Achieving a standard patient to nurse ratio

Shortage of Nurses in Healthcare Facilities

Yes. Achieving a standard patient to nurse ratio greatly decreases nurse fatigue and health hazards, which encourages nurses to devote more time to providing high-quality patient care. According to an article by Hildebrandt (2013), roughly 25% of Canadian nurses who participated in a series of interviews stated that they would not tell their family or close friends about the hospitals or facilities where they work. The cause is that they become internally disoriented from their core ethical obligation of giving aid and care to patients in accordance with the necessary standards due to overwork. The respondents to the survey of the hospitals in various part of Canada articulated the shortage of the nurses in hospitals as the underlying factor for the low-quality outcomes since it leads to job dissatisfaction, lack of motivation due to working overtime without pay incentives and attending to more patients than the standard ratio (Aamir et al., 2016). As a result, the number of medical errors can increase which compromises safety and quality of the services provided by nurses. In this regard, the primary articulated issue in the article that needs to be taken into account is the shortage of nurses in healthcare facilities.

The Acute Shortage of Nurses in Canada

In research, Canada features as one of the developed countries facing acute shortage of the nurses (Littlejohn et al., 2012). Interestingly, the problem is not caused by the lack of the workforce but the lack of enough resources to employ the jobless ones. Further, the dissatisfaction of the current ones has also contributed to the occupational mobility into other professions or private practice due to the overwhelming duties and health-related risks such as stress, depression, and burnout among others. Based on the statics by the Canadian Nurses Association (2012), out of the 2486 newly employed nursing practitioners in various parts of Canada, there was a population of more than 64 million to serve which is a ratio of one practitioner against more than 13000 people. The statistics indicate that in about two decades, the problem is even worse in the year 2016 according to forecasts. Despite the efforts of additional staff, the numbers are still low in most of the parts of Canada compared to the patients attended to in hospitals. The effects are further spread to the patients whose quality of healthcare is undermined. As a priority, adequate staffing of nurses in Canadian hospitals will increase the quality of healthcare provision.

Improving Quality of Patient Care

As a priority, adequate staffing of nurses in Canadian hospitals will increase the quality of patient care because the ethical issues such as moral distress in the workplace and nurse-sensitive patient outcomes will yield positive consequences (Oh & Gastmans, 2013). Firstly, there are standard ratios in which the practitioners have to handle a particular number of professions efficiently. However, with the shortage of the staff and an increasing number of the population, managing all the cases to the quality and practice outlined in the code of conduct becomes difficult (Littlejohn et al., 2012). In this respect, nurses are unable to respond to the needs of each patient efficiently. In this regard, increasing the number as a way of reducing the gap between patients and caregivers reduces the moral distress associated with long working hours and fatigue in the industry (Oh & Gastmans, 2013). Further, more attention is paid to the sick individual since there is adequate staff to attend to a small number of groups (Kangasniemi et al., 2015). As a result, the level of quality in healthcare provision raises, hence, reducing issues such as bed sore, and falls due to lack of care.

Implementing an Efficient Organizational Culture

As a priority, adequate staffing of nurses in Canadian hospitals will increase the quality of patient care because the culture of the organization can be implemented efficiently. In most cases, the hospitals and umbrella bodies of the nursing profession develop a culture enshrines in its vision, mission, values, and principles of their expectations. In this regard, all the stakeholders especially the nurses and the patients are a priority. When the practitioners are exposed to poor working conditions that expose them to health risks and lack of motivation due to burnout, then such organizations cannot efficiently achieve these objectives (He et al., 2016). However, with an adequate number of nurses, not only with the caregivers have high levels of job satisfaction but also high rates of performance (Platis et al., 2015). In this respect, the practitioners will be committed to their practice and reduce the threats of migration of nurses either to another region or profession where the working conditions are conducive. Therefore, addressing shortage is very critical for the viability of the culture and social relationship in the nursing profession.

Political and Governmental Support

As a priority, adequate staffing of nurses in Canadian hospitals will increase the quality of patient care because, through political and governmental support, there will be sufficient resources to facilitate the same. As much as nurses and medical practitioners are tasked with the treatment of patients, to a large extent, government institutions have to provide basic health to the public through budgeting and allocating resources to various health organizations and hospitals to facilitate the same (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2016). In this regard, availability of resources will ensure adequate staffing which in turn leads to the positive patient outcomes (He et al., 2016). On the other hand, the unions of nurses should negotiate for recruitment of additional staff to address the shortage (Woodward et al., 2016). The strategy has worked in other areas such as Minneapolis where more than 12000 nurses went to strike to advance for more numbers, and in Australia where such demonstrations led to the standardization of nurses of a ratio of 3 to 20 patients (Allen, 2013). Therefore, with the support of the union and political leaders, as well as government institutions, not only will there be enough resources for adequate recruitment and placement but also, increased the concentration to high-quality care to the public.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the media article highlights a serious problem of nursing shortage not only affecting Canada but other areas of the world that could be even worse. In their profession, nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas which results in moral distress. In the light of the shortage, working for extended hours exposed under these conditions does not only lead to the degeneration of the motivation on the job but affects their performance as well. As a result, the quality of care given to the patient is low. As a solution, adequate staffing, therefore, will lead to increase in job satisfaction, commitment, performance and retention of the nurses, which in turn improve the quality of care to the ailing individual. The realization of this is the ethical consideration, political influences, as well as the cultural and social needs of the health institutions.

References

Aamir, A., Hamid, A., Haider, M., & Akhtar, C. (2016). Work-life balance, job satisfaction and nurses retention: moderating role of work volition. International Journal Of Business Excellence, 10(4), 488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijbex.2016.079257

Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum, O., & Srisuphan, W. (2016). Analysis of a government policy to address nursing shortage and nursing education quality. International Nursing Review, 64(1), 22-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/inr.12257

Allen, D. (2013). Evidence shows staff ratios can work. Nursing Standard, 27(43), 20-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/ns2013.06.27.43.20.s28

Canadian Nurses Association. (2012). 2010 Workforce Profile of Nurse Practitioners in Canada Statistics. Retrieved 5 October 2017, from https://cna-aiic.ca/~/media/cna/page-content/pdf-en/2010_np_profiles_e.pdf

He, J., Staggs, V., Bergquist-Beringer, S., & Dunton, N. (2016). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes: a longitudinal study on trend and seasonality. BMC Nursing, 15(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12912-016-0181-3

Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P., & Korhonen, A. (2015). Professional ethics in nursing: an integrative review. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 71(8), 1744-1757. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.12619

Littlejohn, L., Campbellb, J., Collins-McNeilc, J., & Khayile, T. (2012). Nursing Shortage: A Comparative Analysis. International Journal Of Nursing, 1(1), 22-27. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.300.9995&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Oh, Y., & Gastmans, C. (2013). Moral distress experienced by nurses. Nursing Ethics, 22(1), 15-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0969733013502803

Platis, C., Reklitis, P., & Zimeras, S. (2015). Relation between Job Satisfaction and Job Performance in Healthcare Services. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 175, 480-487. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1226

Woodward, B., Smart, D., & Benavides-Vaello, S. (2016). Modifiable Factors that Support Political Participation by Nurses. Journal Of Professional Nursing, 32(1), 54-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2015.06.005