Response post to two classmates (minimum 250 words): Respond to two classmates who are in different alphabetical categories and different topical prompts than the one you answered in your initial post (In other words, you will ultimately address all the prompts.) Provide one current (within the last five years ) peer-reviewed NURSING journal article to support content in the responses (2 different articles are required).
This discussion reinforces the following EOPSLOs:
Synthesize knowledge from nursing science and liberal studies to apply critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and decision-making skills that improve nursing care of individuals, families, and communities throughout the life span.
Incorporate effective inter-professional communication and collaboration skills in providing safe nursing care that promotes patient preference, mutual respect, and improved health care outcomes.
Evaluate research for the application of clinical evidence to support nurse practice decisions in planning, implementing, and evaluating nursing care.
Analyze the principles of nursing leadership and management in the practice of professional nursing to promote safe and quality outcomes of care in various healthcare environments.
Analyze the impact of trends and issues influencing nursing practice, healthcare, and access to healthcare in diverse populations.
Post 1
In my opinion Nurse to patient ratio is the most important to consider in facilities as our goal is patient centered care and with shortage of staff and over worked nurses the patients are the ones who suffer. “The heavy workload of hospital nurses is a major problem for the American health care system. Nurses are experiencing higher workloads than ever before due to an increased demand for nurses, inadequate supply of nurses, reduced staffing and increased overtime, and reduction in patient length of stay” (Carayon P, Gurses AP. April 2008. Para 1). An essential reference that was used while researching was a peer-viewed journal by Sydney Montgomery called “The Effects of Nurse to Patient Ratios on Patient Outcomes in a Variety of Hospital Setting.” In her article, the author reports how the nurse to patient ratios have become unreasonably high, and nurses are weighed down with many patients to care for. With this problem, patient needs cannot be adequately fulfilled, and inevitably the quality of care is decreased for the patient. The study’s setting mentioned in this article consisted of random samples of US community hospitals, annual surveys of the American Hospital Association, and healthcare databases. A variety of discoveries were concluded that support that nurse-to-patient ratios should be lowered for patients’ safety and that an unreasonable amount of workload for nurses can potentially lead to health and safety risks for patients. In this journal by Sarah Montgomery discovered through the meta-analysis research study completed by Medical Care Journal entitled, “The Association of Registered Nurse Staffing Levels and Patient Outcomes,” she found it is estimated that an increase of one Registered nurse per patient day would save 5 lives per 1,000 hospitalized patients in ICUs, 5 lives per 1,000 medical patients, and 6 lives per 1,000 surgical patients. I believe that adding at least one more Registered nurse to the unit can drastically improve care quality. If a Registered nurse can not be added, adding two more licensed practical nurses or nursing assistance to the unit can decrease patient safety risks.
Montgomery, S. RN BSN (2019). The Effects of Nurse-to-Patient Ratios on Patient Outcomes in a Variety of Hospital Settings. Scholars Week. 7. Retrieved at: https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/scholarswee…
Al Kouatly, I., Nassar, N., Nizam, M., & Badr, L. K. (2018). Evidence on nurse staffing ratios and patient outcomes in a low?income country: Implications for future research and practice. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 15(5), 353–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12316
Post 2
The workforce issue that I find most important in my nursing career is the safe staffing of nurses to patient ratios. I chose this workforce issue as the most important because I am currently a new nurse. This means I know how to practice safely, but I still lack in the experience department. If I am put on a unit where very few nurses are present and have six patients just to myself, that leaves no time for me to learn what I need to know to continue advancing my knowledge in my career. This issue impacts my current nursing practice because we have to bring in agency nurses to help us get by since we are short-staffed. This is not terrible, but it is preferred to have in-house nurses who know these patients, how the system works, and how the company is run. Often, you will get agency nurses that come in and are just trying to make it through the day. They do not go above and beyond because this is not their permanent workplace, and they do not feel like they can make much of a difference in one day. In the module readings, Assi & Peterson (2019) mention that patients were more likely to experience increased death rates and death from complications in hospitals with inadequate nurse-to-patient ratios. This statement right here should be enough for our legislation to make it a law that nurses are not allowed to have more than a certain number of patients depending on acuity.
A political action that might correct this situation is forming a coalition, a group of people who have a common interest in reaching and working towards a common goal (Sportsman, 2019, p. 153). By forming a coalition, we can jump-start the movement of trying to get a safe staffing law passed. If this one group is not enough, different group members can branch-off and join larger organizations with better resources and more authority to further the legislation process. An individual nurse can exercise political power by advocating for the cause. You can use social media as a professional tool to make it known how dangerous the staffing ratios are currently. For nurses to act collectively, we could join organizations, explicitly speaking, state nursing organizations, to up the chances of being heard (Sportsman, 2019, p. 151). We are more likely to be noticed as a whole rather than as an individual, but that is not to discredit what one individual nurse can do. Sometimes all it takes is one individual to make a difference.
References
Assi, M. J., & Peterson, C. (2019). Workforce advocacy for professional nursing practice environment. In B. Cherry & S. R. Jacob (Eds.), Contemporary nursing issues, trends, and management (8th ed., pp. 232–250). Elsevier.
Sportsman, S. (2019). Power, politics, and influence. In P. S. Yoder-Wise (Ed.), Leading and managing in nursing (7th ed., pp. 141–158). Elsevier .
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