American Nurses Association Releases Updated Principles for Nurse StaffingSeptember 18, 2019 The American Nurses Association (ANA) today released an update to its “Principles for Nurse Staffing” (the Principles), a guide to help nurses and other decision-makers identify and develop processes and policies to improve nurse staffing for the best interest of patients and nurses. Drawing on decades of research and best practices, the updated Principles address the complexities of nursing practice in today’s health care system and the demands placed on nurses who care for patients across all care settings. ANA believes that providing appropriate nursing resources must account for human factors including a nurse’s years of experience, knowledge, education, skill set and patient mix, acuity and intensity. This flexible approach to nurse staffing is associated with improved patient outcomes, including reduced mortality rates, shorter stays, lower readmission rates and reduced incidents of hospital-acquired conditions. Direct-care nurses, working with nurse managers and financial managers, are the best judge of what patients need day to day and even hour by hour. “No two health care settings are the same, and no single health care setting is exactly the same from one hour to the next. Our approach to nurse staffing accounts for the many factors that impact how nurses attend to patients in their care,” said ANA President Ernest J. Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN. “It is essential that nurses have a substantive and active role in staffing decisions, as they know best how to ensure they have the necessary time, resources and team members to meet patients’ care needs and their overall nursing responsibilities. When that happens, the outcomes are more favorable for everyone.” ANA’s “Principles for Nurse Staffing” emphasizes that:
“Our goal is to shift the paradigm about nurse staffing so that nurses’ contributions to positive patient outcomes are understood, valued and viewed as a priority investment rather than a discretionary expense,” said Grant. As the leading voice for the nation’s 4 million registered nurses, ANA is a strong advocate for appropriate nurse staffing in all health care settings. ANA plans to educate nurses about the updated principles and how to apply them in their work environment through a webinar being released on October 2nd and other tools. In addition to widely sharing the updated Principles and shifting the paradigm, ANA is working with federal officials to compel the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide Congress with information about how the agency assesses “adequate” nurse staffing levels as part of its 2020 budget request. |