Healthcare Streamlining

Healthcare Streamlining: The Need for Increasing Nurse Staffing as a Means of Improving Patient Outcomes
Name
Institution
Healthcare Streamlining: The Need for Increasing Nurse Staffing as a Means of Improving Patient Outcomes
Introduction
Access to affordable healthcare is what is usually considered when assessing the reliability and value of a healthcare system. Not surprisingly, most social, economic, and political policies tend to focus on making healthcare accessible to as many people as possible, especially among the middle and lower class families. In the U.S., for instance, the Obama administration, through the National Health Care Act, intends to expand healthcare access to majority of Americans through affordable insurance policies. In the quest to achieve affordable health care, however, it is easy to forget, as is often the case, a very important aspect of healthcare delivery; quality of care. Most people are not concerned about the quality of healthcare services they receive, as long as they are able to access it when they need. This is understandable given the harsh economic times that many families today are contending with, more so after the recent economic meltdown whose effects are still visible across many industry sectors. Regardless, receiving quality healthcare is as important as being able to access it. This is because healthcare delivery is a result-oriented service, in which patient outcome is the point of focus. Access to healthcare is meaningful only when the patient receives adequate and effective treatment to improve their health. In this regard, promoting quality care is a factor that policy makers and health institutions should consider when implementing policies related to patient care.
Nevertheless, the role of nurse staffing in promoting quality care is commonly overlooked due to its implications on cost (Lorh, Yordy, & Thier, 1988). While it’s undeniable that increasing the ratio of physicians to patients will improve service delivery, this approach is usually put aside because it means spending more. Healthcare providers, managers and policy makers attempt to compensate for this problem through cheaper alternatives, such as managing the available nursing staff effectively. Through a review of the literature, this paper examines the importance of sufficient nursing staff in improving the quality of care and patient outcome. It argues that increasing the level of staffing of nurses informed at policy level for patients that have inadequate and unsafe nurse staffing levels decreases negative health outcomes, compared to better management of existing staff.
Discussion
The fact that there is a shortage of nurses in America’s healthcare sector is an issue of serious concern that needs to be addressed urgently. A sufficient nurse workforce is necessary to over Americans better healthcare services. Following the legislation of various laws aimed at making healthcare affor...