Is It Time to Demand Nurse-to-Patient Ratios?
How many patients can one nurse handle? This is a question I often ask myself as I review disciplinary actions brought against nurses for such things as not charting, delaying charting, and worst of all, falsifying charting. I also talk to nurses who quit their job because they know it is impossible to do their job well because they are overwhelmed by the amount of work they need to do. Most nurses don’t feel overworked because they are incompetent or inefficient; it’s becaus