Staffing issue Free Essay Example, 1750 words

Overtime and weekend staffing Nurses may be forced to work overtime due to strained resources. However, this is risky and should be a measure of last resort. An overtime worker has never been productive in any industry. The nursing profession is more delicate as it deals with the life of patients. It is proper to avoid working nurses overtime as this compromises their effectiveness hence poor delivery which translates to higher risk of hospital mortality. The management should adopt the more difficult option of hiring more nurses rather than opting for overtime (Fernandez, 2010). Weekend staffing is inevitable considered that patients do not cure during weekends. Policy formulators need to appreciate that packages must be friendlier to attract nurses to work over the weekends. The effectiveness of a nurse working over the weekend is however not compromised by the fact that the days are weekends (Fernandez, 2010). Empirical evidence Research has attempted to estimate the ratio of hospital mortality to nursing hours. We will write a custom essay sample on Staffing issue or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now In this analysis, hospital mortality refers to death in the hospital or within thirty days after admission in the hospital. Research has proven that an increase in the registered nurses which meant a higher ratio of registered nurses to patient ratio, within the intensive care unit and the surgical units lead to a reduction in deaths. The death rates were lesser despite the fact that the only factor that had changed was the number of the registered nurses assigned to those units. Researchers noted similar trends when the one additional registered nurse was available per one thousand patients. In addition, when one additional patient was increased per one registered nurse, the hospital related mortality increased by 0.1 percent. This attested to the researchers’ findings. This was a slight increase but substantial enough to be applied as evidence in support of a policy to increase the ratio of nurses to patients (Kane, Shamilyan, Mueller, & W ilt, 2011). Further, research showed that an increase by one registered nurse per patient day caused a 1.2 percent reduction in hospital related mortality rates. Research by various studies showed that increasing the registered nurse to patient per day ratio contributed to a diminution in the relative risk of hospice related mortality. The adjusted risks level according to seven studies was reduced by seven percent by adding one registered nurse to the ratio of registered nurse to patient per day (Fernandez, 2010).