Faculty of Health: Patient to Nurse Ratio in Aged Care Settings

This narrated PowerPoint presentation examines the critical issue of patient-to-nurse ratios in aged care settings. The presentation begins by highlighting the decline in registered nurses and enrolled nurses within the aged care workforce, and the projected nursing shortage in Australia. It explores the negative impacts of inadequate staffing levels, including compromised quality of care, increased nurse workload, burnout, and medical errors. The presentation then discusses the significance of this issue, including its effects on patient outcomes and the implementation of new models, such as the Victorian model, and the Safe patient care act. Furthermore, it delves into current approaches to address the problem, such as reevaluating nursing management structures and introducing new incentive programs. The presentation concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of effective leadership in mitigating the negative impacts of staffing shortages and improving employee retention. The presentation uses references to support the arguments presented.

1FACULTY OF HEALTH
Patient’s ratio to Nurses
( Aged Care settings)
Student Name:
Student Number:
Tutor Name:

2
Overview
• Background
• Objectives
• Outline of the topic
• Conclusion

3
Introducing the topic
• There had been a declination in the
proportion of the full time equivalent
registered nurses or enrolled nurses in the
residential care work force and other aged
care sector (Aiken et al.2018).
• Australia is expected to face a shortage of
as many as 109,000 nurses (27%) by 2025,
which will influence significantly on future
levels of nurse staffing and the capacity of
the health care system to meet patient
demands (Howe et al. 2017)
• .

4
Why is it a problem?
• Affects the quality of
care
• Overcrowding
• Increases nurse
workload
• Causes compassion
fatigue and burnout
among the nurses.
• Increases number of
medical errors
• (Karantzas et al.
2017).

5
Why is this issue important?
• Massive cuts in hospital budgets
and nursing along with a shortage
of qualified nurses has led to
unsafe nurse to patient ratio
(Palmer & Eveline 2012).
• Higher risk of infection, medication
error, falls and even deaths.

6
• New models have been set up.
• As per the Victorian model, a
minimum staffing of five nurses to
every 20 patients in the elderly care
sector has been mandated
• Safe patient care (Nurse to Patient
and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act
2015, took effect from 23 December
2015 Australian Medical Association
2017)..
• On 19 December, the safe patient
care amendment bill was introduced in
to the parliament
What is being currently drawn about this problem?

7
• Revaluation of the nursing management
structure.
• A management style based on
transformational leadership model
(Algoso et al. 2017).
• Duty and the accountability of the nurse
leaders to motivate the nurses to cope up
with the work stress (Algoso et al. 2017).
• New incentive structure needs to be
introduced.
How can effective leadership mitigate this problem?

8
In conclusion, it can be stated that apart from organisational
measures, nurses play an important role in employee
retention.
Conclusion

9
References
Aiken, L.H., Sloane, D.M., Bruyneel, L., Van den Heede, K., Griffiths, P., Busse, R., Diomidous,
M., Kinnunen, J., Kózka, M., Lesaffre, E. & McHugh, M.D., 2014. Nurse staffing and education
and hospital mortality in nine European countries: a retrospective observational study. The
Lancet, 383(9931), pp.1824-1830.
Algoso, M., Peters, K., Ramjan, L. & East, L., 2016. Exploring undergraduate nursing students'
perceptions of working in aged care settings: A review of the literature. Nurse Education
Today, 36, pp.275-280.
Australian Medical Association, (2017). Nurse to resident ratio needed in aged care facilities.
Access date: 9.8.2019. Retrieved from: https://ama.com.au/media/nurse-resident-ratio-
needed-aged-care-facilities
Howe, A.L., King, D.S., Ellis, J.M., Wells, Y.D., Wei, Z. & Teshuva, K.A., 2012. Stabilising the
aged care workforce: an analysis of worker retention and intention. Australian Health Review,
36(1), pp.83-91.

10
References
Karantzas, G.C., Mellor, D., McCabe, M.P., Davison, T.E., Beaton, P. & Mrkic, D., 2012. Intentions to quit
work among care staff working in the aged care sector. The Gerontologist, 52(4), pp.506-516.
Mah'd Alloubani, A., Almatari, M. & Almukhtar, M.M., 2014. Effects of leadership styles on quality of
services in healthcare. European Scientific Journal, 10(18).
Palmer, E. & Eveline, J., 2012. Sustaining low pay in aged care work. Gender, Work & Organization, 19(3),
pp.254-275.
Roche, M.R., Duffield, C.M., Dimitrelis, S. and Frew, B., 2015. Leadership skills for nursing unit managers
to decrease intention to leave.
Twigg, D. & McCullough, K., 2014. Nurse retention: A review of strategies to create and enhance positive
practice environments in clinical settings. International journal of nursing studies, 51(1), pp.85-92.
Wallis, A. & Kennedy, K.I., 2013. Leadership training to improve nurse retention. Journal of Nursing
Management, 21(4), pp.624-632.