Staff members on your unit raise concern that there is rising acuity o

QUESTION

Staff members on your unit raise concern that there is rising acuity on the unit and lack of responsiveness in addressing these needs through appropriate staffing. They point to increased incidences of adverse and sentinel events on the unit.

To address this concern, your hospital organization would do best to:

a. Implement a patient classification system immediately.
b. Participate in databases that compare the outcomes and staffing levels versus those of institutions similar to yours.
c. Provide increased numbers of staff to the unit.
d. Ignore such concerns because acuity is variable.

ANSWER:

ANS: B
Staff morale suffers both when acuity models indicate a gap between staffing and acuity and when there is no model but perceived acuity that is not being addressed. A truer approach is to monitor patient outcomes and participate in national databases that measure staffing levels through comparison with like institutions.