Nursing units often experience the problem of nursing paucity. The nursing shortage is an event that has for long, been a problem in the nursing fraternity. Shortages have crippled the nursing service and affected the nursing outcomes. Propositions of bridging the gaps left by inadequate nursing force are the only way of dealing with the nursing problems. On the other hand, strategies like nurse retention and rigorous staffing have also been identified as some of the best methods of ensuring desired levels of nursing. According to BBC News (2006), financial constraints and poor and inadequate educational facilities are the major causes of imbalance in patient- nurse ratios.
The nursing practice is choked by the unwavering scarcity in the nursing force. Due to the financial inadequacy, the nursing workforce has been reduced against the increasing number of clients in various healthcare institutions. Ideally, working conditions that the current nurses work under are sometimes unfavorable. Wolfenden (2011) argues that the lack of proper initiative as well as lack of economic stability affects the productivity and sustainability of the nursing workforce. The process of hiring and retaining nurses has been reduced due to inadeq1uate resources that can facilitate the procedures. Stringent protocols in the healthcare institutions have also crippled the balancing of the workforce and the patients.
In the United States, low rates of enrollment of new nurses as well as a reduced number of institutions that offer training to nurses, have resulted in a reduced number of nurses in the healthcare institutions. The healthcare institutions are required to have sustainable growth of workforce that can handle growing numbers of patients at all times. Few institutions have also led to reduced statistics of nurses to be hired. Hiring depends on the availability of the health care institutions where the nurses work from. Fewer and smaller healthcare institutions have restricted the number of nurses hired.
Budgetary constraints have impeded the adjustments on the scarcity. Due to constrained budgets, the nursing fraternity has experienced decline in hiring and training new staff. Nursing staff relies on the educational facilities as well as the healthcare institutions where learning and training occur. Proper staffing is linked with good patient results. Many institutions with adequate number of nurses and staff have recorded better patient results as compared to institutions with inadequate number of staff (BBC News, 2006).
Anderson (2007) points out that the rate of mortality among patients increased by a margin of seven percent for each additional patient in an average nurse’s workload in the healthcare institutions. It is evident in many institutions that the main solution for increased mortality as well as poor patient outcomes is increasing the number of nurses. The ratio between nurses and patients should be balanced in order to ensure proper patient outcome. In addition to this, proper patient-nurse ratio reduces cases of nurse stress and burnout (Buerhaus, Staiger & Auerbach, 2009).
Due to the growing concerns of the patient-nurse ratio, strategies that ensure nurse conscription should be encouraged in most of the institutions. It is important to ensure proper staffing in order to strike a balance between the nursing employees and the patients. It is also important to ensure that the nurses are given the recommended training on how to properly deal with the patients’ conditions. Balancing patient-nurse ratio helps in ensuring that the patients are given adequate services.
References
Anderson, S. (2007). “Deadly Consequences: The Hidden Impact of America’s Nursing Shortage.” National Foundation for American Policy.
BBC News. (2006). Nurse Shortage Boosts Death Rates.
Buerhaus, P. I., Staiger, D. & Auerbach, D. I. (2009). The future of the nursing workforce in the United States: Data, trends, and implications. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Wolfenden, J. (2011). Men in Nursing. The internet journal of Allied Health sciences and Practice, 9 (2): 1-6.