1 hour to go: You’re looking forward for the end of shift when your supervisor called you. You have to extend your duty for the next 8 hours!

Reason? Staffing issues. The never-ending shortage of nurses just never get resolved!

Staffing and scheduling problems has always been a hot topic – even to the best hospitals. What more to those who haven’t employed enough nurses to fill every shift?

Nurses comprise the largest number of healthcare personnel in a medical institution. In countries like the U.S.A., staff nurses receive an average annual pay of  $68,450, which is actually high as compared to other countries. As a consequence, administrators would resort in decreasing the number of hired nursing personnel to minimize hospital expenses.

On the other hand, there are countries where nurses receive a salary of as little as 160-180 USD a month. Not to mention the non-existent security of tenure as most of their nurses are hired on basis of contract of service. Basically, with that very minimal wage, that would have been compensated by hiring a sufficient number of nurses to work for the institution. Fret, because they do suffer from shortage of nurses as well! Can you imagine how these nurses endure minimal income and over work? Read on Why Filipino Nurses are In-Demand Abroad

Further, studies have shown that inadequate nurse staff affects patients negatively. In fact, a research made my M. Stanton showed that hospitals with low nurse staffing levels tend to have higher rates of poor patient outcomes such as pneumonia, shock, cardiac arrest, and urinary tract infections.

Here are some of the YouTube videos regarding Nurse Staff Insufficiencies

The effects are not surprising. How can an institution in a certain country with a Nurse-Patient ratio of 1:50 provide the best care possible to their patients?

 

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References:

• Hospital Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care
• PayScale