Focus should be placed on whether one nurse can cater to a smaller number of patients, hence. providing all the necessary attention and care needed (Aiken et al., 2008). This may work toward ensuring that the emotional stability of both the patient and nurse is maintained. This paper will examine how such a revision may guarantee proper functioning of the nursing fraternity in terms of provision of care, and how this might increase satisfaction among the nurses and patients.
It is clear from different books and articles present that the issue of mandatory nurse to patient staffing ratios is not new to the healthcare system. This debate probably goes back a decade before significant change, some of which can now be seen, could be made in the present day healthcare field. In 1999, a bill was passed into law by Gray Davis who was the Governor of California, which established that health services in the state needed to adopt regulations on minimum nurse to patient ratio staffing. This came after growing concern on the safety of the patients in the care of different health facilities. Assembly bill 394 was aimed at improving the quality of care, and the safety of patients. It also tried to reduce the nurse to patient ratios that existed at the time, which were associated with negative outcomes among the patients and loss of nurses (Sloan & Chee-Ruey, 2012).
According to Aiken et al., different aspects of the nurse to patient staffing ratios led to higher patient mortality, nurse dissatisfaction, and even medical errors. This was in an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Furthermore, nurses who happen to care for a significantly larger number of patients tend to be overworked and may fall short of what is expected of them in their respective healthcare facilities. In my opinion, Staffing, often seen as a structural function, is crucial in determining patient outcomes, and thus.