How a Bill Becomes a Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How a Bill Becomes a Law - Case Study Example Nurses’ working hours should be set. A nurse should be prohibited from working overtime after the end of his/her shift even if it is voluntary. A minimum of 3 nurses should handle a 24 hour shift where each nurse works a maximum of 8 hours. This will reduce nurse fatigue and subsequently improve the quality of health care provided. Among nurses, work shifts of 12 hours or more have become a common occurrence. This act of working long hours can be attributed to different factors such as the shortage of nurses, attractive incentives for overtime work or nurses volunteering to work extra hours. However, extended work shifts have a negative impact on nurses and their patients. Findings from a study carried out by Stimpfel, Sloane and Aiken in 2012 indicated that nurses who work for longer shifts (12 hours and more) were twice more likely to suffer from job dissatisfaction and burnout than nurses who worked shorter shifts. Due to job dissatisfaction, nurses tend to leave or quit the practice, and thereby contributing to the already shortage of nurses in hospitals. Additionally, patient dissatisfaction was higher in nurses who worked for longer shifts. Furthermore, the long working hours undermine nurses’ well-being. Also, a study carried out by Rogers et al in 2004 titled ‘The Working Hours Of Hospital Nurses And Patient Safety’ stated that long working hours had a negative effect on patient safety. According to the study, near errors and errors were likely to happen if nurses worked for more than 12 hours continuously.