You are a new leader and your staffing levels vary from work environment to work environment and depend on the type of nursing—from intensive care to long-term care. Discuss the following:

I need to describe a situation when the emergency department was short-staffed.

How to handle the situation and what was the outcome?

Reflecting on the outcome, how would you have handled this situation differently?

You are a new leader and your staffing levels vary from work environment to work environment and depend on the type of nursing—from intensive care to long-term care. Discuss the following:

I need to describe a situation when the emergency department was short-staffed.

1.)How to handle the situation and what was the outcome?

      When hospitals do not have enough employees, especially emergency room departments, a patient runs the risk of becoming injured. When there are not enough employees, an employee has to the job of three others, which is impossible because it is a job that requires three people to begin with. With the stress that emergency rooms bring, plus the lack of staff, grave mistakes can occur.

        Due to the uneven daily distribution of patients, the ED often varies between being overstaffed or understaffed. One solution is to develop a smooth workflow by determining the correct staffing ratio. Scheduling the right number of physicians, nurses, technicians, and administrative staff can improve efficiency, quality of care, and medical-legal safety. When determining the appropriate staffing levels, there are two main criteria that should be kept in mind:

a.)Strategic drivers: patient safety, quality of care and the level of service provided

b.)Tactical drivers: number of patients, length of time spent in the ED, admit holds, physician efficiency, and non-physician staffing

        An effective way to realign staff models as volume increases is to call upon the least-expensive staffing alternatives first. This entails having the patients be seen by midlevel providers such as physician assistants or nurse practitioners. By doing so, you can maximize the lowest-cost resource that can successfully accomplish the task at hand thereby increasing flexibility and productivity. Another option is to employ a team-based intake process in which the patient is seen by the physician but is processed by the midlevel provider before being discharged. This will result in managing the patients efficiently. 

2.)Reflecting on the outcome, how would you have handled this situation differently?

        The emergency care system is a vital component of the hospital system constantly influx with its response to many forces beyond its direct control. As a system, there are several actions that can be enacted to anticipate, prepare for, and manage efficiency. An efficient alternative is to employ a parallel processing method, eliminating or consolidating steps thereby decreasing door-to-doc time. This entails a coordinated team strategy for patient arrival.
      If this alternative is applied patients will go through a quick registration process in which they are first seen by a clinical staff who determines if the patient requires immediate attention by a physician. During this time, their personal details as well as their chief complaint will be entered before clearing them as "ready to be seen." He or she can then be directed to a space staffed by at least one nurse and one provider where he or she can be quickly assessed. That team can then order the necessary tests or, if necessary, discharge the patient, Resulting in better outcome. I will follow this alternatives to enhance patient flow, lower wait times, improve patient satisfaction scores, and lower the ED's left-without-being-seen number.