Nurse Staffing Issue

Bianca Robinson

University of Texas at El Paso

Aiken, L. H., & Sloane, D. M. (2010, April 9). Implications of the California Nurse Staffing

Mandate for Other States. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2010.01114.x/full

In this article a study was done in 2006 over nurse staffing in hospitals from California,

Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. They explored how the nurse to patient ratio affected the

amount of patient deaths. This was due to the amount of work each nurse had to

undertake. Therefore, the nurses in California were assigned two less patients this led to

better care of the patients and the mortality rate was lowered. The issue of nurse staffing

was resolved by addressing less patients to one nurse. I can use this article because it

provides a solution to the nurse staffing issue.

Kolenc, V. (2011, August 18). Demonstration draws attention to staffing problems at hospital.

Retrieved from http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/news/entry/demonstration-draws-

attention-to-staffing-problems-at-hospital/

In this article, nurses from El Paso are mad about the fact that hospitals havent made an

effort to fix the issue on the low nurse staffing. Therefore, nurses stood outside Las

Palmas hospital to bring attention to this issue that has been ignored for a while. These

nurses tried to attract the attention from the hospital administrators to fix this issue. I will

use this article because it will help me explain the anger that these nurses are feeling and

how they are tired being ignored. I will also use this article to explain whom the targeted

audience is to fix this issue.

Mark, B., & Harless, D. (2007). Nurse Staffing, Mortality, and Length of Stay in For- Profit and

Not-for-Profit Hospitals. Inquiry, 44(2), 167-186. Retrieved from the JSTOR database.
 In this article it is stated that around the 1990s in order for hospitals to make more

money they demanded for less nurses. Low nurse staffing not only causes patients to die,

but also for the patients to stay longer at hospitals. In conclusion they realized the less

nurses there is the quality of care also drops. I will use this article to explain why some

hospitals like El Paso hospitals are dealing with the issue of nurse staffing. The reason

behind this is because some hospitals do not want to waste money on paying for more

nurses.

Nurse Staffing Issue [Personal interview]. (2016, October 19).

In this Personal Interview I spoke to Jessica Acosta. She was a nurse at Providence that

experienced the workload of too many patients assigned to one nurse. Jessica also stated

that it was very hard for her to keep up with so many patients, and how burnt out she felt.

She went on to explain how exhausting it was for her and how unfair it was for the

patients because they did not receive the care they deserved, but it was only because

nurses were over worked. She believed that if they lowered the amount of patients to one

nurse then the outcomes of both patients and nurses would be so much better. This

interview will be used to give an inside look at what most nurses in El Paso are feeling,

and how it is effecting their lives as well.

Nurses United, N. (2014, September 23). Celebrate 15 Years of Californias Nurse to Patient

Ratios! [Video blog post]. Retrieved from

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/celebrate-15-years-of-californias-nurse-

to-patient-ratios/

In this video blog, it is seen how the nurses in California fought to make a change with

the nurse to patient ratio. In 1999, California passed a patient ratio law, which meant that
 it was against the law to give too many patients to one nurse. California has been the only

state in the United States of America to have a patient ratios law. This law had a good

outcome with patients because they received better care from nurses, and also nurses had

a better working experience. This video blog will be used to show how the state of Texas

should pass a law like Californias to improve the issue of nurse staffing in El Paso. This

video blog provides a solution to the issue of nurse staffing.

Rothberg, M., Abraham, I., Lindenauer, P., & Rose, D. (2005). Improving Nurse-to-Patient

Staffing Ratios as a Cost-Effective Safety Intervention. Medical Care, 43(8), 785-791.

Retrieved from http://0-www.jstor.org.lib.utep.edu/stable/3768296

The research done in this article was to examine the cost due to nurse staffing. When the

amount of patients to one nurse was decreased the amount of deaths also decreased, but

that was more expensive for hospitals because they had to pay more nurses for their

work. When the amount of patients to one nurse was increased more deaths occurred, but

hospitals did save more money. This article is useful to the issue of nurse staffing because

it provides evidence as to why hospitals dont just hire more nurses to prevent this issue.

Valdez, D. W. (2011, December 22). Group says El Pasos nurse-patient ratios inadequate.

Retrieved October 15, 2016, from https://nursingtrends.wordpress.com/tag/nurse-to-

patient-ratio/

In this website it is told that El Paso nurses are going against the hospitals such as Del

Sol and Las Palmas due to the low staffing. They believe that these hospitals are putting

their patients at risk. They only hope that El Paso will make a difference with nurse

staffing just like the state of California did. I will be using this article to support my issue
 of the low nurse staffing in El Paso hospitals because it provides how nurses need help

and to spread awareness of this issue.

Welton, J. (2010). Response to Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care With Direct Measurement of

Inpatient Staffing. Medical Care, 48(10), 940-940. Retrieved from http://0-

www.jstor.org.lib.utep.edu/stable/25750581

This article is a response to an article by Harless and Mark, which stated that the cause to

patient mortality is due to the cause of low nurse staffing, but in this article by Welton, it

gives a different view on the nurse staffing issue. Is it really the issue on low nurse to

patient ratio that is causing the deaths of patients? Or is the issue of nurse staffing being

used to as an excuse for the amount of deaths of patients? This article is important to the

issue of nurse staffing because it give a different view on this issue. Therefore, Ill use

this article to give a different perspective on nurse staffing.