California Nurse Staff Patient Ratio

¶ … California Nurse Staff Patient Ratio

[Type the document title]

Over the last several years, failure to rescue has become a challenging situation at a number of hospitals. This is when the hospital staff is so overwhelmed, that they are unaware of changes in the patient's underlying condition. Once this begins to take place, it can mean that the patient could have complications, possibly resulting in death. A good example of this can be seen by looking no further, than failure to rescue rates at variety of hospitals ranging from: .14% to 6.8%. (Clarke, 2003, pp. 40 -- 47) To address these challenges, the State of California begun to implemented nurse to patient ratios. This is when a certain amount of nurses must monitor a select amount of patients. The idea is that by limiting the number of patients that a nurse is monitoring, you can increase the overall quality of care that is being provided. However, the fact that the state is setting predetermined limits has caused controversy among a number of health care professionals. To determine the effectiveness of this regulation, we will examine a study that looks at the true effects of the nurse to patient ratio. This will determine the underlying impact that this regulation is having on the health care industry in California.

In the study titled, Nursing Staff and Patient Mortality, the author is seeking to understand the impact that mandatory ratios are having on the industry. To accomplish this objective, researchers will conduct a survey of: 10, 184 nurses and 232,342 patients. The patients were interviewed, about the underlying quality of care that they received from hospitals (with different nurse to patient ratios). This would take place between 1998 and 1999. The results were that the higher nurse to patient ratios; improved the overall quality of care at a number of health care facilities. The reason why, was because this ratio made the work load more manageable for nurses. At which point, the amount of hours and demands that are being placed on them will decline. (Aiken, 2002, pp. 240 -- 247) This is important, because nurses are more than five times likely to burn out, in comparison with other occupations. (Aiken, 2002, pp. 240 -- 247) As a result, one could argue that the based on the results of the study, the impact of the nurse to patient ratios has improved the quality of care that is being provided. Evidence of this can be corroborated with a study conducted by the California Nurses Association, which found similar positive effects. At the same time, researchers found that reducing these ratios in various specialty environments inside the hospital (such as the ICU), improves the underlying amounts of care being provided dramatically. This is important, because it is verifying the positive effects that nurse to patient ratios are having on the industry. ("Does Mandating Nurse Patient Ratios Improve Care," 2010)