Treatment of Medical Personnel

While reading through some news articles the other day, I found an article that really caught my attention. The title read, “Lawsuit: Ohio nurse was ‘worked to death,’” this was something interesting that I wanted to learn about because my mom was a nurse for quite a number of years. The article by Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley goes on to explain that an Ohio man is suing his deceased wife’s hospital where she worked as a nurse, until she died in a car wreck coming home from work. The husband claims the hospital “worked her to death” because it was “regularly understaffed” since 2011 and she had overextended shifts and regularly worked through breaks, as she did the day of her accident.

These types of working conditions are simply unacceptable, but unfortunately staff shortages and additional hours on already overextended shifts have already overtaken many hospitals all over the nation. There is one state that requires a safe staffing ratio for nurses to patients, where nurses who work on general medical and surgical floors may only care for no more than 5 patients, while intensive care nurses may only look after 2 patients at a time. This type of nurse to patient ratio should be put into effect in all states; not only to benefit the nursing staff, but the health of patients as well. Hospitals should have more consideration and appreciation for the medical personnel and all they do to help not only patients, but the hospital running smooth.