Staffing on the Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at the University of Virginia Hospital
University of Virginia School of Nursing
Margaret Halladay, Lillian McDonough, Chelsea Bateman, Olivia Robison, Elizabeth Whitsett, Hannah Knabe, Janie Rhodes, and Fangzhong Luo

On our honor, as UVA students, we have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.
Margaret Halladay, Lillian McDonough, Chelsea Bateman, Olivia Robison, Elizabeth Whitsett, Hannah Knabe, Janie Rhodes, and Fangzhong Luo

Introduction

The nursing students working on 5E, the psychiatric unit at the University of Virginia, identified patient safety as a clinical problem related to inadequate staffing. Previous research revealed that 63% of the staff on this unit identified that inadequate staffing greatly affected patient safety. In order to research this issue further, the nursing students developed a follow-up survey that would help to identify the aspects of patient safety that are most affected. By understanding which aspects of patient safety create an issue on this unit, the group will develop an intervention with increasing safety as the expected outcome. Safety on this unit is difficult to measure because the unit does not face the same problems that staff encounter on Medical Surgical Units. One way to measure safety on 5E is to review the number of patient falls. Data was obtained that revealed in November of 2012, 5E reported the most falls of any unit in the hospital. Other safety markers are difficult to identify and are not regularly measured. During a typical day shift, the staff on the unit consists of four registered nurses (RNs), two patient care assistants (PCAs), one house unit coordinator (HUC), and two therapists, either occupational (OT) or recreational (RT). Twenty-three beds are available on 5E and at the time of the survey, twenty patients were currently