Defining patient acuity has been a challenge related to staffing. As the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), would you measure patient acuity? Explain your rationale. Please share how would you measure it? Be specific. Additionally, how would patient acuity affect staffing ratios? Please share your rationale.
Solution
Over the course of my career in nursing, about fifteen years, there has been a shift from recognizing patient acuity. Often you would hear nursing leadership and administration making their rounds and discussing both volume and acuity of patients. There has been a huge shift that no longer focuses on how sick the patients we are caring for are and only focuses on the number of patient we are caring for. This shift can lead to unsafe nursing ratios that can also lead to unsafe patient care and poor outcomes. Most of my career has been in the emergency department and every patient we see and in the manner in which we see them is based on their acuity or ESI level. Since I have started travel nursing, I have noticed that there is….Kindly click the purchase icon to purchase the full solution at $5