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Advocacy Methods Memo: The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015
Samantha J. Hasenzahl
Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing
Patients exposed to understaffed shifts are at increased risks for surgical wound
infections, urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers, pneumonia, deep vein thrombosis,
upper gastrointestinal bleeds, sepsis, and physiological metabolic derangement (Twigg,
Geler, & Myers, 2015).
When there are nurse shortages there is an increased in missed nursing care. Adequate
staffing is required to improve patient outcomes (Cho, Kim, Yeon, You, & Lee, 2015).
It has been estimated that increasing the number of registered nurses could save close to
$3 billion in cost related to adverse patient events (Needleman, Buerhaus, Pankratz,
Leibson, Stevens, & Harris, 2011).
Recommendation: Voting in favor of this bill will help nurses advocate for better patient and
self-care. Ensuring appropriate nurse to patient ratios will not only improve the quality of care
patients receive, but will also save money as patients will have shorter hospital stays and
decrease the risk for secondary/hospital acquired problems. Direct care nurses know what they
need in order to provide excellent care and this bill gives them the power/voice to secure
appropriate staffing needs.
Patients that are subjected to understaffing are at an increased risk for missed nursing care and
negative health outcomes. Would you want to go to the hospital only to become sicker because
there was not enough staff there to take care of you?
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References
Cho, S.H., Kim, Y.S., Yeon, K.N., You, S.J., & Lee, I.D. (2015). Effects of increasing nurse
staffing on missed nursing care. International Nursing Review, 62(2), 267-274. doi:
10.1111/inr.12173
Needleman, J., Buerhaus, P., Pankratz, V.S., Leibson, C.L., Stevens, M.S., & Harris, M. (2011).
Nurse staffing and inpatient hospital mortality. The New England Journal of Medicine,
364(11), 1037-1045. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1001025
Twigg, D.E., Gelder, L., & Myers, H. (2015). The impact of understaffed shifts on nursesensitive outcomes. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(7), 1564-1572. doi:
10.1111/jan.12616