NUR4455 Reproductive Health Nursing
Question:
Scope and impact of the topic issue:
Nurse staffing or appropriate patient-nurse ratio is an important parameter that determines the patient care quality and safety. It is directly related to outcome of care as adequate nurse-patient ratio promotes efficiency in care delivery, increases job satisfaction and patient satisfaction with care (Frith et al, 2012). However, the issue is that many hospitals fail to maintain adequate nurse staffing level thus contributing to many issues for nurses. Nurses who are forced to work for long shifts are often overworked, stressed and dissatisfied with the job. Due to time constraints and the need to care for a large number of patients than should be required, they may fail to give proper care to individual patients. This may result in high incidence of adverse events like medication errors, fall incidences, hospital-associated infections and injury to patients (Rahman & Shamsudin, 2015). Hence, the nurse staffing issue not only affects performance of nurses, but also has an impact on outcome of care.
Much evidence exists to show the effect of nurse staffing levels on a higher rate of falls and deaths in hospital. Wong, Cummings & Ducharme (2013) proved the impact of nurse staffing on patient outcome by showing that low nurse staffing levels significantly increase the risk of nosocomial infection, patient falls and patient mortality in a clinical setting. Along with the increase in adverse patient events, low nurse staffing levels also increase the length of stay in hospitals and total health expenditure. Another study established link between patient outcome nurse staffing levels by conducting a cross-sectional interview based research with nurses working in surgical and medical wards in 12 private hospitals. The findings of the study revealed that low nurse to patient ratio had negative associations with quality of care and patient safety compared to those hospitals with high staffing levels (Rahman & Shamsudin, 2015). Zhu et al. (2012) also proved the association between staffing level and patient outcome by showing that when the number of nursing staff per patient is increased, positive patient outcome is achieved. Hence, from this discussion it is understood that taking steps to maintain optimal nurse staffing levels is necessary to obtain positive patient outcomes and promote safety in practice.
Plan to promote quality/safety practice:
As nursing shortages are the main factor that contributes to the nurse staffing issue and poor quality of care, the plan is to promote safety practices in the clinical setting by maintaining workforce flexibility and keeping optimal nurse-patient ratios so that all patients get the proper attention and care from nurses. Nurses working in the hospital for longer hours mostly suffer from burnout and may develop the intention to leave the job because of stress, poor nursing care and high rate of adverse events. To increase the performance of nursing staff and promote patient safety, the nursing workforce should be given flexibility of timing so that they do not feel stressed out. The number of breaks and optimal work hours should be planned and nursing shift hours should be rotated according to those criteria. This would lead to fewer undesirable shifts and enable the nurse to provide optimal care to patient (Kortbeek et al., 2015). Another approach that is needed to prevent adverse events and address staffing level issues is to create positive practice environment in clinical setting. Positive practice environment means giving sufficient resources, greater autonomy, flexible work hours and effective nurse leaders to prevent medication errors. All these factors are strategies to retain nurses, promote excellence in care and the practice environment. Clinical managers should also put forth an effort to keep staffing levels high so that each nurse gets regular breaks from work and consistency in care is maintained (Twigg & McCullough, 2014).
References:
Frith, K. H., Anderson, E. F., Tseng, F., & Fong, E. A. (2012). Nurse staffing is an important strategy to prevent medication errors in community hospitals. Nursing Economics, 30(5), 288.
Kortbeek, N., Braaksma, A., Burger, C. A., Bakker, P. J., & Boucherie, R. J. (2015). Flexible nurse staffing based on hourly bed census predictions. International journal of production economics, 161, 167-180.
Rahman, H. A., & Shamsudin, A. S. (2015). The impact of patient to nurse ratio on quality of care and patient safety in the medical and surgical wards in Malaysian private hospitals: a cross-sectional study. Asian Social Science, 11(9), 326.
Twigg, D., & McCullough, K. (2014). Nurse retention: a review of strategies to create and enhance positive practice environments in clinical settings. International journal of nursing studies, 51(1), 85-92.
Wong, C. A., Cummings, G. G., & Ducharme, L. (2013). The relationship between nursing leadership and patient outcomes: a systematic review update. Journal of nursing management, 21(5), 709-724.
Zhu, X. W., You, L. M., Zheng, J., Liu, K., Fang, J. B., Hou, S. X., … & Wu, Z. J. (2012). Nurse staffing levels make a difference on patient outcomes: a multisite study in Chinese hospitals. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 44(3), 266-273.
Answer the following questins:
What are the main arguments?
What is the point of this article?
What topics are covered?
How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography?
Is this information reliable? current?
Is the author credible? have the background to write on this topic?
Is the source objective or biased?
Was this source helpful to you?
How can you use this source for your research project?
Has it changed how you think about your topic?
Answer:
Frith, K. H., Anderson, E. F., Tseng, F., & Fong, E. A. (2012). Nurse staffing is an important strategy to prevent medication errors in community hospitals. Nursing Economics, 30(5), 288.
The article opens up with admission of the prevalence of medication administration errors as a problem requiring urgent attention from the nursing fraternity. The study sought to examine the relationship between nurse staffing capacities and the probability of occurrence of medication error in a medical facility. Further, it uses a case study in examining the fact in coming up with s reliable conclusion using database of the hospital under case study. The study results indicate a relation between reduced nursing staff with the possibility of errors in medication occurring. As such, it proposes the creation of a balance to ensure adequate hours are accorded to the nursing team for efficiency reasons.
The information in the case remains relevant and reliable given the expertise of the authors coming from the medical professional in both practical and teaching capacity. Karen is a professor of nursing; Fan is a professor of management science, Faye an associate professor of nursing, and Eric an associate professor of management. The diverse profession justifies the source as authentic and well researched. The source remains objective given primary source and independent nature of the research work conducted.
