Running head: NURSE STAFFING ISSUE

Nurse Staffing Issue

Bianca Robinson
University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

In 2011, nurses from El Paso became upset due to the low nurse staffing in
hospitals. To raise awareness of this issue, these nurses protested outside of Las Palmas hospital.
The shortage of nurses in hospitals results in the patients-to-one-nurse ratio to increase. The issue
of too many patients to one nurse causes nurses to become exhausted, and also patient mortality
to increase due to poor care. Hospitals believe in saving money for other things rather than hiring
more nurses to solve this problem. Although, hospitals from California had the same issue,
Californian nurses took action to resolve the nurse staffing issue. Eventually, the state of
California passed a Nurse to Patient Ratio Law in 1999, which provided a solution to the nurse
staffing issue. Therefore, this issue in El Paso can be resolved if nurses follow the same footsteps
as the nurses from California.
Keywords: Patients-to-one-nurse Ratio, Nurses, Low Nurse Staffing, Nurse to Patient
Ratio Law, El Paso, California

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Introduction

In the hospitals in the city of El Paso, Texas, nurses are utilized to assist patients with
proper healthcare, but how can this happen if there is not a sufficient amount of nurses to give
each patient the attention they need? Most of the hospitals in El Paso have been facing this issue
of low nurse staffing. This issue came about when hospitals decided not to hire too many
nurses because they would have to spend more money. The issue of low nurse staffing has lead to
overworked nurses with too many patients and this issue has also risked the lives of patients
(Valdez, 2011). The nurse to patient ratio plays a big factor with this issue because one nurse
cannot take proper care of 8 to 10 patients in a twelve-hour shift. There has yet to be any
progress on this issue in the city of El Paso, but if the nurses from this city take the same action
as the nurses from California then there might be a change. This issue in El Paso can be resolved
by following the same procedures as the state of California.
What is the Problem?

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In 2011, angered nurses protested outside of Las Palmas hospital to raise awareness about
the nurse staffing issue to the people of El Paso and mainly to the hospitals. They bring upon this
issue to the hospitals because they have more control of making a difference and coming up with
a solution. These nurses believe that this issue is causing more patient deaths due to the poor care
patients are receiving. Therefore, these nurses from El Paso hospitals like Del Sol and Las
Palmas have been trying to resolve this issue through their public petition (Kolenc, 2011). This
issue has caused nurses to become exhausted and unable to provide quality care. A nurse from
Providence named Jessica stated, I constantly complained to my Fianc about how tired I was
after coming home from work because of the amount of patients I had to take care of in just one
shift, and she also said, Usually six patients was our max for the medical/surgical floor, but
when there was not enough nurses wed have up to eight patients and that was so tiring and also
dangerous for the patient. Jessica believes action should be taken to find a solution to this
problem because patients are facing life-threatening risk due to low nurse staffing (2016).

Figure 1 "Nursing shortages make it hard to fight emerging infections"

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This issue affects both nurses and patients. Therefore, more nurses are needed to give
each patient the proper care they need, but having more nurses calls for hospitals to spend more
money (Rothberg & Lindenauer, 2005). It was shown in a study at a hospital, that having eight
patients per nurse benefits hospitals because they spend less money on nurses, but at the same
time hospitals experience more patient deaths. Rather than having a ratio of eight patients to one
nurse they experimented with four patients to one nurse. This ratio was more expensive for
hospitals since they did have to pay for more nurses,

Figure 2 Safe Ratio Save Lives.

but it did decrease the amount of deaths in hospitals. The ratio of four patients to one nurse had a
better outcome with patients because their stay at the hospital was shortened and they received
the attention they needed. Therefore, this is an issue because there are hospitals trying to save
money rather than pay more nurses to solve the problem (Mark & Harless, 2007).
How Has This Problem Been Resolved?
Although this problem in El Paso has yet to be resolved, the same issue in the state of
California has been resolved. The result of the problem of low nurse staffing usually results in an
increase of patients to one nurse. This issue in California called for nurses to stand up and fight
for better nurse to patient ratios (Nurses, 2014). Around the 1990s, nurses began to protest for
more appropriate nurse to patient ratios because nurses began to realize an increase in patient
deaths, and they could not bear with the idea of it possibly being their fault. Nurses at the time
were taking care about ten patients at one time and sometimes the care given to these patients

