Tackling the Nursing Shortage Conditions in American Hospitals: A Literature Review Research Study

As numbers of patients in hospitals across the country rise, it is causing stress in those specific hospital systems. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the beginning of the unsafe number of patients being assigned to nurses began. Many nurses have 6+ patients and have great responsibility for patients. Hospital systems are incorporating many different interventions to adequately supply their staff and avoid nurse burnout. The purpose of this research study is to 1.) analyze the nationwide shortage of nurses 2.) present the interventions that are given to nurses and lastly 3.) identify current nursing remedies to avoid burnout. Data will be collected from a literature review of 5 different literature review articles. Interventions will be analyzed by interviews with current RNs located on a clinical decision unit (CDU) in Cobb County, Georgia selected randomly. Conclusions show that the safe number of patients for one nurse in a medical-surgical floor is 4 patients to one nurse. In many hospitals now, there is a 5-6 minimum each day for these nurses. Analysis also shows that in the emergency department, the patients that have a nurse with a safe ratio are 1.5x more likely to survive an emergent event. Interventions for nurses who are experiencing an unsafe patient ratio include incentive pay for each shift that is worked with an unsafe ratio, accepting travel nurse contracts from agencies instead hospital staff, and offering a float pool option with more pay to work on any unit assigned for the day. Nurses from the CDU will give a satisfactory or unsatisfactory prompt for these interventions given to combat the issue. With the current patient load rising, The American Academy of Nursing is recommending a 7% increase in nurses by 2029 for adequate patient load. Combatting ratios is imperative for our future in healthcare