Please answer the following Discussion Question. Please be certain to answer the three questions on this week DQ and to provide a well-developed and complete answer to receive credit. Also, please ensure to have read the assigned chapters for the curren

Running head: STAFFING RATIOS  1

STAFFING RATIOS  4

Staffing ratios

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General Approaches Recommended By the ANA (2017) To Get Sufficient Staffing

The American nurses association has given three recommendations that are very useful in ensuring that the staffing ratio of nurses is maintained at the required standards. One of the approaches is to come up with a committee that is driven by nurses. The committee is supposed to create staffing plans. The use of such a committee is to come up with strategies that will not only cater to reform the interest of the patients but also will consider the experiences of the nurses at the workplace. The plan needs to consider the needs of the nurses adequately. The program also needs to sufficiently ensure that the working environment of the nurses is made accommodative and motivating. Secondly, ANA also provides that individual states are made to have legislations that prescribe the nursing to patient ratio within the required limit. The advantage of such legislation is that it makes the staffing ratio something that has legal backing hence making it enforceable (Fowler & Comeaux, 2017). Thirdly, the ANA also recommends that a law needs to be enacted mandating each hospital to inform the general public of the nurse's ratio to the patient they have. This will tell the general public on the best hospitals to seek medication from, and it will also create compliance with the required ration by the law or the regulatory body.

Summary Findings In Support of Establishing Minimum Staffing Ratio Legislation

One of the findings is that legislation in establishing such a policy will make the procedure a law, thus enforceable and creation of duty. When minimum staff ratio is embedded in a statute, it has legal backing, and therefore it seizes to be a recommendation but a task given in law. Secondly, having a nurse-patient ratio in legislation also helps ensure that there is uniformity within the hospitals in a state. Failure to place it in a statute will give the hospitals the discretion to set theirs, which may vary from one hospital to another. Thirdly, ensuring that the patient and the nurse's ratio is kept at the recommended standard also helps improve the patients' outcomes (Dousay, Childers, Cole, Hill, & Rogers, 2016). When the ratio is well maintained, the patients will be adequately attended to, and they will get better care. However, when the rate is enormous, the patient's outcomes can be worse due to inadequate care.

Proponents and Critics of Mandatory Minimum Staffing Ratios

Most of the proponents have argued that there needs to be a mandatory staffing ratio that helps in creating adequate care. The argument is that the compulsory rate will ensure that the working environment of the nurses is not toxic. This means that they will not be overburden with work, thus less work pressure (Westrick, & Dempski,  2019). The proponents also suggest that it improves the quality of nursing. When every nurse is handling a specific number of patients, then the negligence caused by the theme being fatigue is reduced. The enhancement of more nurses in the hospital will also reduce the waiting time, thus saving lives. However, the critics have also sited that mandatory staffing ration will also cost money in implementation. More nurses will be employed, and this will lead to increased expenditure, thus increase in taxes.

Reference

Dousay, T., Childers, B., Cole, M., Hill, T., & Rogers, C. (2016). Lower Nurse-to-Patient Ratio: Higher Patient Satisfaction.

Fowler, D., & Comeaux, Y. (2017). The legislative role in nurse staffing ratios.  MedSurg Nursing,  26(2), 12-14.

Westrick & Dempski  (2019).  Essentials of nursing law and ethics. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.