Summary: The Necessity Of Nursing Assistants
Running head: THE NECESSITY OF NURSING
The Necessity of Nursing Assistants to
Improve the Quality of Patient Care
The Necessity of Nursing Assistants to
Improve the Quality of Patient Care
Introduction
The quality of care received by patients is of fundamental importance to healthcare organizations. A well-documented happening that has impacted health care settings across the world is the nursing shortage (Tuttas, 2003). Due to the current nursing shortage, it is often difficult for nurses to provide all the care patients need. According to Quallich (2005), by reason of this shortage of Registered Nurse (RN) staff, there are many less-complex tasks that RNs can delegate to Nursing Assistants (NAs). This allows RNs to concentrate …show more content…
The current situation of needing additional caregivers to aid in patients ambulating and sitting up would be an optimal opportunity to employ NAs to assist with this less complex task (Quallich, 2005). Additionally, because Medicare and Medicaid payments are declining, employing NAs to assist patients is a cost-effective way to provide quality care. There is a significant cost savings in employing NAs, rather than hiring additional RNs, or Physical Therapists. The average Nurse Assistant salary ranges from $21,620 to $24,260, while RNs and Physical Therapists salary ranges from $49,600 to $59,521 (Quallich, …show more content…
The hospital education department could use their resources to train the staff interested in assisting with the program. Additionally, once the NA students received this training they could be mentored by skilled and educated NAs during a four week preceptorship. Allowing nurse assistant students to train offers additional help to the patients as well as cost savings to the facility. If the starting salary of a NA is $21,620, over the course of a four week preceptorship, one student, training 20 hours each week, offers the facility cost savings of approximately $831.54. By using the resources already within the facility, there is no additional cost. The only cost to the facility would be that of books for the students and supplies for the training. The cost of 15 Nursing Assistant books at $41.95 would be $629.25 (M. Richards, personal communication, November 5, 2008). These books could be signed out to the students and returned at the end of their class. The average cost of supplies used for training is $125.00 (P. Estep, personal communication, November 5, 2008). This cost could be a fee required for students to pay to be in the training program. Other than the cost of books this training program would not cost the facility an extreme amount of money and would greatly benefit the overall care received by patients, which should be the focus of all health care
The Necessity of Nursing Assistants to
Improve the Quality of Patient Care
The Necessity of Nursing Assistants to
Improve the Quality of Patient Care
Introduction
The quality of care received by patients is of fundamental importance to healthcare organizations. A well-documented happening that has impacted health care settings across the world is the nursing shortage (Tuttas, 2003). Due to the current nursing shortage, it is often difficult for nurses to provide all the care patients need. According to Quallich (2005), by reason of this shortage of Registered Nurse (RN) staff, there are many less-complex tasks that RNs can delegate to Nursing Assistants (NAs). This allows RNs to concentrate …show more content…
The current situation of needing additional caregivers to aid in patients ambulating and sitting up would be an optimal opportunity to employ NAs to assist with this less complex task (Quallich, 2005). Additionally, because Medicare and Medicaid payments are declining, employing NAs to assist patients is a cost-effective way to provide quality care. There is a significant cost savings in employing NAs, rather than hiring additional RNs, or Physical Therapists. The average Nurse Assistant salary ranges from $21,620 to $24,260, while RNs and Physical Therapists salary ranges from $49,600 to $59,521 (Quallich, …show more content…
The hospital education department could use their resources to train the staff interested in assisting with the program. Additionally, once the NA students received this training they could be mentored by skilled and educated NAs during a four week preceptorship. Allowing nurse assistant students to train offers additional help to the patients as well as cost savings to the facility. If the starting salary of a NA is $21,620, over the course of a four week preceptorship, one student, training 20 hours each week, offers the facility cost savings of approximately $831.54. By using the resources already within the facility, there is no additional cost. The only cost to the facility would be that of books for the students and supplies for the training. The cost of 15 Nursing Assistant books at $41.95 would be $629.25 (M. Richards, personal communication, November 5, 2008). These books could be signed out to the students and returned at the end of their class. The average cost of supplies used for training is $125.00 (P. Estep, personal communication, November 5, 2008). This cost could be a fee required for students to pay to be in the training program. Other than the cost of books this training program would not cost the facility an extreme amount of money and would greatly benefit the overall care received by patients, which should be the focus of all health care