There are 2 distinct sides to one of the most controversial dilemmas facing nurses today. First, the patients deserve to have better care from their nurses who don’t already have 9 other patients to take care of. If a nurse is responsible for 8-10 patients on a typical med-surg floor how can they be expected to provide the best possible care, or even just the standard of care? The more you spread a nurse out the less attention one single patient is going to receive. This puts them at greater risk for nosocomial infections, medication errors, incorrect or omitted assessments, the list could goes on. Even if a super nurse is able to accomplish this inhuman standard in their occupation what harm will be done to the nurse? A nurse, the backbone of the medical industry, does not deserve to be worked like a dog, to put these kinds of physical and mental demands that ultimately will harm their ability to take care of themselves and their patients. A standard in setting how many patients a nurse can be assigned to is a top priority for are already overworked nurse workforce.
Of course, you have valid arguments provided by hospital administrators and government agencies, but they are not strong enough arguments to persuade this nurse to think any different. The costs are too high, there aren’t enough nurses to staff this way. This is the mentality the non-nurses elect to have. If there are not enough nurses to staff a set ratio then it just supports the fact that nurses should be respected and not overworked to the point where they have to quit nursing. When aspiring nurses see how very little the hospital administrators actually care for their then the smart ones will choose another field and only add to the nursing shortage. The costs are high now because of law suits and problems that arise from not having a healthy ratio standard in place. By reducing errors caused now by not staffing patients well should reduce the unexpected costs that hospitals have to eat on a regular basis.
Really when it comes right down to it the golden rule should be considered by all. Would you want to be just another vulnerable patient that is one of 10 total care patients that the same nurse has to juggle?
tags
forensic nursing chronicles
forensic nursing
forensic nursing theories
medication errors
Medical Errors
Tags: Forensic Nursing Chronicles, Medical Errors, Medication Errors
Forensic Nursing Chronicles 