RecommendationS for policy revision or replacement
In order to enable nurses within the healthcare organization, nurse management staffing committee should be established and staffing reports should be publicly available to promote transparency in operations. Nursing staffing act should be revised by focusing on flexible staffing plans and excluding the provision of mandatory fixed nurse to patient ratios. According to a report by Safe Nurse Staffing (2009), staffing should extend beyond quantitative numbers and incorporate qualitative factors such as patient diagnosis, unit census, experience of the nursing staff and the support staff. Also, employees should be a well mixture of personnel’s with appropriate training and experience. Further, the staffing committee should also focus on ways of providing favorable working conditions and higher wages and benefits to nurses to prevent staff turnover. Hence, it can be concluded that nurses should be observed as a valuable skill to healthcare instead of a fixed cost and should be involved in collaboration with the healthcare organizations in order to solve the crisis of nursing shortage and staffing.
Safe Nurse Staffing (2009). Vantage Point, 4. Retrieved from: http://www.nso.com/pdfs/db/newsletters/Safe_Nurse_Staffing_-_Looking_Beyond_the_Raw_Numbers_2009-4.pdf?fileName=Safe_Nurse_Staffing_-_Looking_Beyond_the_Raw_Numbers_2009-4.pdf&folder=pdfs/db/newsletters&isLiveStr=Y
Safe Nurse Staffing (2009). Vantage Point, 4. Retrieved from: http://www.nso.com/pdfs/db/newsletters/Safe_Nurse_Staffing_-_Looking_Beyond_the_Raw_Numbers_2009-4.pdf?fileName=Safe_Nurse_Staffing_-_Looking_Beyond_the_Raw_Numbers_2009-4.pdf&folder=pdfs/db/newsletters&isLiveStr=Y