Short staffing can have many ramifications. One of the most well studied and most disturbing effects of nursing short staffing is an increase in “adverse patient outcomes... sensitive to nursing care” such as “urinary tract infections (UTIs), Pneumonia, shock, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, longer hospital stays, failure to rescue, and 30-day mortality” (Stanton, 2004). Stanton (2004) goes on to say that other outcomes related to nursing staffing are lung collapse, pressure ulcers, and falls. Another effect of short staffing is higher workload and job dissatisfaction. In recent years there has been an increase in patient acuity and yet there has been no change in ratio of nurses. This leads to increased job dissatisfaction – according to Stanton (2004) 40 % are dissatisfied with their position as opposed to the 10 – 15 % of other professionals! Higher workload and dissatisfaction lead to “burnout” which leads to nurses leaving the field – an already understaffed and decreasingly staffed field losing competent and valuable professionals! In an article complied by McClure and Hinshaw (2007) it was stated that eliminating RN positions leads to higher turnover, higher disability, more malpractice lawsuits and bad publicity. This is only another example of short staffing having a circular effect on nursing. The unit is short staffed and so nurses are overworked, causing them to “burnout” and leave the field, thus causing more short staffing. There must be a better way.
References:
McClure, Margaret L., Hinshaw, Ada Sue (ed.)(April 2007). Spotlight On Nurse Staffing, Autonomy, and Control Over Practice. American Nurse Today, 2 (4), 15-7.
Stanton, Mark W. (2004) Hospital Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care. Research in Action. Retrieved September 18, 2007 from http://www.ahrq.gov/research/nursestaffing/nursestaff.htm
