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Nurse/patient ratios needed.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
- Article from:
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Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand
- Article date:
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December 1, 2007
- Author:
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2007 New Zealand Nurses' Organisation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The number of nurse hours available to patients is, according to one nursing researcher, unrelated to the ward workload, and the workload between wards in the same hospital varies enormously. (1)
To ensure an adequate number of registered nurses (RNs) to staff hospitals safely requires money and all hospitals seem obsessed with the financial bottom line. It is up to the state to put patient safety before profits, by enforcing minimum nurse staffing levels.
One way to improve quality care and protect patient safety is legislation to ensure hospital patients are entitled to a nurse who is caring for no more than a certain number of patients at the same time. We cannot ...