Acuity-Based Staffing Literature Review

According to a literature review, there is a nursing shortage that has placed more demand on nursing programs (Slaughter-Smith & Helms, 2012, p. 54). Therefore, assigning students is placing more demands on the nurse that is precepting. Not only does the nurse have a student, but her workload has increased because of the shortage, sick calls or understaffing. One has to be vigil of a nurse’s perception towards students (Slaughter-Smith & Helms, 2012, p. 54), as this will affect facilitation of learning. Nurses on a critical care unit have been informed that two different facilities will deploy student nurses two evenings a week. The nurses have expressed their discontent towards the news. It is time for the nurse educator (NE) to use her

Once the issues are clearly stipulated, each one will be addressed. An acuity-based staffing (ABS) approach can be used to assign patients and nurses, according to patient acuity (Trapier, Lee, & Kerfoot, 2017, p. 185). According to The Affordable Care Act of 2010, reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid are founded on quality of care; how the facilities performs by means of using evidence-based practice, along with patient satisfaction (Trapier, Lee, & Kerfoot, 2017, p. 185). This is why nurses need to be involved with decisions. Once the nurses issue has been dealt with, the following can be

125) to accept students in a positive way. Mezirow’s transformational “learning is the ‘process of using a prior interpretation to construct a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one’s experience in order to guide future action” (Garneau, 2016, p. 128). This is perfect for this dilemma of nurses questioning the students being on a critical care unit. The nurses must reflect back to when they were students and they thirst for clinical exposure and experience. The three main focuses of this transformative theory are based on “experience, critical reflection, and rational discourse” (Garneau, 2016, p. 128), which are important to nursing. Ten stages comprise this theory. First five focuses on the dilemma, one’s feelings, suppositions, and the search for new roles with their perspective actions (Garneau, 2016, p. 129). In the last five stages transformation occurs. Garneau, (2016), stipulates that transformation is viewed by the acquisition of knowledge and proficiencies, self-confidence is built and there is incorporation into one’s being (p. 129). After all, this type of reflection and education can “point out the social mandate of nurses and their role in reducing health inequities” (Garneau, 2016, p. 131). Application of Mezirow’s theory can facilitate nurses accepting the students and therefore learning can