Many advocates of the move feel that lower patient to nurse ratio would lead to additional savings because it would reduce nurse turnover rate, lawsuits, complications and length of stay. Nursing unions in the state of California have asked for a PTN ratio of 3 to 1. The health association however agreed on 5 to 1 which sound more reasonable than the originally proposed 10 to 1. (Rothberg, 2005)
Patient to nurse ratio when it is too high can definitely adversely affect care. And with baby boomers aging and needing healthcare, we know that number of people looking for healthcare will continue to rise in the coming years. However staff shortage continues to pose a serious problem. And unfortunately, the problem doesn't always lie with cost control. While it is true that most of the problems with staff shortage can be attributed to hospitals cutting down their costs and hence keeping fewer nurses, there are also other factors responsible for severe shortage of nurses in hospitals around the country.
Young people simply are not as enthusiastic about entering this field as they are about joining others....
This is due to lower compensation offered to nurses as well to the fact that nursing is a highly demanding job. While it may be just as demanding as that of a doctor, nurses do not get the same amount of say in decisions and doctors are always treated with greater respect and consideration. This says a lot about why young people do not want to join the nursing field. Hospitals are also not making adequate effort to lure younger people to this field and this thus means that more and more staff is getting older. Older staff cannot take on the responsibility of looking after many patients at a time and thus they can only offer compromised care when burdened with excessive workload.
Hospitals need to make a plan for attracting younger people and also hiring more hands so that patients would get adequate care and nursing shortage wouldn't pose a problem for patients and the hospital.
References
Michael Rothberg, 2005. Improving Nurse-to-Patient Staffing Ratios as a Cost-Effective Safety Intervention Med Care 2007;45: 571-578)
Patricia W. Stone, PhD,* Cathy…
