Understaffing: the Importance of Strategic Hrm in Improving Patient Outcomes
Understaffing: The Importance of Strategic HRM in Improving Patient Outcomes
C. Haddock
It is not uncommon to find the phrase “quality care” incorporated into most hospital mission, visions or value statements. This idea is ingrained into their cultures and is the idea upon which the foundation of most healthcare organizations is built. Neither is it uncommon to find the problem of registered nurse (RN) understaffing permeating these organizations and jeopardizing the health and safety of thousands of patients each year.
Hospitals are in fierce competition with one another and other healthcare providers to attract and retain nurses during a time when this country is facing a nursing shortage of almost epidemic proportions. In the year 2005, the United States had an estimated 126,000 unfilled nursing jobs. That number is expected to reach 400,000 by the year 2020. Although these jobs are going unfilled, people continue to require medical attention and as a result registered nurses are forced to care for an increasing number of patients at one time. Increased workloads lead to career dissatisfaction and burnout further aggravating the problems caused by understaffing and the resultant high patient to nurse (PTN) ratios (Rothberg, Abraham, Lindenauer & Rose, 2005). Safe patient to nurse ratios improve patient outcomes and ensure the provision of quality care in healthcare organizations. The value of planned human resource activities designed to help organizations recruit and retain a sufficient number of nurses to meet quality assurance goals cannot be ignored. Nurses nationwide seem to share the common belief that hospital nurse staffing levels are usually inadequate to ensure safe and effective care for patients. Registered nurses report that they’re spending less time taking care of increasingly sick patients and as a result safety and quality care are suffering. Their belief is
C. Haddock
It is not uncommon to find the phrase “quality care” incorporated into most hospital mission, visions or value statements. This idea is ingrained into their cultures and is the idea upon which the foundation of most healthcare organizations is built. Neither is it uncommon to find the problem of registered nurse (RN) understaffing permeating these organizations and jeopardizing the health and safety of thousands of patients each year.
Hospitals are in fierce competition with one another and other healthcare providers to attract and retain nurses during a time when this country is facing a nursing shortage of almost epidemic proportions. In the year 2005, the United States had an estimated 126,000 unfilled nursing jobs. That number is expected to reach 400,000 by the year 2020. Although these jobs are going unfilled, people continue to require medical attention and as a result registered nurses are forced to care for an increasing number of patients at one time. Increased workloads lead to career dissatisfaction and burnout further aggravating the problems caused by understaffing and the resultant high patient to nurse (PTN) ratios (Rothberg, Abraham, Lindenauer & Rose, 2005). Safe patient to nurse ratios improve patient outcomes and ensure the provision of quality care in healthcare organizations. The value of planned human resource activities designed to help organizations recruit and retain a sufficient number of nurses to meet quality assurance goals cannot be ignored. Nurses nationwide seem to share the common belief that hospital nurse staffing levels are usually inadequate to ensure safe and effective care for patients. Registered nurses report that they’re spending less time taking care of increasingly sick patients and as a result safety and quality care are suffering. Their belief is