Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR 504: Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development
Spring B 2011
My vision for nursing is a simple one. It is not grand or extravagant and therefore, should be easily attainable. The problem is, is that as with any vision, there will be obstacles along the way. I hope to be able to overcome these obstacles and make my vision become a reality. My vision is to establish a guideline to lower the nurse to patient ratios in acute care hospitals, so that the quality of care given to patients as well as employee satisfaction can be significantly raised.
Key Concepts of Vision The current nurse to patient ratio at my hospital is 1…show more content… This is just one of the reasons that lower nurse to patient ratios are so important. When a person is admitted to the hospital, they expect to get good care. When they push their call light for a nurse they should not have to wait for 30 minutes before one arrives. When the nurse has 7 or 8 patients to care for, this is what is going to happen. People don’t feel good when they are in the hospital and want to know that their nurse will take good care of them accurately and promptly. If the patient is satisfied with their care, then they will return to the hospital if they are ill in the future. If they are dissatisfied with their care, the whole community will hear about it and they will likely choose to commute to another hospital the next time they are in need of hospitalization. Slater (2009) tells us how studies have been done proving that the more time nurses get to spend with their patients, the sooner problems are identified with the patients. Often times, these problems go undiscovered by the nurses because they are caring for too many patients at one time.
Nurses should enjoy their work life. They should not have to dread coming to work because of their large patient load. Nurses are putting their license on the line in the event that they make a mistake because they had too many patients to care for. Good working conditions are a major key in retaining nurses. With lower nurse to
