Unlicensed Personnel & Nurse Staffing Ratios - Essay Example

Unlicensed Personnel and Nurse Staffing Ratios The essay aims to address a two-fold objective to wit to express your opinion whether unlicensed assistive personnel be licensed by the individual state boards of nursing; and (2) to support your response with evidence from two professional sources.Unlicensed Personnel and Nurse Staffing Ratios Unlicensed personnel are used in medical practice to provide a cost-effective quality care (Gravlin and Bittner, 2010, 330). They are grouped under unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) and positions range from being a medical assistant to a nursing assistant.

The unprecedented growth of aging population while having nursing shortage calls for the increasing demand for UAP. Meanwhile, safety concerns due to educational qualifications and accountability issues emerged simultaneously with the increasing demand for UAP because of documented incidental errors. Some say that the UAP is accountable because he committed the error while others say that it was the nurse to blame for errors because of the responsibility inclined with the license. In this case, should unlicensed assistive personnel be licensed by the individual state boards of nursing?

As mentioned earlier, UAPs lack enough educational qualifications and training compared to those with baccalaureate degree. Giving these UAPs licenses will neither solve the increasing number of errors in the hospital settings nor make them solely accountable for negligence. In fact, this might just deteriorate nursing education in the future because of the lack of clear boundaries. UAPs are given certificate or diploma or training for low level tasks like toileting, bathing, feeding, skin care, and ambulating whereas nurses are given licenses for high level tasks which require critical thinking, reasoning skills, and nursing judgment such as in making nursing assessments.

If the individual state boards of nursing would give license to UAPs, nursing students might think that there are no differences at all and might prefer the shorter track; thus, making future nurses less qualified for the job. In addition, giving UAPs licenses will not make them solely free from accountability as proper delegation is one of the key responsibilities of nurses. If UAP committed an error, the nurse is also accountable for negligence because the National Council of State Boards of Nursing provide specific guidance about scope of practice and proper delegation among nurses (Sherman and Eggenberger, 2009, 7).

Instead of giving UAPs licenses, why not strengthened the delegation practices of nurses? Most of the documented errors committed by UAPs were due to ineffective delegation and not on their lack of licenses (Gravlin and Bittner, 2010, 330). Giving UAPs licenses by the individual state boards of nursing is not the answer but the provision of a clear, extensive, and up-to-date delegation system.ReferencesGravlin, G. and Bittner, N.P. (2010). Nurses and Nursing Assistants Reports of Missed Care and Delegation.

The Journal of Nursing Administration, 329-335.Sherman, R.O. and Eggenberger, T. (2009). Taking Charge: What Every Charge Nurse Needs to Know. Nurses First, 1-27.