Effects of high nurse to patient ratio

Effects of High Nurse to Patient Ratio

Introduction

Nurses play a vital role in the health care system of any organization. The effects of patients to nurse ratios are needed to ensure the safety of both patients and nurses (DPE Fact sheet, 2011). The right numbers of nurses are the key for patient care and retention of nurses. Thus, nurse to patient ratio is a major concern. The state of California was amongst the first to implement low nurse-to-patient ratio. The studies showed that the program subsequently improved patient care and nurse retention (Linda, A. 2010). There are great many issues that are related with inadequacy in the nurse-to-patient ratio, which are effects on nurses' health, increase risk of injury to back, neck and shoulder, hypertension and many more could be named (Aiken et al. 2010). However, the issue is not as simple which could be solved by an increase in the number of nurses. It's a complex multifaceted process which has few concerns that could be solved through development of right procedures (ANA, 2012).

Discussion

Staffing is a critical issue on both professional and personal levels because of the pressures put on nurses daily by patient acuity, the complexity of care, increased workloads and fatigue which could ultimately lead to burnout (ANA, 1999). There are various concerns regarding low staff to patient ratio and from evidence based research it was seen that any change in the ratio leads to a direct effect on patient safety, patient outcomes and wellbeing of the nursing staff (US study, 2010). Further, nurses health suffers by working long hours and doing over time. Research showed that there was a strong link between frequent overtime work and incidents of heart problems faced by the nursing staff (US study 2010). Moreover, even the staff complains of burnout due to workloads. Burnout is when the nurses feel chronic fatigued, insomnia, frequent headaches, depression and many more (DPE, 2011). According to one study conducted by the US, it was seen that around 50% of the nursing staff under ages of 30 experienced high level of burnouts (American Medical Association, 2011). Although, nurses face such medical issues, they are still motivated to achieve unmanageable expectations, which in turn affect the delivery of care to the patients. For every one-thousand patients, an increase of one nurse per patient day in an ICU setting would not only save ...