American Nurses Association Safe Staffing Initiative Essay Paper
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The A.N.A. (American Nurses Association) Safe Staffing Initiative strives to improve working conditions for nurses and safe medical care for patients. The staffing initiative goes beyond just the nurse-to-patient ratio and considers things such as the nurseâ€s level of practice (novice to expert), the level of care needed by each patient, the nurses experience and understanding of the population being served, and any support staff that can assist. Setting staffing requirements are only useful if there are nurses available to hire, but what do you do when there simply are not enough nurses to handle the patient load without long hours and too many patients? American Nurses Association Safe Staffing Initiative Essay Paper
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Nursing, at its core, is caring for people, improving, or maintaining their health and providing comfort measures to assist with healing or transitioning to the next stage of their lives. It involves personalized care that is tailored to the specific patient and their medical needs. We are the eyes and ears for the physicians, providing valuable information and details about the patientâ€s condition that leads to excellence in medical care. But when the work environment becomes a list of tasks too many to keep up with, we lose personal connection, and therefore individualized care, and we have an increase in mistakes that harm the patients and cost the facility money, and the nurse distress. A staff nurse at Blessing Hospital in Quincy, Illinois states, “The bottom line is it’s all about patient safety and positive outcomes. Good patient outcomes are dependent upon nurses, who can’t do their best when they have too many patients and tasks” (Trossman, 2019).
By hiring only R.N.s, a healthcare organization increases the median education level of those in direct patient care. I believe this can only lead to better outcomes for patients and less burnout for nurses. One nurse reported that she worked in a busy I.C.U (intensive care unit) where for years the nurses did not take breaks for rest or meals. They were afraid of overwhelming their fellow nurses with the burden of a larger workload even if for 15 to 30 minutes. The nurse states “”Anything can happen in 30 minutes, especially in an ICU where you have critical I.V. drips” (Trossman, 2019). If the unit were all RNs and no LPN/LVNs, when taking a break those left in charge of the unit would be of the same educational level and able to continue patient care at the level you had been providing. This would prevent leaving respiratory techs, CNAs, and LPN/LVNs in charge of care they are not equipped to handle. The problem with this would be budget constraints for many facilities.
A staff nurse at Blessing Hospital in Quincy, Illinois states, “The bottom line is it’s all about patient safety and positive outcomes. Good patient outcomes are dependent upon nurses, who can’t do their best when they have too many patients and tasks” (Trossman, 2019).
Trossman, S. (2019, September). Appropriate staffing = safe, quality care: ANA, nurses work on range of efforts to address this nursing priority: Patient safety. American Nurse Today, 14(9), . https://eds.s.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail? vid=1&sid=6e19cbc9-c128-4963-8ab3-2e48ddda708e%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1lZHMtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.604745718 American Nurses Association Safe Staffing Initiative Essay Paper
