The Global Issue of Care Staff Ratio in Nursing Homes: An Analysis

This report examines the critical global issue of the decreasing care staff ratio in nursing homes. It highlights the negative impacts of staff shortages, including compromised patient care and increased pressure on existing staff, leading to potential health risks and burnout. The report discusses the financial constraints of healthcare sectors, the need for increased government and stakeholder funding, and the societal perception of nursing as a profession. Proposed solutions include increased recruitment efforts, promotion of nursing education, improved nurse compensation packages, and the equitable distribution of workloads. The report also emphasizes the importance of addressing poor working conditions, including inadequate facilities and a lack of health-related securities for staff. The overall aim is to advocate for strategies that improve care staff ratios to ensure better patient outcomes and a more sustainable healthcare environment. The report uses supporting references to back up the claims.

Running head: CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD
Change in the global world
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD
Care staff ratio in Nursing Home
Shortage of staff is a global problem in the current world. The most highlighted global
issue is the decrease of the care staff ratio in the nursing homes. The medical centers are the most
important place that exists in the world. The shortage of employees in the medical centers is the
worst problem that can exist. It is not possible to give special attention to the patients who gets
admitted in the hospitals. The first and foremost problem of having inadequate staff is the lack of
offering proper service to the patients and the other problem is the pressure that the staffs have to
go through. It becomes a pressure for the staffs as they are required to work for a longer period
of time and they get exhausted. As a result there are high chances of the spread of the disease and
the patients remain uncured.
According to Blake et al. (2013), one of the most obvious reasons for this is that the
health sectors cannot afford the staffs. In order to have more staffs the company requires hiring
more staffs and this is an expensive process. It has been observed that in many cases the
company is unable to hire staffs in more numbers as they can cannot the salary of the employees.
This is true to some extent but in order to get the best quality staff the company must recruit
more staffs. The company should not expect one staff to do the work of 10 staffs. It has been
argued by Neuhausen et al. (2014), that to solve this problem the shareholders must increase
their budget. They should open such health care only if they are having enough funds to do so.
The other stakeholders like the government and the local bodies must take this as their priority
and should keep enough money aside for regulating the number of staffs in the nursing homes.
The reason for having more staffs is the better facility that the organizations can offer. The
patients must be under complete care in the nursing homes (Caspar et al., 2013).

2CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD
However it has been stated by Fjær and Vabø (2013), that the other reason of having less
staffs is the poor approach towards this study. The study of nursing is considered to be a low
form of study in the present world. This study is not promoted much. This is another reason of
the scarcity of nurses in the health sectors. The study of nursing is not encouraged at every
household. It has comparatively less demand than the other branch of studies. This is the reason
this has become a global problem which is not limited to any particular region but it has been
spread to the entire world (Edwards et al., 2014).
From the above discussion the main issue has been recognized. There are however much
way to overcome the challenge. The foremost solution is recruit more staffs. The hospitals and
the nursing homes should recruit more staffs in order to provide better service to the patients.
The recruitment of more staffs can be costly but in order to offer better service the organizations
must take this initiative (Lin, 2014).
There is less number of people who are aware of the proper services related to the health
care sectors. The study of nursing should be made popular and it should be promoted so that
there are more individuals with the proper education of nursing. This will enable the
organizations to have more eligible staff and the organization will not suffer from the shortage of
staffs in the organization (Neuhausen et al., 2014).
It has been argued by Neuhausen et al. (2014), that the salary of the nurses should be
increased. The nurses in most organizations are not paid properly. They have a low remuneration
compared to their jobs. The occupation of the nurses includes lot of physical as well as mental
pressure. They are not paid well for their effort. They must be paid well in order to increase the
amount of care staff ratio in the nursing homes. Along with the salary the care staffs should be

3CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD
provided with some useful packages like incentives, special holidays and most importantly
yearly bonuses. The global issue of the lower amount of care staffs in the nursing homes can be
solved by considering the financial conditions of the staffs and offering them payment that is
equal to their designation.
Xing, Mukamel and Temkin‐Greener (2013), considers that the care staff ratio also
includes the assistants who are having no fixed hours. According to him they are expected to
serve over time and they are not paid for that. This is the challenge that is related to this global
issue. The nursing homes make the staffs do extra work and they are not even paid for that. This
makes them dissatisfied and they resign in huge numbers. The working hours of the staffs should
be distributed equally. The work should not become a burden for them. It should be planned
accordingly. In many cases it has been observed that the male assistants are expected to do the
jobs that are not in their domain and they are not even paid for it. This dissatisfies them and the
nursing homes lose many efficient workers because of this.
The other major challenge that is worth mentioning is the poor facilities offered to the
staffs in the hospitals. In some cases it has been observed that the staffs are not offered special
securities related to their health. These results in the spread of infections and the staffs
sometimes get infected because of this. This is however a serious problem and this should be
avoided on highest priority. The global problem will get reduced if this point is considered by the
organization. This is required as the nursing home requires more care staffs to get things done in
the right manner therefore they should make efforts to preserve their employees and this would
solve the issue of inadequate health care staffs (Lin, 2014).

4CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD
References
Blake, N., Leach, L. S., Robbins, W., Pike, N., & Needleman, J. (2013). Healthy work
environments and staff nurse retention: The relationship between communication,
collaboration, and leadership in the pediatric intensive care unit. Nursing administration
quarterly, 37(4), 356-370.
Caspar, S., Cooke, H. A., O’Rourke, N., & MacDonald, S. W. (2013). Influence of individual
and contextual characteristics on the provision of individualized care in long-term care
facilities. The Gerontologist, 53(5), 790-800.
Edwards, S. T., Bitton, A., Hong, J., & Landon, B. E. (2014). Patient-centered medical home
initiatives expanded in 2009–13: providers, patients, and payment incentives increased.
Health Affairs, 33(10), 1823-1831.
Fjær, E. G., & Vabø, M. (2013). Shaping social situations: A hidden aspect of care work in
nursing homes. Journal of Aging Studies, 27(4), 419-427.
Li, Y. I. N., & Jones, C. B. (2013). A literature review of nursing turnover costs. Journal of
nursing management, 21(3), 405-418.
Lin, H. (2014). Revisiting the relationship between nurse staffing and quality of care in nursing
homes: An instrumental variables approach. Journal of health economics, 37, 13-24.
Neuhausen, K., Davis, A. C., Needleman, J., Brook, R. H., Zingmond, D., & Roby, D. H. (2014).
Disproportionate-share hospital payment reductions may threaten the financial stability of
safety-net hospitals. Health Affairs, 33(6), 988-996.

5CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD
Xing, J., Mukamel, D. B., & Temkin‐Greener, H. (2013). Hospitalizations of nursing home
residents in the last year of life: nursing home characteristics and variation in potentially
avoidable hospitalizations. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 61(11), 1900-
1908.