Essay Example on NICU Nurses: Exhaustion, Understaffing, & Patient Safety

In this interactive case study, the NICU nurses are worried about the extra shifts which have persisted for one month leading to them being more tired. Consequently, the nurses are requesting a swift intervention through the employment of new nurses to enable them to acquire some days off. Furthermore, the nurses are concerned about hurting their patients through the making of significant medical errors as a result of understaffing and exhaustion. The interactive case study has elucidated on numerous issues that I have interacted with through interviews with experienced nurses and research on nursing issues.

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I firmly believe that the case study might have originated from any other state but not California; this is based on a nursing interview with my nurse sister. My sister has worked as a NICU RN for close eight years now. Furthermore, she has worked in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, and New York. According to her experience, the nursing shortage has been a problem, particularly in the ICUs, where a single nurse is expected to attend to two patients. Moreover, she stated that out of all the states, only California scheduled mandatory meals and rest breaks.

Furthermore, according to my sister, her schedule has always been tight, making it impossible for her to break before the end of her shift since there were no extra nurses. Nonetheless, her shifts were initially scheduled for 12hours but resulted in 14hours due to a lack of nurses. As a result, she always experienced exhaustion during the work hours; she specifically recalled an instance when she almost committed a medication error as her blood sugar dropped low due to fatigue. However, working in California made her feel relieved as nurses were adequate, allowing for proper observation of shifts. Nevertheless, the mandatory breaks dramatically helped in relieving stress as she could often go for vacations.

Moreover, I found this interactive case as more helpful in supporting the claim that all states need to have mandatory nurse staffing ratios. For instance, staffing of 6 patients to a single nurse instead of 4 patients might lead to death tolls significantly rising from 2.3 per 1,000 patients to 8.7 deaths per 1,000 patients (Glette et al., 2017). Also, staffing of 8 patients to one nurse instead of 6 would result in the patients' death sharply rising from 2.6 death per 1000 patients to 9.5 deaths per 1,000 patients. Based on these statistics, the probability of a patient dying in 30 days after admission was as high as 31% (Glette et al., 2017).

Californian has registered the minimum ratio of qualified nurse to patient provision necessary in the coronary and intensive care units for over three decades. However, there were minimal provisions for the remaining acute care units. Due to the developing pressure emanating from the nursing unions within the state, several reports by the press concerning low-quality care, and growing cases of patient loads for qualified nurses within the acute care (Glette et al., 2017). California becomes the first state in the United States of America to implement rules regarding mandatory staffing ratios.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the interactive case study is crucial, particularly in relating the problems experienced by the nurses to other several nurses within the states. Furthermore, the leading cause of the problems experienced by the nurses is due to the understaffing of the nurses resulting in demanding patient to nurse ratios. As a result, nurses often commit severe medication errors due to exhaustion.

References

Glette, M. K., Aase, K., & Wiig, S. (2017). The relationship between understaffing of nurses and patient safety in hospitals-A literature review with thematic analysis. Retrieved from https://uis.brage.unit.no/