Nursing and Staffing Shortages
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It is a controversial matter when it comes to determining how the shortage of nurses and staff in hospitals impact the quality of the services rendered to patients. I strongly feel that nursing and staffing shortages contribute to the poor care patients and residents receive in hospitals.
In support of my thesis argument, I picked on two recent articles supporting my argument. The articles are based on recent statistics from hospitals, especially during the global COVID-19 pandemic and how the shortage of nurses and staff impacted the quality of services rendered to patients. The articles are from credible and reliable sources.
According to the ‘New York Times’, understaffing hospitals results in the death of people. The article explains how amidst the outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta, variant health systems reached a breaking point. Besides, the article further indicates that the shortage of nurses across the United States led to a further complication of efforts in treating hospitalized coronavirus patients, leading to the more extended emergency room waiting times and rushed or inadequate care. The poor patient care results from the shortage of nurses and staffing. The tiny number available shifts their attention in attending to patients who require exacting, round-the-clock attention. The article further indicates that staffing shortage and nurses result in a hospital-wide domino effect whereby the available nurses fail to treat those who need less intensive care; hence, congestion builds in the hospitals leading to poor patient care.
Besides, Littlejohn et al. (2012) in the International Journal of Nursing indicates that a shortage of nurses results in errors, higher morbidity, and mortality rates. The author of this article further indicates that in hospitals where patients are much more than the number of nurses and staff, nurses experience burnout and dissatisfaction, and the patients experience higher mortality and failure-to-rescue r
