Nurse Staffing

The main problem in nursing is staffing shortages. A nurse in a unit may be responsible for up to 5 patients. The case results in many of the patients not having the best care form the nurses. Having four or three patients can be tiring enough, but having an additional patient becomes unbearable (Unruh, & Zhang, 2012). While there is always assigning of patients to nurses, during the leaves of some nurses, the patients in whom they were responsible are assigned to available nurses increasing the workload further high. Though, in some circumstances the in-charge look for someone to take care of the patients handled by the nurses on leave, in most cases, the patients end up assigned to the other nurses that have already a heavy workload.

Nursing staffing has been a problem for some duration now. However, it is a problem that needs to be addressed effectively. The quality and safety of the patient depend on the proper care of the patient. Besides the volume of nurses in the hospital, the organization should focus on the measure of the nurses (Unruh, & Zhang, 2012). The measure of the nurses is the estimation of the care of the patient and the patients’ needs condition and clinical trajectory around the units’ institution. Moreover, the measure also focuses on staffing through the knowledge capacity of the nurses. In this case, it can always be ratio through the staff with more or less training.

ReferenceUnruh, L. Y., & Zhang, N. J. (2012). Nurse staffing and patient safety in hospitals: new variable and longitudinal approaches. Nursing research, 61(1), 3-12.