Benchmark - Capstone Project Change Proposal (The effects of inadequate nurse staffing on patient care)

Introduction

Nurses and other medical practitioners are very important to extend service delivery and care giving in health care providing organizations. However, it is not unlikely to find a very small number of the nursing staff employed to serve a very large population in an organization. The lack of sufficient staffing in the nursing profession largely affects the level of service delivery. The number of nursing personnel employed in an institution determines the workload that each nurse will have in their schedule, (Collier, 2014). Research has been conducted to determine the effect of insufficient nurse staffing on the effectiveness of nurses in service delivery. This study intends to review several articles on the same issue with the aim of identifying gas in the research and providing relevant recommendations.

Comparison of Research Questions

This study reviews a total of eight articles and journals that were previously compiled to describe the issue of inadequate nurse staffing. The main research question for the first article reviewed was on the significance of adequate staffing in the nursing practice. In the article, the author investigates how having enough nurses improves the quality of care provided to patients and the quality of service offered by each nurse in the practice. This question is closely related to the research question for the fifth article reviewed in my study. In the fifth article selected, the authors’ main question for the research was to evaluate to what extent adequate nursing improves service delivery, (Harding & Wright, 2014). The main research question investigated in the second and third articles reviewed was how to determine nursing roles and empower the nurses in the practice to improve service delivery.

The issues to do with inadequate nursing have existed for long. The fourth article reviewed in this study explores the historical issues in nursing. The article aims at explaining why inadequate nurse staffing has remained an issue from the past years to the current days. A sixth article reviewed was mainly concerned with determining the optimal number of nursing staff that an organization must hire to eliminate inadequate nurse staffing. The article’s main question is to find the optimal number of nurses per a given quantity of patients. The seventh article questions the effect of inadequate nurse staffing on patient-nurse relations. Its main focus is to determine the level by which patient nurse relations are affected by inadequate nurse staffing, (Scruth, 2018). The last article reviewed focuses on focuses on determining the impact of various nurse staffing models on health care provision Whitehead & Myers, 2016). The research questions in all the articles reviewed are interconnected All the articles reviewed are very much relevant in the study on inadequate nurse staffing.

Comparison of Sample Populations

Nurses are mainly employed to serve in health care organizations such as hospitals and clinical departments. The sample populations that were studied in all the eight articles reviewed were in hospital and medical care facilities. The sample populations for the articles seem to be much similar. The researchers conducted their study in various healthcare organizations both in the United States and outside the States, (Longbottom & Pooler, 2018). The sole intention for all the researchers was to assess and report the situation of nurse staffing in various workstations. The articles, however, are not much focused on the type of patients served by the nurses or even the ages of the nurses. The sample population for this study is a medical care facility that serves a large number of patients each day. The number of nurses working in the facility is compared to the number of patients received per day, (Collier, 2014). This provides an analysis of the workload that each nurse has to cope with.

Comparison of Study Limitations

In any research process, limitations are expected. The research conducted on inadequate nurse staffing is no exemption from the limitations. Some of the most significant limitations discovered in the literature review include; inability to define the optimal sample size that represents the nurses’ population wholly, difficulty in data collection, lack of concrete evidence such as verifiable statistical data, and stringent regulations by nurse governing boards and unions, (Ashe & Leah, 2018). Some organizations were very determined to shatter the research and avoid reporting of the actual situation on inadequate nurse staffing. In the articles reviewed, the sample size was not similar. The study therefore, has to rely on secondary data to report the actual statistic about inadequate nurse staffing.

Recommendations

Some recommendations were made for further studies were in six of the articles reviewed. Three out of the six recommended further research to be done using different population and settings. Two out of the six article believed future research on the same topic needs to be done using a larger sample size and longer duration of time. While one article recommends further studies to be done on how to increase nurse’s education, clinical skill and competency.

Conclusions

From the evidence gained through reviewing the available literature on inadequate nurse staffing, it is justifiable to conclude that majority of nurses are overworked in their workstations. Most healthcare organizations hire less nurses than they require to provide services to their patients. The main reason that leads to understaffing has simply been identified as reduction of operational costs, (Collier, 2014). As a result of this understaffing of nurses, quality of service and care extended to patients by nurses is negatively impacted. The patient-nurse relationship is strained due to inadequate nurse staffing.

Inadequate nurse staffing has a tremendous negative effect on the quality of patient care. It can also lead to patient and staff dissatisfaction which is the key cause of nurse turnover in the healthcare setting. To solve the issue of inadequate nurse staffing, this study recommends the implementation of strict staffing policies in all the medical care facilities. Also, relevant authorities tasked with protecting nurses should draft and implement policies that state the specific ration of patients to nurses available in a health care facility. There must be a minimum requirement of the number of nurses employed in any organization.

References