Deadly Consequences: The Hidden Impact Of America's Nursing Shortage

Published

Specializes in BWICU.

[color=#192f73]a frightening report from stuart anderson of the national foundation for american policy.

http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2007/09/deadly-conseque.html

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

while much of the information in this report may surprise members of the general public, a consensus is forming among health experts that nurse understaffing leads to greater hospital deaths.

the issue goes to the core of a nurse's function as a "hands on" monitor of a patient's health during a hospital stay. as a journal of the american medical association (jama) study explained, "registered nurses constitute an around-the-clock surveillance system in hospitals for early detection and prompt intervention when patients' conditions deteriorate. the effectiveness of nurse surveillance is influenced by the number of registered nurses available to assess patients on an ongoing basis. thus, it is not surprising that we found nurse staffing ratios to be important in explaining variation in hospital mortality."

linda h. aiken, sean p. clarke, douglas m. sloane, julie sochalski and jeffrey h. silber, (2002). "hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction,"

jama, 2002, 288: 1987-1993

this article, a compilation of previous reports missed the mark. job dissatisfaction and nurse burnout are at an alltime high. patients are admitted to hospitals today for nursing care; 10-15 years ago these patients would have occupied an intensice care unit bed with a ratio ratio of 2 patients:rn.

these same type patients requiring titrated or multiple iv medications, cardiac/pulse oximeter monitoring, frequent bp checks, complicated wound care etc are now placed on general unit with hospital mangement expectation 6-8 patients:rn ratio. staff are unable to effectively mange caring for these patients with this high level care needed.

michigan nurses assoc:

it might be surprising to learn that the key workplace issues for hospital rns are not salary and benefits. rather, the primary concerns of hospital rns are to have a work environment where safe, quality patient care can flourish through the elimination of mandatory overtime as a hospital staffing mechanism, and by ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of rns in each hospital unit to care for the patient caseload.

michigan and the nation is experiencing a steady exodus of rns leaving the hospital setting and even the profession due to a hospital workplace environment that doesn't fully support nurses to provide safe, quality patient care.

http://www.minurses.org/gov/legplatform.shtml

graduate nurse perceptions of the work experience

the nursing literature reports that the inability to handle the intense working environment, advanced medical technology, and high patient acuity results in new graduate nurse turnover rates of 35% to 60% within the first year of employment (beecroft, kunzman, & krozek, 2001). this high turnover rate has substantial financial and emotional costs. a nurse with less than 1 year of tenure represents the loss of approximately $40,000 in employer hiring and orientation expenses. turnover affects new graduates personally and professionally and disrupts healing relationships with families. turnover or intent to leave a job has an inverse relationship to job satisfaction. as job satisfaction increases turnover decreases. in larabee et al.'s (2003) study, a major predictor of intent to leave was job dissatisfaction; the major predictor of job satisfaction was psychological empowerment. roberts, jones, and lynn (2004) examined job satisfaction of recent rn graduates working in various specialty areas and their intent to remain in their current position. they found that those intending to remain in their position were more satisfied with the aspects of the role they rated as important. these important aspects included their schedule, co-workers, interaction, professional opportunities, recognition, control, and responsibility.

national and local reports indicate 25 percent of new rn graduates leave their positions in one year and up to 50 percent terminate in 18 months, a major cause of the nursing shortage.

http://nursing.asu.edu/news/pr/hrsa.htm

fix these issues and nurses will return to practicing this profession from other careers they've fled to.

some facilities begun addressing issue:

unlv and valley health system collaborate on program for nursing graduates

research conducted at unlv shows that 30 percent of new registered nurses in nevada leave their first job within their initial year of employment. the residency program addresses these issues through structured experiences and regular evaluations from program coordinators and mentors within each of the hospitals.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion