Staffing Levels, Essay Example

The great deal of attention is being paid to the effect of patient service representatives (PSRs) on the quality of care in hospitals, for higher nurse staffing levels at heal care facilities are directly related with better quality of patient care. “Academies of Science found that low nurse staffing levels are one of the key causes contributing to 98,000 preventable deaths each year.”(National Consumer League, 2004) Thus, the level and quality of care provided in health care facilities is higher when there are enough PSRs to cover all the shifts and provide decent service to each and every patient.  When managing staffing levels in health care departments, I would first suggest analyzing the relation between an average amount of patients requiring nursing care and PSRs currently employed. “Higher staffing at all levels of nursing was associated with a 2 to 25 percent reduction in adverse outcomes.”(Harvard Science, 2001) Secondly, I would suggest balancing personnel costs with the intensity of care required by the population of patients. This balance can be influenced by the standards for staffing levels set by legislation and professional groups, acuity of the patients, reimbursement rates, and hospital’s orientation. Based on research conducted by American Federation of Teachers Health Care, “medical/surgical nurses are, on average, responsible for delivering care to eight patients at a time.”(NCL, 2004)

Thus, it would be essential to set PSRs staffing levels when one nurse is responsible for delivering care to three or four patients during the shift.

Works Cited

National Consumers League. “Consumer Perspectives: The Effect of Current Nurse Staffing Levels on Patient Care.” 2004. <http://www.nclnet.org/pressroom/report.pdf>.

“Nurse staffing levels directly impact patient health and survival.” Harvard Science. 23 June, 2009. <http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/nurse-staffing-levels-directly-impact-patient-health-and-survival >.