Reflection Assignment 4: Meeting Essential VIIIThis week, reflect on your perception of change theory, management roles and nursing leadership, communication conflict, and the nurse management role in

Running head: ETHICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Safe Staffing Ratios: Ethical and

Cultural Considerations

Jodi N. Turco, RN

CAPS 401: General Education Capstone

September 22, 2019

Safe Staffing Ratios: Ethical and Cultural Considerations

Issues relating to nurse staffing are vast. They are influenced by a multitude of aspects such as economics, politics, healthcare organizational culture, nursing skill mix, and the aging patient population. The nursing code of ethics serves as a reference into the provisions of care that are safe and effective. When it comes to staffing ratios, nurses face an ethical dilemma on a daily basis. According to the second provision of the ANA’s Code of Ethics for Nurses: “The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population” (Gurney, Gillespie, McMahon, & Kolbuk, 2017, p. 497). The research regarding nurse-to-patient staffing ratios is nonspecific about a population or cultural group that is more significantly impacted by this problem. Hadad and Toney-Butler (2019) state “the nursing profession continues to face shortages due to lack of potential educators, high turnover, and inequitable distribution of the workforce”. For those purposes, this paper will explore how culture in the workplace for nurses’ influences recruitment, retention, and burnout; factors which directly impact staffing ratios and ultimately patient safety.

Gurney, D., Gillespie, G., McMahon, M., & Kolbuk, M. (2017). Nursing code of ethics: Provisions and interpretative statements for emergency nurses. Journal of Emergency Nursing: Jen : Official Publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association, 43(6), 497-503. doi:10.1016/j.jen.2017.09.011

Haddad LM, Toney-Butler TJ. Nursing Shortage. [Updated 2019 Jan 19]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2019 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/