Business Plan Improving Nurse to Patient Ratio

Improving Nurse to Patient Ratio Author's Name Institutional Affiliation Improving Nurse to Patient Ratio Executive Summary This is the value enhancement project that will focus on improved quality of care from nurses through revised nurse-to-patient ratio (NPR). By providing better NPR, the hospital will not only improve its staff turnover, but it will also build its relations with its primary customers, or patients. There are various stakeholders who will be affected by this project, including nurses, patients, hospital and departmental administration, and union. The hospital will effectively reduce the staffing costs in the long run by decreasing the costs related to high turnover and staff absenteeism. Value Proposition Like most other professionals who serve health sector, the members of the nursing profession also experience frequent burnout, undergo emotional labor, and have to deal with traumatic experiences of witnessing death and pain in fellow human beings on regular basis. This stress often leads to long-term physical ailments of the staff, increased turnaround, and, in some cases, negligence of duties towards patients. There is no denying that such nursing negligence can lead to severe consequences for the involved patient. Although nurses are helped in these stressful conditions by their training to manage their physical and mental health before looking after their patients, a lower nurse to patient ratio is bound to negatively impact their satisfaction from the job by impacting their ability to apply this training. In the end, such practices harm the interests of the sole stakeholders for whose service the whole system is designed; the patient. There are various customers who will benefit from an increase in a nurse to patient ratio. Customers other than nurses and patients include administration, doctors, and all hospital staff. The stakes of these stakeholders are discussed below. Patients: They often experience less attention to their condition and decrease in empathy. In extreme cases, they have to experience physical harms because of nursing negligence. Nurses: Nurses are the primary customers who are suffering because of the low nurse to patient ratio. In addition to increased physical and emotional stress from this excessive workload, they also face the threat of job loss and criminal charges of malpractice and negligence. Doctors: Physical and emotional stress from nurses also add to the emotional labor of doctors who may have to deal with a hostile staff member or fails to attain required information about the patient. Administration and other hospital staff: Frequent turnovers, high volume of customer complaints, and lack of cooperation from the nurses are a few problems to list. Literature Review Nurse to patient ratio (NPR) has a strong influence over the quality of care a healthcare setting can provide. Understaffing not only harm the interests of staff but also negatively impact the patients and puts the avoidable burden on the whole department. Various outcomes that are associated with the high patient to nurse ratio include poor patient education, improper documentation of drugs and vital signs, lower patient satisfaction, among other patient-related factors. A number of patient per nurse is ...