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POST # 2 Prudencia

After working as a nurse for several years and practicing as a mental health nurse practitioner during clinical, I believe staffing is one safety issue in my unit. The majority of hospitals face staffing issues that can be detrimental to their patient's safety (Mensik, & Sigma 2017). A good example is working with geriatric psychiatric patients whose safety concerns are falls (Mensik, & Sigma 2017). In a unit of 20 beds with high fall risk patients with mental health issues as common as confusion needing constant redirection, the hospital will sometimes schedule two nurses and one safety attendant. Some of these patients are agitated and are prone to violence when trying to redirect them. This situation puts both the staff and patients at risk of potential injury.  

Without proper staffing, these patients have a high risk of falling, leading to other health problems such as physical injury. Poor staffing can also lead to work stress and dissatisfaction in nurses (Senek et al., 2020). I have seen nurses quit their jobs because of staffing issues. Nurses get burnt out during this period, which is also detrimental to the care they administer to their patients. With low staffing, most nurses fail to follow hospital guidelines while providing care, leading to medical errors.  

This issue can be resolved by ensuring that nurses take part in staffing their units. Patient census and acuity should also be considered when staffing for any unit (Clarke, & Donaldson, 2018). More nurses should be considered when we have an increased number in patients who are confused and are at a high risk of falling. Staffing issues can also be resolved by hiring more nurses, safety attendance, and clarifying job descriptions and expectations during interviewing and every quarter while at work (Clarke, & Donaldson, 2018).  

                                                                           References 

Clarke, S., P, Donaldson, N.E. (2018). Nurse Staffing and Patient Care Quality and Safety. In: Hughes RG, editor. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US). Chapter 25. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2676/ 

Senek, M., Robertson, S., Ryan, T., King, R., Wood, E., Taylor, B., & Tod, A. (2020). Determinants of nurse job dissatisfaction - findings from a cross-sectional survey analysis in the UK. BMC Nursing, 19(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-020-00481-3 

Mensik, J., & Sigma. (2017). The Nurse Manager’s Guide to Innovative Staffing, Second Edition: Vol. Second edition. Sigma Theta Tau International.