The Best Nurse-to-Patient Ratio for Optimal Care

The number of patients receiving services and the number of professional caregivers present determine how well the nursing fraternity functions within any healthcare system (Van den Heede et al., 2013). The nurse-to-patient ratio thus describes the registered nurses’ relationship with the patients they care for. The number of registered nurses caring for patients in a medical facility can occasionally be insufficient, which impacts the standard of medical services. Similar to how there would be more practicing nurses than patients at an institution without correct staffing protocols. As a result, the challenge for nurse leaders and management is balancing the ratio of practicing nurses and patients receiving care to achieve the best outcomes. Hospitals with a dearth of nursing staff frequently have high rates of unfavorable patient outcomes (Van den Heede et al., 2013). In order to improve the nurse/patient ratios, it would be crucial to examine the strategies employed by nurse leaders and managers when addressing the problem of nurse staffing ratios.

The discussion affirms that reaching the practitioners’ ideal staffing levels is difficult for managers and leaders, despite data confirming that healthcare facilities with few nurses record poor patient results. However, the primary job of nurse leaders and administrators continues to be accepting patient needs through the staff. Therefore, nursing leaders agree that the health industry has faced particularly challenging personnel challenges (Tubbs-Cooley, Cimiotti, Silber, Sloane, & Aiken, 2013). The leaders thus acknowledge the increased patient acuity, and the shorter hospital stays as factors in the dilemma. To put it simply, executives and managers must recognize their shared responsibility for ensuring that the healthcare system has the ideal nurse-to-patient ratio for delivering care…