The paper must be typed in 7th edition APA format with a minimum of 1000 words (excluding first and references page) with a minimum of 4 evidence-based references. Make sure references are used according to APA guidelines and electronic references must be from reliable sources.Do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns.Good luck!Professor Curbelo.
Research Paper:
The number of clients a nurse is assigned to care for (also known as staffing ratio) has been atopic for conversation between managers and staff for a long time. With union help, nurses in New York were among the first to develop staffing guidelines with both managers and staff nurses present for the negotiation. Nurses complained that client acuity was not being considered in the current staffing structure, and managers argued that other factors such as no-shows and float nurses who did not want higher acuity work contributed to the problem. Discussions took place several times a month over approximately 4 months, and a professional facilitator was present to keep the discussion moving in the right direction and to ensure everyone adhered to the agenda and rules laid out for the discussion. Jeri, a nurse on the medical/surgical unit,complained of the rising acuity level of the clients, the increasing number of ventilated clients,and an increase in clients requiring the services of an interpreter as occurrences that make it difficult to care for clients. The hospital chief nursing officer stated that this situation exists on all the floors and asked what could be done to manage current staffing. Remember the New York nurses and managers that met to discuss staffing ratios with assistance of a facilitator? They continued to meet about twice monthly for 4 months to discuss factors that impact staffing and work toward a mutually agreed upon staffing ratio. There were many differing opinions expressed during those meetings.After several months of bargaining with the help of a facilitator, staffing ratios were establishedat 14 hospitals belonging to the same local chapter of the union. The first group to meetestablished a pattern that other hospitals were able to emulate at each individual facility. Whilestaffing ratios were not identical, they applied the guidelines that were developed to the individual circumstances of each facility.
QUESTIONS:
1. Do you support the concept of nurses becoming members of unions? Why or why not?
2. Do you believe that all employees should be required to pay membership fees if a facilityhas a union?
3. What staffing ratio concerns have you seen at your job or in clinical rotations?
4. List the advantages and disadvantages of union membership
5. What factors do you think should be considered when establishing staffing ratios?
6. If organizations are required to adopt staffing ratios, which result in an increase in nursingcosts, what do you think could happen?
7. Would you like to work in a state with a union that has negotiated mandatory staffingratios? Why or why not?
