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Staffing Issues Become Potential Risks
Management and administration in hospitals are sometimes more interested in the bottom line numbers – how much the hospital is making or how much are they in the hole. They want to cut costs where they can and save if they can on anything they can.
If not hiring a few nurses saves the hospital a significant amount of money, they will do that. However, this is likely compromising the safety of their patients. Smart administrations will hire a mix of full-time nurses and part time so that if one of the full- (or part-)time nurses calls out sick, there are no issues in the schedule. This will boost morale and diminish potential safety risks.
Nurse understaffing and nurse fatigue are the two main issues that negatively affect patient outcome and the profession of nursing over all (West Coast University, 2018, slide 5-7). Mandatory overtime can often get in the way of other plans nurses had outside of work, as well as tire them out quicker, making them less likely to be effective nurses.
Nurses are more likely to make medication errors, too. All these factors contribute to low morale in the unit and a desire to take a long vacation. At the end of the day, safety is key. Whoever is scheduling the nurses needs to put themselves in their position and understand their limits. No one can work non-stop without resting and recuperating fully before starting work again. Whoever understands this should be in charge of scheduling.
The average age of nurses in 2013 across the U.S. was 45.5 years old (West Coast University, 2018, slide 7). Although there have been more nurses hired since then, they are not all young, and those who have been in the nursing profession for years continue to age. As nurses age, they tire out more easily (West Coast University, 2018, slide 7).
This makes working overtime and double shifts potentially dangerous for the patients those nurses have under their care. The younger nurses may not mind taking extra shifts, especially if they are just starting out or are interested in making a large purchase, like a car or even a home, and they want to be able to afford that new purchase. That being said, new grads and young nurses do not always understand their own limits.
They may make medication errors more easily, too (West Coast University, 2018, slide 4). Provision 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the Code of Ethics for Nurses directly apply to the responsibility to the patient and creating a safe atmosphere for the patient to heal (American Nurses Association, 2015, p. v).
Nurses are called to advocate for their patients, and if the nurse is too tired to be effective, this does not create a healthy or effective environment for the patient to heal, much less not be hurt by a medication error, for example. These provisions were put in place to protect the patient and the nurse. We need to follow them and stay accountable to ourselves and our patients/their families.
Safety is the number one priority. If the mandatory staffing ratios are being followed, at least that will prevent some safety violations and mistakes that lead to unsafe practices by the nurses (West Coast University, 2018, slide 6). But beyond that, even if the staffing ratios are being upheld, sometimes nurses call out sick, the scheduler needs to plan accordingly and call other people in to work.
In “Nurse Staffing and NICU[1] Infection Rates” (2013), Rogowski, et al. stated, “substantial NICU nurse understaffing relative to national guidelines is widespread. Understaffing is associated with an incr …………………
