21(1); 27-32.
Rothberg, M., Abraham, I., Lindenauer, P. K., and David Rose. (2005). Improving Nurse to Patient Staffing Ratios as a Cost Effective Safety Intervention. Medical Care, 43(8); 785-791.
