There is 5,05 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to the 8.8 of Europe
Satse alert that you need to 3.534 nurses to be in the media and calls for a regulation of the key figures
“what Do you think that five nurses can care for a thousand people? Neither do we”. With this motto, the Union of Nursing (Satse) wants to open the debate about the ratio of nurses per patient, as is already being done in education with the teachers and the students, and goes to collect signatures to register a popular legislative initiative -for which you need to 500.000 supports – in the Congress of Deputies that aims to ensure a maximum number of patients for each practitioner.
In the Balearic islands, the ratio of nurse per 1,000 inhabitants is of 5.05, while in Europe it is 8.8. That means that in the Islands it would take 3.534 nurses (public and private healthcare) to be closer to the european average. Only in the public health sector are required 2.371, of which at 1,953 in would be of special Care and 418 of Primary Care.
“This shortage of professionals has an impact on the mortality and in the form of sick”, alert Satse, which considers that the ratios of current “is endangering the safety of the patient. Unless nurses, more mortality.”
According to the study Analysis of the situation of the nurses in the health centres of Spain, made by a group of experts and led by the doctor of Nursing Alfonso J. Cruz Lendinez, a nursing professional of the Balearic islands is responsible for up to 16 patients on a night shift in a plant of a hospital, while the ratio of safe is between six and eight patients. “Therefore, it would require increasing the current template to over 9,100 in nurses”, claims the secretary general of Satse in the Balearic islands, George Tera.
In Spain there is no specific legislation that regulates the allocation of the maximum number of patients for each practitioner. “Therefore, each region is set to the number of nurses from their workforces in function of different criteria on which account, plus the interest by the economic savings that improve the quality and safety of care,” she complains Tera, which puts it as an example to countries such as Australia and some U.S. states, which have regulated and who recommend a maximum of six patients on day shifts.
“however, in Spain the Ministry recommends between six and 12 patients, in function of the level of dependency,” says Tera, stressing that the maximum of these countries are the minimum in Spain.
In the ICU, for example, it is recommended to a patient by a nurse but in the Balearic islands there is one for every three in the public health sector and up to five patients in the private, according to the data of Satse, which emphasizes that the load situation is exacerbated in the private and, especially, in nursing homes, where there is one nurse for every 100 users.
“This makes clear the burden that take nurses -eight out of every ten claim that suffer from stress – and, above all, has an impact on patient care”, highlights Tera, the one who asks for progress toward a change of model where the nurse and the care to take a leading role in front of the model “medicalized” focused on the hospital.
The Union of Nursing understands that, if approved this law, patients will receive safer care, human and of higher quality, and will be treated with the same level of care regardless of the place in which they reside; the professionals will work with a lesser work burden, which will have a positive impact on their health and safety at work, and the Spanish Health System, in addition to improve the attention, it will be more efficient at economic and social level.
According to the criteria of
Learn more
