Effective Nurse Staffing

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Effective nurse staffing is vital to the delivery of high quality patient care. In this manner, nurse staffing is a vital health care issue since nurses are a significant element in the delivery of health care. The work of nurses, unlike the physicians’ work is rarely organized around specific disease populations since patients are normally grouped by nursing care intensity or age group such as intensive care or geriatrics (Duffield et al., 2011). Additionally, elderly patients who need minimum nursing care might be separated into surgical or medical units nonetheless might as well be combined into one ward. This paper examines the effect of nursing staffing in clinical settings while focusing on improving quality of patient care and safety …show more content…

In addressing the crucial issue of nurse understaffing, there are some evidence-based interventions which can be implemented. Some of the evidence-based interventions include improving nurses working conditions, lowering the patient to nurse ratio and introduction of some staffing models. One of the evidence based intervention is enhancing the working conditions of the nurses. This is due to the evidence that bad working conditions have led to high rate of absenteeism and nursing shifting their profession paths. In improving the working You mention cost here but a better impact to your paper would have been to locate some hard numbers Citations to back your EBP? QUALITY IMPROVEMENT 4 conditions of nurses there are some strategies which can assist. According to Schalk et al. (2010), one strategy of improving the working conditions of nurses is through recognition. This can be in form of respect or reward system. The nurses need to be recognized for the work they do such …show more content…

One strategy of implementing this intervention is introducing staffing models such as self- scheduling and primary nursing (Butler et al., 2011). This strategy is vital in that it might reduce the number of nurse early retirement or resignations. This is due to the nurses directly being attached to these patients. The last step according to AHRQ (2013) is acting which focuses on refining the change. In determining if these interventions have been successful in tackling the issues, it is vital to have a checklist that focuses on the effectiveness of the interventions. One of the information to look for is the patient safety outcomes. For instance, has the patients’ fall rates reduced. Additionally, there is need to look at the cost effectiveness of the interventions implemented. Based on the success of these interventions, they should be expanded to other clinical areas that have similar issues, although it is necessary to use a good implementation plan. This is vital in ensuring that the process of implementing these interventions is closely monitored and controlled. This is due to different clinical areas might be having different change drivers or resistance to