Nurse Staffing (2024)

FAQs

What is nurse staffing? ›

Safe nurse staffing means that an appropriate number of nurses is available at all times across the continuum of care, with a suitable mix of education, skills and experience to ensure that patient care needs are met and that the working environment and conditions support staff to deliver quality care.

Cost-cutting decisions, an aging population, increased patient complexity and need, and an aging workforce all contribute to the current nurse staffing crisis that is negatively affecting nurses' mental health and well-being.

Some research suggests that working more than 40 hours per week and working longer shifts are strongly correlated to increased reports of burnout. Many nurses have experienced verbal abuse from patients and dont feel safe anymore at work. All of these factors can lead to nurse burnout and unhappy nurses.

The “nursing shortage is real,” Tenet Healthcare executive chairman Ron Rittenmeyer said in a radio interview in early 2022, blaming it on nurses leaving staff positions for lucrative travel jobs, nurses contracting Covid-19, and not enough support for nursing education.

Generally, the average nurse-to-patient ratio recommendation is one nurse to every four patients. However, according to a National Nurses United report, there are currently no federal mandates regulating the number of patients a registered nurse (RN) can care for at one time.

Nurse staffing decisions are based on the number and needs of the individual healthcare consumer, families, groups, communities, and populations served.

Unsafe Staffing Ratios Are Just Part of the Problem

Not getting equal pay for equal experience. Not receiving hazard pay during a pandemic. Not having adequate back up. An inability to take breaks, sick days, or even turn down extra shifts.

Like with more advanced nurses, common causes for leaving include stressful working conditions, lack of leadership and supervision, and understaffed facilities. Those factors get amplified for nurses still familiarizing themselves with the demands of the job.

One of the key drivers of burnout for nurses is the chronic stress caused by patient overload — when a single nurse has so many patients on a shift they are unable to deliver all the required care or effectively perform the patient surveillance required to maintain optimal patient outcomes.

Nurses are one of the least happy careers in the United States. At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, nurses rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 13% of careers.

What percent of nurses are unhappy? ›

In our sample, 91.1% of nurses experienced high levels of burnout, while the respective percentage for the other HCWs was 79.9%. Nurses' satisfaction was lower than other HCWs. In particular, 61.0% of nurses experienced low levels of satisfaction, while the respective percentage for the other HCWs was 38.8%.

Nursing is, unquestionably, a very high-stress environment. Although most nurses know right off the bat what they're getting themselves into and are aware that nursing has its challenges, sometimes just how stressful being an RN can get takes a lot of professionals by surprise.

1. California

The state's diverse, growing, and aging population, coupled with increased emphasis on preventative care and community health, and commitment to innovative healthcare have all resulted in the increased need for nurses to deliver quality care to all.

Looking to the future, the size of the FTE RN workforce is projected to grow substantially, from 3.35 million in 2018 to 4.54 million in 2030, enough to replace all the baby boom RNs who will retire over the decade.

California tops the list with an estimated 44,500 deficit in registered nurses, nearly three times the deficit in the next shortest state.

Understanding Healthcare Staffing. Healthcare staffing refers to the process of hiring and managing healthcare professionals to ensure that healthcare facilities have adequate staffing levels to deliver patient care effectively.

There are three staffing models and they are typically used in combination to fit a unit's particular dynamics. The three models are: budget-based staffing; nurse-patient ratio staffing; and patient acuity staffing.

High Nurse-to-Patient Ratios

Staffing ratios can vary by department and setting. This can lead to worse patient outcomes, increased job dissatisfaction, and burnout. It can also have other ramifications, such as a nurse losing their license due to medical errors.

Nurse staffing ratios are the maximum number of patients a nurse can be responsible for in a shift. Setting a nursing workload is complicated and depends on many variables in a dynamic healthcare setting.