The source is essential in studying the effect of nurse staffing on care as it touches on the number of staff and their effectiveness rate on the right medication. The study assists in determining the relation between proper staffing and improved care among patients as well as apportioning sufficient time for the staff. Thus, it can be used effectively in serving the needs of the research topic.
Kortbeek, N., Braaksma, A., Burger, C. A., Bakker, P. J., &Boucherie, R. J. (2015). Flexible nurse staffing based on hourly bed census predictions. International journal of production economics, 161, 167-180.
Flexible nurse staffing based on hourly bed census predictions is an article completed by Kortbeek, Braaksma, Burger, Bakker, and Boucherie that speaks on issues of quality of care and workload issues facing nurses at their workstations. Further, it discusses the method of hourly census prediction in deriving efficient staffing policies. Thus, it looks into the effectiveness of flexible nursing that shifts according to the number of patient admission in increasing quality care.
The source remains authentic given the background of the authors and peer reviewed nature of the article. The authentic nature supports the use of the article in finding relevancy between the staffing numbers and quality of care. The information is current given the year of publication and research done on a case study basis reflecting the state of affair in different similar hospitals.
The source is helpful in the research in finding the essence of staffing in provision of quality healthcare as it calls for having sufficient numbers that an be reduced or increased based on the demand situation.
Rahman, H. A., &Shamsudin, A. S. (2015). The impact of patient to nurse ratio on quality of care and patient safety in the medical and surgical wards in Malaysian private hospitals: a cross-sectional study. Asian Social Science, 11(9), 326.
The article surrounds information on the impact of patient to nurse ratio on quality of care and patient safety. Therein, it discusses the issue of care and overwhelmed nurses and thus finds a perfect balance that supports quality care. It concludes on the importance of balancing the ratio of nurses to the patients to match the quality time and adequacy in provision of healthcare.
The source remains up to date given the year of publication and the medical and management background of the authors. Thus, the information provided remains useful and authentic in the research.
The information can be used in the research in finding the best ratio between nursing staff numbers and patient admission numbers. The source would assist the study in expounding knowledge on the study question.
Twigg, D., & McCullough, K. (2014). Nurse retention: a review of strategies to create and enhance positive practice environments in clinical settings. International journal of nursing studies, 51(1), 85-92.
The article talks on the nurse retention strategies that focus on factors reducing or attracting workers towards performance. Nurses in strained facilities with a high number of patients and low staff leads to high employee turnover rates.
The article is authentic as it comes from authors concerned in the medical field and the peer reviewed nature of the article in the journal of nursing. Further, it uses references of other similar readings which are in tandem with the provisions registered.
The article can be used in the research as it shows the nurse retention factors which coincide with provision of right environment through proper staffing. Further, the information remains useful in finding the right number that promotes the right employee numbers in organizations.
Wong, C. A., Cummings, G. G., &Ducharme, L. (2013). The relationship between nursing leadership and patient outcomes: a systematic review update. Journal of nursing management, 21(5), 709-724.
The article talks of leadership and aspect of proper staffing which find a relation to a perfect hospital status. The article in the journal of nursing records the patient outcome levels based on the level of attendance offered by the respective nursing fraternity.
The article recorded in the nursing management journal remains authentic and unbiased given the open nature of the research and the relevant nature of the authors with experience in the field of nursing. Recording on patient outcome were done based on a case study which further boosts the authenticity of the article.
The article is sufficient in providing knowledge for the study as a proper outcome between patients can only emanate from a well staffed institution that considers staffing efficiency. Thus, the journal can be used in the study to satisfy the topic of research.
Zhu, X. W., You, L. M., Zheng, J., Liu, K., Fang, J. B., Hou, S. X., … & Wu, Z. J. (2012). Nurse staffing levels make a difference on patient outcomes: a multisite study in Chinese hospitals. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 44(3), 266-273.
The article provides a case study that seeks to determine and justify the theory of staffing levels making a difference on patient outcomes. The study findings communicate the fact that proper staffing in terms of adequate numbers matching the patient demands leads to positive outcome.
The article remains authentic in studies in the field of nursing given the nature of references used and peer reviewed nature of the journal. The vast studies and case relation provide adequate knowledge on staffing and patient care.
The source was helpful in the study given the relation to the topic of study surrounding staffing and patient care. The all-round approach of the article build on the knowledge required to bring focus on staffing needs and patient outcome. The source altered my perception as it outlined the need for a relationship between nursing personnel in building confidence among patients.
Twigg, D. E., Myers, H., Duffield, C., Pugh, J. D., Gelder, L., & Roche, M. (2016). The impact of adding assistants in nursing to acute care hospital ward nurse staffing on adverse patient outcomes: An analysis of administrative health data. International journal of nursing studies, 63, 189-200.
The article is a creation by Twigg, Myers, Duffield, Pugh, Gelder, and Roche that focuses on the impact of creating additional staff in the wake of ensuring proper patient outcome. The journal records the dire needs of acute patients who need determined and focused nurses to delvier the best experience. As such, it recommends the essence of proper staffing to cater for patients with dire needs.
The source is a peer reviewed one thus draws authenticity and reliability in the study. Further, it is objective as it focuses on the topic of study providing numbers that match the need of patients. Since the authors emanate from a medical background, the information therein appears to be reliable and usable in the field.
The journal is relevant and applicable to the issue of study and thus remains helpful in revealing the need for proper staffing to improve healthcare experience among patients. The needs expressed therein changed my perception on staffing needs on health institutions and the cause for variation according to patient care needs. Thus, the source assisted in documenting the differences and the need for increased staffing.
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