Unsafe Staffing Levels-Impact on Patient Safety Clinical Question One of the highest priorities for nurses and healthcare members are patient’s safety
Unsafe Staffing Levels-Impact on Patient Safety
Clinical Question
One of the highest priorities for nurses and healthcare members are patient’s safety. They do their best to obtain patient’s safety and try to raise the quality of care. when nurses do not have enough time to perform safely then this could be problematic, and causes undermine nurse staffing levels. The major factors that describe and determine the nurse staffing levels are the safety of the patient and patient’s outcomes. Therefore, our group project focus on how “unsafe staffing levels could impact on patient safety.” According to Hertel, many factors are involved in this issue, for example, the number of patients, the range of conditions, the experience level of nurses, the number of nurses in the unit, the workplace, etc. (2012). Hence, the main problem is the fewer nurses that lead to growth in the patient safety concerns. Regarding these concerns could increase hospital infections, increased medical errors, or increased mortality rates. Overall, the significance of this problem is risking patient safety. The following clinical questions are designated to support of changes associated with the promotion and improving patient’s safety and outcomes.
Population- Nurses experience, unsafe nurse-patient staffing levels.
Intervention- Applying the standardized nurse-patient ratio.
Comparison- Compared the hospital will regarding nurse-patient ratios.
Outcome- Develop safety and patient care.
These questions lead to qualitative research: What threatens patient safety? What is the unsafe staff levels? How is nursing burnout experience with short staff in the working environment?
Factors like too much work, longer shift, higher number of patients, and unsafe nurse staffing levels are involved in clinical problems and causes the reduction in patient’s safety, decrease or displeasure in patient outcomes, and many avoidable errors during their hospital stay. Daniel Allen stated in the article titled “Evidence shows staff ratios can work”, the low ratio of nurses to the patient improves the quality of patient care through quantifiable outcomes (2013). However, the purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that impact the patient’s safety and outcomes under the impression of unsafe staffing levels.
Levels of evidence
Regarding this clinical problem among the different research that show the different concepts and models of nursing workload and its impact on patients and nurses, we need accurate source with both valid quantitative and qualitative data; valid studies for nursing practice are required as evidence, and if the study is not valid, the results cannot be the same, and will not be valid and reliable (Houser, 2018). Overall, the quantitative design fit better with this issue because using the statistic module that deals with measurements, facts, and numbers. In addition, the quantitative question focusses on increasing patient’s safety and outcomes that relates to preventive question.
Search strategy
This search was managed via the use of the Google Scholar, Chamberlain’s online library’s databases, and CIHNAL through using keywords, advanced search plans, and time frame. To search for my topic by Chamberlain’s online library database, CIHNAL I choose advance search with options “Peer Reviewed” and time frame 2013-2018. First, I searched with keyword ” unsafe staffing level ” which results were 5 articles. Next, I combined two keywords “unsafe staffing level” and “Impact on Patient Safety” by using option “AND” the result was 1,069 articles. To narrow down these studies, by adding the other keyword “Nurse Workloads” my result reduced to 162 articles. Then, I chose my quantitative article that relevant to my assignment and appropriated to my group project. The other online database that I choose for my research was Google Scholar because it offers more of a variety of scholarly works and provides easier access to them. Also, I can narrow down my information to a time. When I was looking up the article for my topic, Google Scholar gave me the ability to choose the timeframe from which I wanted the information presented. Since technological advances are constantly made in medicine and new research supports different findings narrowed down my search from 2012 and beyond. This is especially important because this will allow me to provide the most current evidence-based care to my topic. Author affiliations are provided in a link at the end of the article. Using a database for scholarly work will allow me to collect non-biased information and allow me to make the informed decision.
1. Allen, D. (2013). Evidence shows staff ratios can work. Nursing Standard, 27(43), 20-22.
doi:10.7748ns2013.06.27.43.20. s28
2. MacPhee, M., Dahinten, V. S., & Havaei, F. (2017). The Impact of Heavy Perceived Nurse Workloads on Patient and Nurse Outcomes. Administrative Sciences (2076-3387), 7(1), 1-17. doi:10.3390/admsci7010007
Conclusion
In this paper, I tried to investigate between factors like workload, nurse, patient, and outcomes because they play an important role in safety. Understanding the Job-level and task-level as well as burdensome workloads that causes significant breaks that directly impact on patient and nurse outcomes (MacPhee, Dahinten, & Havaei, 2017). Analyzing the consequence from detailed cross-sectional showed how it is possible that professional standards of nursing are at risk. As I mentioned at the beginning, maintaining patient safety and satisfaction is a priority. Therefore, developing infection, growing mortality rates, and medical errors linked to unsafe nurse staffing levels. Thus, my recommendation to resolve this clinical problem is to increase the number of nurses or assigning fewer patients to each nurse, limited workload and shift duration. Also, “administrators should work collaboratively with nurses to identify work environment strategies that ameliorate workload demands at different levels.” (MacPhee, Dahinten, & Havaei, 2017).
References
Allen, D. (2013). Evidence shows staff ratios can work. Nursing Standard, 27(43), 20-22.
doi:10.7748ns2013.06.27.43.20. s28
Hertel, R. (2012). Regulating patient staffing: A complex issue. Med-Surg Matters, 21(1), 3–7.
Houser, J. (2018). Nursing research: reading, using, and creating evidence. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
MacPhee, M., Dahinten, V. S., & Havaei, F. (2017). The Impact of Heavy Perceived Nurse Workloads on Patient and Nurse Outcomes. Administrative Sciences (2076-3387), 7(1), 1-17. doi:10.3390/admsci7010007
