Safe Nurse to Patient Ratio

State and federal laws and regulations require that healthcare institutions such as hospitals and clinics who take part in Medicaid and Medicare, to ensure that they operate under an adequate number of certified registered, vocational nurses and other staff that provide nursing services as required. As such, this regulation tends to be viewed differently from state to state. Therefore, this research is geared towards evaluating the consequences of nurse-patient ratios, particularly of its effect on older patient outcomes. Therefore, the research was guided by a problem statement exhibited in a PICOT format (P-population, I- intervention, C- comparison O-outcome, T- time) stated as: Is there a relationship that exists between the increasing the nurse-patient ratio and better patient outcomes in the American health care system in the last decade.Safe Nurse to Patient Ratio

Clinical Problem

According to  Shekelle (2013), it is evident that a small percentage of patients die while hospitalized or shortly after hospitalization. As such,  research suggests that this can be prevented through increasing the number of nurses per patient (Falk & Wallin, 2016; H. Aiken, P. Clarke, M. Sloane, Sochlaski, & H. Silber, 2002; Shekelle, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c; Taylor, 1993). Furthermore, a less nurse-patient ratio in the most hospitals has resulted in more re-admissions while high-level nurse-patient levels have led to fewer readmissions (Lasater & McHugh, 2016).