We e-mailed Kelly Brown to have forward our email to the entire nursing student population. We also contacted all of the legislators and stakeholders, unfortunately, we did not hear back from any of the legislators, but we are hoping that they checked out our blog.
o While this bill aims to improve safety, how will the current shortage of RNs influence the effectiveness if it is implemented?
The problem is that there are not nurses out there, but that the nurses available are not being hired due to the economy. This Bill is shown to be cost effective long term, even though it would be more expensive up front. Therefore, if more nurses were highered there would not only be improved patient care, but also in the long run it would help out the economy.
o Will the nurse patient ratio be decided by all of the nurses on the unit, or will this decision be left to a clinical nurse leader or manager?
All of the RNs on unit will be involved in the decision making of the nurse-patient ratio. The clinical manager would most likely be the one to implement the bill once a decision was made.
o What is your group’s opinion on why there are currently staffing issues?
Research has shown that there is a significantly less adequate level of care when a nurse is overloaded with too many patients. Also, nurses themselves have come forward and complained that they are overworked and believe that they cannot deliver the care they would like to since they simply do not have the time. We have also found feedback from patients who claimed that their nurses were so busy that they didn’t feel as though they were receiving sufficient attention and care. Also a factor in the staffing issues is the economy and the fact that the hospitals are not hiring enough nurses to care for the amount of patients.
o Is this a problem that has been escalating over the past ten years or decades, and if it has, why do you think the problem has gone on for so long?
This problem has been escalating due to many reasons. One is the economy, and the fact that nurse units are understaffed. Another reason is that with technology and medical advances, people are living longer. Often, people who live longer have multiple health issues which require a lot of care. This leads to a patient overload for current nurses.
o Is the percentage of hospital deaths due to human era that we listed truly related to nurses being overworked?
Yes, the percentage of hospital deaths due to human era that we listed is truly related to nurses being overworked. Research has shown that nurses who care for a greater number of patients are not only time restricted when it comes to care, but are also worn out, leading to more mistakes being made. With a smaller number of patients to focus on, one is able to look deeper into assessments, signs and symptoms, and medications, rather than simply following a doctor’s orders.
After doing this blog, we realized that what we have been seeing ourselves in the hospitals as a shortages of nurses is not only a problem in those specific hospitals, but a much greater problem nation wide. We have learned from research that patient care is directly affected by nurse-patient ratio and unfortunately most of the time that ratio is rather high, leading to less adequate care. Clearly getting involved in legislation is important to nurses because they not only experience these issues first hand but also have a role in advocating for the patient. We truly enjoyed working on this blog and learned a lot.
