Nurse-to-Patient Ratios and Effects on Overall Healthcare for Nurse and Patient (Research Paper Sample)

Nurse-to-patient Ratios and Effects on Overall Healthcare for Nurse and Patient
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Table of Contents u

Effects of Nurse-patient Ratio on Overall Healthcare to Patients  4

Improved or Limited Patient Care  4

In-hospital Mortality  5

Reduced Length of Stay and Readmissions  6

Effects of Nurse-patient Ratio on Overall Healthcare to Nurses  7

Nurses Workloads  7

Nursing Care  8

Conclusion  9

References  11

List of Illustrations
* Figure 1- Proposed nurse-patient ratio by the federal government.
* Figure 2- Data structure for determination of nurse-patient ratios on mortality.
* Figure 3- Nurse staffing issues in healthcare.
Acknowledgement
I acknowledge my fellow students who guided me in getting empirical research articles fort this report. I also acknowledge my lecturer who gave me the directives on how to approach the work by offering a systematic approach and go ahead in this paper.
Nurse-to-patient Ratios and Effects on Overall Healthcare for Nurse and Patient
A nurse-patient ration means the number of patients a nurse can give care to for a given time. the phenomenon depends on a number of factors such as severity of the disease, the skills that the nurse has, and availability of other support staff. There is a variation of in the number of patients that are assigned to a certain nurse and the ratio depends with the underlying factors. A nurse an be guided by regulations that suggest or guide the ratio parameters such as reduction of staff and overhead costs whereby a clinical provision operates at a lower rate.
Staffing is an essential for nurses because they are the responsible parties when it comes to offering care for patients since doctor may not be fully available to offer the same (McHugh et al., 2021). For example, a nurse who works in intensive care unit (ICU) may be allocated two patients whereby the ratio becomes 1:2. On the other hand, a nurse working in other units may be allocated between four and five patients (McHugh et al., 2021). The minimum nurse-patient ratio varies but according to California Nurses Association (CNA), nursing facilities should have a ratio of one registered nurse per three patients (Samuel, 2022). Figure 1 below suggests the proposed federal registered nurse-patient ration.
Figure 1: Proposed nurse-patient ratio by the federal government (Samuel, 2022).
Effects of Nurse-patient Ratio on Overall Healthcare to Patients
Improved or Limited Patient Care
When there are sufficient numbers of nurses who take care of patients, it is highly possible that the patient will recover from their ailments. However, for the patient to survive, the nurse must follow hospital-mandated patient-nurse ratios. According to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), there is a compatibility and link between nurse staffing ratios and success of care. From its website, AHRQ says that, “It is logical, therefore, that assigning increasing numbers of patients eventually compromises nurses' ability to provide safe care. Several seminal studies have demonstrated the link between nurse staffing ratios and patient safety” (Heath, 2019 par. 7). That means if there is low number of nurses attending to given set of patients, there shall be increased risk to patient morbidity and mortality. The entire matter is influenced by the shift time, the acuity