Policy Analysis and the Nurse Workforce - Essay Example

The policymakers adopt different strategies for addressing the concerns of nurses as these approaches can be more beneficial and less costly for the nurses as well as the patients.

The nurse workforce in a particular hospital is based on licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, and licensed nurses and then there are nurses’ aides. Both the LPNs and RNs are licensed by the same State in which they reside and practice. It is the responsibility of the RNs to access the needs of the patients, administer treatments and medications, and develop patient plans. The maintenance of the minimum nurse-to-patient ratio will be beneficial for the patients as well as the nurses. There is a need for policymakers to realize not only the potential benefits associated with the ratio but also the potential expenses associated with these benefits.

A minimum nurse staffing ratio helps the hospital to improve as well as increase the quality of its operations. The patients are more satisfied by the working of the staff and there are enough nurses present in the hospital to deal with emergency cases which results in low mortality rates. Acquiring a minimum nurse staffing ratio also allows the hospital to give its full attention to every patient and not neglect the needs of any of them. On the other hand not having an adequate number of nurses will misbalance the effective working of the hospital and the lives of many patients will be at stake.

Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski, & Silber in their article emphasize the importance of staffing ratio on the health of patients. There is no doubt about the fact that staffing ratios help to alleviate the shortage of nurses. It discusses the fact that the working conditions of the hospitals may affect the number of nurses willing to work within a hospital. Therefore staffing ratios help in improving the quality of hospitals which affects the patients’ mortality rate and decreases the level of nurses' job dissatisfaction. If there will not be enough staff of taking care of the patients admitted to the hospital then their life would be at stake. The drawback of this article is that the authors fail to calculate the direct and the opportunity cost associated with achieving the minimum nurse-to-patient ratio as it can be quite challenging for the hospital (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski, & Silber, 2002). Read More