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was not enough for patients to overcome illnesses. Like nurse Zita Ibrahim said, We dont even
know whether weve done everything correctly and thoroughly with our patient because of the
number of patients, shows that with a high nurse to patient ratio nurses are not performing their
best care to the best of their abilities (Nurses). Therefore, nurses from California tried many
things to attract attention to this issue like, striking, lobbying, public awareness campaigns, but
none of that seemed to work. This issue wasnt resolved until nurses brought got the attention of
legislatures to make a law that prevents this issue from happening. After the continuous fight
from nurses in California, Governor Gray Davis had finally signed a Nurse to Patient Ratio law
in 1999 for the state of California. On the other hand, a study that was formed from hospitals
from California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania helped form another solution to nurse staffing. In
this study they assigned two less patients to one nurse, which allowed the nurses to work more
effectively. By lowering the amount of patients assigned to one nurse it resulted in better patient
care and the mortality rate had decreased. This small fixture made a difference with patients and
also with nurses because they werent as exhausted. These two simple examples can make a
difference with the staffing issue in the city of El Paso.
How can the city of El Paso make a difference?
The city of El Paso can resolve the problem of nurse staffing issues by following the
same procedures as the state of California. If all the nurses from each hospital like Del Sol, Las
Palmas, Providence, Thomason, and plus all the other hospitals gathered together and fought as
hard as the nurses from California, then a change can be made on this issue. Simply by lobbying
and making public awareness campaigns these nurse can make a change just by educating the
public of El Paso. El Paso is way smaller than compared to the whole state of California.
Therefore, attracting awareness to this issue can be easily spread across the city since it is a lot

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smaller. If the issue of nurse staffing in El Paso was more publicized then more people would be
involved and there would be a better chance of a solution to this issue. If the public of El Paso
understood the effects of low nurse staffing they would fight for a change. The reason the people
of El Paso would fight for a change would be because they would not want their loved ones to be
apart of the mortality rate due to low nurse staffing. That being the case, the city of El Paso may
be pushed to make a law just like the state of Californias. This issue can also be resolved in
hospitals in El Paso just by decreasing the amount of patients to one nurse. Simply by doing this
patients will receive better care and nurses will experience a better working environment. In the
end, the issue of nurse staffing in El Paso can be resolved simply by following the same footsteps
as the state of California.

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References

Aiken, L. H., & Sloane, D. M. (2010, April 9). Implications of the California Nurse Staffing
Mandate for Other States. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2010.01114.x/full
Kolenc, V. (2011, August 18). Demonstration draws attention to staffing problems at hospital.
Retrieved from http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/news/entry/demonstration-drawsattention-to-staffing-problems-at-hospital/
Lowrie, L. [Untitled photograph of stressed nurse]. Retrieved November 6, 2016
from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ethics-legal-issues-nurse-staffing-76772.html
Mark, B., & Harless, D. (2007). Nurse Staffing, Mortality, and Length of Stay in For- Profit and
Not-for-Profit Hospitals. Inquiry, 44(2), 167-186. Retrieved from the JSTOR database.
Nurse Staffing Issue [Personal interview]. (2016, October 19).
Nurses United, N. (2014, September 23). Celebrate 15 Years of Californias Nurse to Patient
Ratios! [Video blog post]. Retrieved from
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/celebrate-15-years-of-californias-nurseto-patient-ratios/
Rothberg, M., Abraham, I., Lindenauer, P., & Rose, D. (2005). Improving Nurse-to-Patient
Staffing Ratios as a Cost-Effective Safety Intervention. Medical Care, 43(8), 785-791.
Retrieved from http://0-www.jstor.org.lib.utep.edu/stable/3768296
Sharon, T. A. [Untitled illustration of nurse to patient ratios]. Retrieved November 6, 2016
from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/universal-hospital-mistakes-dangerous-ratiosthomas-a-

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Valdez, D. W. (2011, December 22). Group says El Pasos nurse-patient ratios inadequate.
Retrieved October 15, 2016, from https://nursingtrends.wordpress.com/tag/nurse-topatient-ratio/