"More nurses, less death"

Written By: Hyaal Wehab

  A large problem that many medical services are facing today is a shortage of staffing in medical institutions. One of the largest fields of medical work is nursing, but it also faces many issues in its staff numbers. This week I am writing about an article regarding the positive impacts and support that proper staffing brings to medical institutions.

  A study in 2004 compared the staffing in hospitals in California and New Jersey. The numbers of nurses in hospitals located in California was much higher compared to those in New Jersey, and from this research they have concluded that just by having a relatively high amounts of nurses staffed, nurses tend to love the profession more and feel less burnt out. Not only does it help prevent nurses from feeling burnt out, but it also reduces the number of deaths and creates better income for patients. Since the patient to nurse ratio tends to be very uneven, it is hard for the staffed nurses to tend each patient with the same intensity due to the amount of energy they need to put in for each patient, and they feel very burnt out the more patients that they have to tend. The study claims that, if New Jersey had the same numbers of staffed nurses that California has, the death rates of their patients would decrease, and also decrease the amount of nurses that are “burnt out”. As the research continued, studies showed that when nurses cared for fewer patients, they were able to devote more energy and attention to each, which created better outcome for the health of their patients. After seeing the positive income of this study, many different states began to follow in California’s foot steps, and began creating specific staffing ratios, or staffing plans for nurses to create a better income not only for their patients, but also a healthier lifestyle for nurses. These ratios would ensure that nurses reach their patients on time for medications and check ups, and they are not overwhelmed. When these actions were taken, patient outcomes were much better when nurses began caring for fewer patients at a time.

  Staffing of nurses continues to grow into a larger issue as time goes on, beginning form the understaffing of professors in universities, and the competitive nature that most nursing programs hold. Students are not able to take these courses, which leads to the understaffing of nurses in hospitals. After reading this article, it is clear what impact that accurate staffing will bring to hospitals in many states. My questions are, how can the issue of staffing be fixed? Since the understaffing begins in universities and nursing programs, how can universities re-evaluate their requirements to reduce the amounts of understaffing? This article helped bring the issue of understaffing to my attention, and will hopefully bring this issue to the attention of many other individuals pursuing this field.

Article: More Nurses, less death