You are the staffing coordinator for a medium-sized community hospital in California. Minimum staffing ratios were implemented in January 2004. While this has represented an even greater challenge in terms of meeting your organization’s daily staffing needs, you believe that the impetus behind the legislative mandate was sound. You also are a member of the state nursing association that sponsored this legislation and wrote letters of support for its passage. The hospital that employs you and the state hospital association fought unsuccessfully against the passage of minimum staffing ratios. The local newspaper contacted you this morning and wants to interview you about staffing ratios in general as well as how these ratios are impacting the local hospital. You approach your chief nursing officer, and she tells you to go ahead and do the interview if you want but to remember that you are a representative of the hospital. ASSIGNMENT:  Assume that you have agreed to participate in the interview. 1. How might you go about preparing for the interview? 2. Identify three factual points that you can state during the interview as your sound bites. What would be your primary points of emphasis? 3. Is there a way to reconcile the conflict between your personal feelings about staffing ratios and those of your employer? How would you respond if asked directly by the reporter to comment about whether staffing ratios are a good idea?

 

Susan is the supervisor of the 22-bed oncology unit at Memorial Hospital, a 150-bed hospital. Unit morale and job satisfaction are high, despite a unit occupancy rate of less than 50% in the last 6 months. Patient satisfaction on this unit is as high as or higher than that of any other unit in the hospital. Susan’s personal philosophy is that oncology patients have physical, social, and spiritual needs that are different from other patients. Both the unit and nursing service philosophy reflect this belief. Thus, nurses working in the oncology unit receive additional education, orientation, and socialization regarding their unique roles and responsibilities in working with oncology patients. At this morning’s regularly scheduled department head meeting, the chief executive nursing officer suggests that because of extreme budget shortfalls and continuing low census, the oncology unit should be closed and its patients merged with the general medical–surgical patient population. The oncology nursing staff would be reassigned to the medical–surgical unit, with Susan as the unit’s cosupervisor. The idea receives immediate support from the medical–surgical supervisor because of the current staffing shortage on her unit. Susan, startled by the proposal, immediately voices her disapproval and asks for 2 weeks to prepare her argument. Her request is granted. ASSIGNMENT: What values or beliefs are guiding Susan, the chief executive nursing officer, and the medical–surgical unit supervisor? Determine an appropriate plan of action for Susan. What impact does a unit or nursing service philosophy have on the actions of management and employees?