Nurse To Patient Ratio Analysis Paper

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The 32 bed medical/surgical unit, 4E, manages acutely ill medical and surgical patients with a wide range of diagnoses and care needs. In the past year, the medical/surgical unit has had an increase in the patient fall rate and incidence of nosocomial pressure ulcers. One obvious solution to resolve the problem is to increase the nurse to patient ratio. Many studies and healthcare professionals believe that nurse-patient ratios will increase positive patient outcomes. However, nurse to patient ratios is not the only consideration for providing and improving quality patient care. Due to the complexity of the various condition patients have on the medical/surgical unit, the nurses must have a high level of competence and skill. The nurse …show more content…
The nursing staff will work a forty hour week and overtime will be eliminated. When the unit is filled to maximum capacity (32 patients), the recommended staffing plan will allow for a nurse to patient ratio of 1:5 for both day and evening shifts and a 1:8 for the night shift. The medical/surgical unit is very busy and maintains an average census of 28 patients per day. This means that each nurse will have fewer patients to manage when the unit is not at full capacity. Patient falls and pressure ulcers are preventable and should never occur. The recommended staffing plan provides a better system to deliver care through a reasonable nurse to patient balanced ratio. More importantly, the nurses will be able to provide more patient-focused care. This staffing model ensures that nurses will round on each patient more frequently giving substantially better care. The increased number of nurses on each shift and eliminating overtime will help to prevent nursing errors by reducing fatigue and stress. Since patient safety is paramount, the patients will be assigned to the nurses based on the care requirements and needs of the patient. The nurse manager or charge nurse will be tasked with trying to provide each nurse with a balance of high and low acuity patients. The steps outlined should carry weight in eliminating patient falls and nosocomial pressure ulcers by maintain management and employee focus on the
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