Friday, 09 January 2009
-
Staffing:
What Should Be Considered?
The primary considerations for staffing in the health care setting should include the following: number of patients, the acuity of patients (intensity of care required), and the level of experience of the staff who will care for these patients. Unfortunately, most of the time, in most settings, only one of these factors is considered, the number of patients.
In my experience as a nurse, the patients are divided equally, by numbers, and usually by geography (i.e. their placement in the hall), rather than by acuity, among the available nursing staff. What does this mean? The very acutely ill patient, who requires a greater number of hours of care, or more intensive care, may not be getting it. The time the nurse has to devote to that patient may not be enough.
With the shortage of nursing staff available, nurses are often expected to take a patient load that can interfere with the quality of care provided. The patient may perceive the nurse as a bad nurse, or incompetent, but sometimes the work load is simply too great. People have become accustomed to the nurse who sits in the room with them, talking, comforting, getting a glass of water for them, and talking to family members, and I agree, this is the way it should be, but today's nurse just doesn't have the time. Care has become very custodial. This problem is often compounded by the lack of help nurses can expect to receive from unlicensed personnel. Hospitals are moving away from hiring nurse aids, and moving toward a model of total patient care. (This is a great nursing model by the way, and the way that nursing should be, but with a shortage of nurses, this model will not work as intended).
With the shortage of people available to care for the growing of numbers of people in need, it's no wonder the health care industry is getting such bad publicity lately.
I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading.
More to come: Thoughts on how to prevent medication errors; Why is my nurse sitting at the nurses station?; How to staff by acuity.
-
recommend
- recs 0
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Post a Comment