The Principles On Safe Staffing Assignment Discussion Paper

Discussion Response

Excellent post! You provided a great deal of useful information, and your analysis is insightful. As per our reading, with all of the factors inherent in-patient care, decreasing nurse-to-patient ratios would be beneficial to both patients and nurse practitioners as it would make patients safe and secure and nurses less stressed. The result is less burnout, more job satisfaction, and less turnover, all of which help to alleviate what appears to be an ever-present nurse shortage in the United States. To improve nurse-patient ratios, several healthcare corporations are opting to recruit only registered nurses. What are your thoughts on this? The Principles On Safe Staffing Assignment Discussion Paper

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The American Nurses Association (ANA) produced the Principles on Safe Staffing and the Utilization Guide to the Principles on Safe Staffing in response to compelling evidence demonstrating increasing links between safe staffing and clinical service quality (Pearce et al., 2018). These guidelines serve as guidance for the establishment of appropriate and reliable nurse staffing strategies. According to the guidelines, staffing of nurses should be prioritized centered on nurse competency, patient acuity, skill levels, and availability of support solutions (Blankenhorn, 2018). The ANA’s safe staffing guidelines are meant to provide quality and safe healthcare in healthcare environments that place high importance on nursing competence. According to research, increasing the number of nurse practitioner hours on a department’s staff may lessen the comparative potential for adverse occurrences. Minimizing medical mistakes is also crucial from a financial standpoint since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has started to introduce value-based care systems that involve risk-sharing with the ability to withhold reimbursement for avoidable hospital-acquired diseases and infections; private insurance companies are likely to follow suit The Principles On Safe Staffing Assignment Discussion Paper.

References

Blankenhorn, A. (2018). Staffing committees: A safe staffing solution that includes engagement: With nurse input, this hospital strives for staffing satisfaction. American Nurse Today13(3), 56-58. https://www.myamericannurse.com/safe-staffing-solution-engagement/

Pearce, P. F., Morgan, S., Matthews, J. H., Martin, D. M., Ross, S. O., Rochin, E., & Welton, J. M. (2018). The value of nurse staffing: ANA principles redevelopment and direction for the future. Nursing Economics36(4), 169-176. https://www.proquest.com/openview/2450cede605a4230eb711150ac7e8e9c/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=30765

Knowledge and skill: Nurses who are unfamiliar with a particular patient’s nursing care needs have an ethical duty not to care for that patient. This is based on concerns for patient safety and the need for all patients to receive competent care. An inexperienced nurse who is caring for a complex client can jeopardize the patient, and consideration should be made to change the assignment or provide support by a more experienced nurse. (Westrick,2014.p.50) The nurse-to-patient ratio will always be a problem. There are some nurses that can handle a higher patient load than others when it comes to assignments. Is this fair that one nurse has 6 patients while another has only 2 or 3 patients of the same acuity? No. Does it happen? Yes. I believe this happens everywhere and cannot be avoided. In a perfect world we would have enough nurses to care for the many patients and the inexperienced wanting to step up and learn how to take care of the more complex patients. Since Covid the facility I work at has had to keep a higher acuity of patients at times because there are no beds available in the bigger hospitals to transfer critical patients to. Some of the care has been out of my comfort zone but not out of my scope The Principles On Safe Staffing Assignment Discussion Paper.

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We, as a team, have had to step up and add to our skill set to care for these patients because that is why we went into nursing. I fear that since Covid the nurse-to-patient ratio is not going to come to a resolution anytime soon, but only get worse. I have seen nurses leave the acute care setting and go for clinic, home health or rehabilitation jobs. I understand why some of these nurses are having a hard time balancing home and work and not being able to put in the long, extra hours and feeling the stress of being spread too thin. With some healthcare organizations only hiring RNs makes sense. I was an LPN, LPN-C and then an RN. When I was an LPN I could take care of easy ER patients, admit patients and discharge patients without an RN co-signing my work. As an LPN-C I could start IVs on anyone over 90 pounds and older than 18 years of age. I could give IV meds. Over the years the responsibilities of an LPN have changed with some facilities requiring an RN to cosign the LPN’s work. The facility I work at only has RNs working on the Med/Surg floor. The majority of our patients have IVs or SLs. If they were assigned to an LPN, the LPN would have to find an RN to give their IV meds putting more work on the RN who already has assigned patients. An LPN in a long-term care facility of even in a family practice clinic setting makes sense because of the acuity of care that is needed. Reference Westrick, Susan J. (2014). Essentials of Nursing Law and Ethics (2nd ed). Jones and Bartlett Learning The Principles On Safe Staffing Assignment Discussion Paper