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Nurses everywhere rank staffing as their biggest problem. Research shows it is a problem – for patients: Insufficient nurse staffing is linked with poorer patient outcomes, lengthened hospital stays and increased chance of patient death.
ANA’s Solution to Staffing
ANA advocates solving the problem by requiring hospitals to set nurse staffing plans for each hospital unit based on changing conditions:
This approach is the foundation of the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2010 (S. 3491/ H.R. 5527), which empowers direct care nurses to contribute to staffing plan development through hospital staffing committees. Seven states have passed nurse safe staffing laws that mirror ANA's approach.
It is flexible, encouraging adjustments as conditions on a hospital unit change. In that way, it differs from a more rigid, mandatory nurse-to-patient ratio strategy.
Nurse (Dis)satisfaction
Insufficient staffing not only is a poor prognosis for patients. Studies conclude that insufficient staffing causes nurse burnout, job dissatisfaction and turnover, diminishing patient satisfaction and hospitals’ bottom lines.
Nurses owe it to their patients, the U.S. health care system and themselves to heighten urgency and awareness around safe staffing.
ANA encourages nurses to join this advocacy effort to inform legislators, health care administrators and the public that the current trend – nurses working longer shifts to care for larger numbers of sicker patients, with decreased support staffs – is not acceptable.