Rates and Inpatient Nursing Care - Essay Example

"Rates and Inpatient Nursing Care" is a great example of a paper on care. The health care systems in most first world countries are changing. However, many critics are quick to point out that most of the reforms taking place are not out to benefit people. The laws surrounding the nursing fraternity are marred by many issues. Recently, a law in California caused a stir among the nurses and labor unions over some of the requirements in their working environment. The issue of the nurse-to-patient ratios, thought to improve patient health care, is a problem many caregivers are coming to terms within health care. Workforce stability and staffing morale are among the reasons why this law came into place(Welton&Harris, 2007). However, the nurses claim that the reduced number of patients assigned to nurses saved more lives. This is all that matters to them as caregivers, and the addition of patients to all nurses would be strenuous. This paper will examine the issues surrounding nurse-to-patient ratios and their effect on health care.

            nurse-to-patient ratios require that nurses have a maximum number of patients in their care. This is one of the most pressing issues that surround nurses at the moment. The actual ratio of nurses-to-patient is 1:5. One nurse is responsible for at least five patients. Legitimate complaints arise about the working environment nurses are subjected to on a daily basis(Welton&Harris, 2007). The policymakers that made such a decision thought it wise to have it this way so as to cut on costs. No sum of cash can be equated with the lives of patients. This is what nurses are against.

            Regulations such as this one do not provide a positive working environment for anyone. Many people believe that nurses are the most undervalued workers in the health care system. To prevent the increasing patient mortality rate in the health care environment, policymakers need to evaluate their decision-making procedures and uphold the rights of their workers. There are more controversial aspects of the nursing career, which affect everyone around this public sector. One of the issues they face is the cut-backs the fraternity is going through at the moment. Nurses live with the constant fear of these cut-backs and are afraid to speak against the problems they face (Welton&Harris, 2007). Administrators are facing the same problem with demands to increase the working salary of the nurses coming up every day. This is the same as nurses losing their economic independence.

Editorial summary

            There is no way that legislated mandated nurse-to-patient ratios can be appropriated as an exceptional means of addressing nursing workload. Nurses still feel the pressure of these workloads. They do most of the work under doctors and still get undervalued by the same doctors. To assume that the ratios mandated among nurses is a step in the right direction would be wrong. There needs to be sufficient evidence to support the direct impact of these ratios in health care organizations. One issue that may arise with such legislation in place is the creation of an unfunded mandate(Welton, 2007). The system currently in place focuses on paying nurses a fixed amount of capital. The mandates in place can cause a problem because regardless of the number of patients a nurse cares for; they still get paid the same amount of money.

            In conclusion, the issues presently need working on to prevent nurses from lacking the morale to pursue their careers. Nurses are a fundamental fragment of the health care system, and it may take some time before amicable solutions are arrived at to prevent their dissatisfaction (Welton, 2007). This ensures satisfaction from all the parties involved and the system in the long run.

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