According to the literature reviewed, there is a direct correlation between turnover of nurses and CNAs to the quality of patient care. Hunt (2009) gives a concise explanation of the correlation of staff shortage on patient care: Staff shortages caused by nursing turnover are associated with significant decreases in the general quality of patient care, increases in the length of patient stays within hospitals, and greater numbers of hospital-acquired patient illnesses and conditions that do not qualify for Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement (p.3) Another report published by the American Association of College of Nurses’ stated the same thing that there is a correlation between nurse to patient ratio and the quality of care given. As a result many organizations are left having to do major damage control externally, to prevent a bad reputation. Instead of external PR, organizations need to start taking a hard internal look at their staff management. Reasons for Staff
Litigations related to hospital falls is growing in both frequency and severity; hospital administrators are in a quandary on how to reduce patient falls. Based on best practices and literature reducing falls in an acute hospital setting benefit from multifactorial fall prevention programs focusing on falls in an acute care setting that result in patient injury or even worse, death. Private and governmental agencies such as The
Executive Summary – Middlefield is facing the high employee turnover, workforce shortage - especially of Nurses and low employee morale problems. Some of the findings about the causes of the problems are opening of the new hospital with better facilities and advanced technology for patient treatment and care, unavailability of quality instructors for nursing degree programs at universities. To tackle the problems, efficient use of existing Nursing workforce should be done in the short term. Whereas aggressive retention policies and increase in production of quality Nursing workforce should be long term strategies. Also Middlefield must ensure to increase the employee morale.
MEMO From: Joshua A. Burger (Gibbs), Phlebotomist, Genesys Regional Medical Center To: Office of Susan K. Kolka, Hospital Administrator, Genesys Regional Medical Center Subject: Excessive needlestick complaints and proposed corrective action 11/11/2009 Introduction Statement of Problem Inpatients of Genesys Regional Medical Center are complaining of excessive needlesticks during their stay at our facility. After receiving dozens of complaints, policy changes were made to allow the patients to receive a heparin lock as standard procedure, but the complaints continued. To promote patient comfort, safety, and well being, the hospital needs to take immediate action to reduce the number of needlesticks that our patients must endure
(Murbank, P. n.d.). Consequences of Falls and Trauma The consequences of falling can be emotional and physical. Falls can lead to complications and might increased the length of hospital stay and increase the hospital bill as well. It can lead to other health problems and might also lead to death. Nursing Strategies and Recommendations to Prevent Falls and Trauma There are a lot of things a nurse can do to prevent falls and trauma, after all it is a nurse’s job to help the patient feel and get better.
The fall itself causes the older adult to develop a fear of falling and impacts their everyday life. This fear could cause the individual to limit activities, which leads to lowered physical fitness. With the older adult not getting proper exercise, will in turn increase their actual risk of falling. Patient falls in hospitals will always be a major and costly problem. In 2008, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a new payment guideline on inpatient falls for Medicare to follow.
Staffing issues Sandra Terry Drexel University Critical issues facing most hospitals and long term facilities today is staffing correctly on nursing units for the number of patients and acuity of patients. What happens when the nursing units are not staffed adequately from budget cuts, illness or nursing shortage, and what can be done? When units are not properly staffed, there is an increase in mortality nurses run the risk of medication errors, missed charting, decreased patient satisfaction, and the possibility of having a hospital stay longer than necessary. These issues are usually the result of nurses unable to take the time needed to assess their patients. When there are more patients to handle than time allows nurses might take short cuts in their nursing care.
Pressure Ulcers This paper will discuss how pressure ulcers are preventable and a serious problem in our Nation’s health care facilities. It will tell what cause them, how they can be prevented, legal issues and the outcome of patient and their quality of care. The numbers of elderly people are on the rise and there are less health care workers, to help take care of these patients. Health care facility need to educate their employee to help prevent pressure ulcer, from getting worst. With the number of at risk patient getting higher, we need to put a stop to the increased number of people developing pressure ulcer in hospitals.
JCAHO's explanation states that when nurse staffing is approriate then fewer complications, fewer adverse events, shorter lengths of stay, and lower mortality are the end result (Aiken et al., 2010). Change plan The problem identified is patients have poor outcomes and higher mortality rates when nursing staff is short. To facilitate change nursing staff on hospital units must increase to promote positive outcomes, less burnout and low mortality to patients. Concerns about poor care top the list of complaints to the Patients Association’s helplines. The association says there are four types of poor care that patients and relatives continually report.
The amount of time around certain medications can cause damage to the RN'S internal organs. Because of exposure to cancer drugs RN'S are at a higher risk for miscarriages, as well as physical demands. With all these risks there is also a financial risk for RN'S. The financial risks are best known as a