Topic Selection and Approval

Patients’ outcomes rely heavily on the roles nurses play in offering them consistent care and management of their symptoms. While physicians and other healthcare practitioners also get involved in caring for patients, nurses spend the most time with patients. Nurses who have a high workload might face difficulties offering the best quality of care to their patients, which affects their ability to properly address their patients’ needs. Burnouts among nurses contribute to poor service provision and affect the relationship between nurses and their patient. This topic will address the PICOT question; Is patient safety and nurse burnout improved with the use of a nursing intensity score when doing assignments?

Problem

Research has shown that burnouts and low nurse-to-patient ratios affect nurses’ performance as they end up rushing through their roles and fail to offer comprehensive care to each of their patients. Burnouts among nurses are usually associated with emotional and cognitive exhaustion, failure to meet personal goals related to patient care, and the struggle of caring for many patients within a limited time (Cañadas-De la Fuente, et al., 2015).

Setting

The problem of nursing burnouts can be observed in healthcare facilities. Approximately 55% of the entire healthcare workforce are nurses. Nurses also play the biggest part in healthcare and the management of patients especially after the initial assessment processes and development of a care plan. Aside from administering drugs and helping patients recover from their illnesses in healthcare facilities, nurses also work as patient advocates and provide patients with social and emotion support (Li, Pittman, Han, & Lowe, 2017). The high number of patients in these facilities contributes to strains in the nurse-patient relationship and care provision.

Detailed Problem description

A high nurse to patient ratio has always been associated with increased risks of complications, high-stress levels, cognitive function deterioration, and reduced performance. The increasing diversification of the population in the country and an increased number of the aging population has increased the need for implementing better healthcare practices. Low nurse employment is associated with increased oversight of essential care practices or missed care, which often leads to adverse patient outcomes (Griffiths, et al., 2018). In a research that assessed the connection between nurse and patient ratios, for every increase of one nurse in the facility, there was a 14% less likelihood of inpatient mortality (Driscoll, et al., 2017). This suggested the importance of increasing the ratio of nurses to patients in healthcare facilities.

Impact of the Problem

In cases where nurses have excess workload, they might be incapable of completing all the necessary caregiving activities that they need to perform, which in turn suggest that the patients do not get all the care they need (Griffiths, et al., 2018). Aside from that, excess workload among nurses contributes to higher turnover rates, which also reduces the number of nurses in healthcare facilities and contributes to negative patients’ outcomes (Halter, et al., 2017). For every patient added to a nurse’ workload, the nurses’ burnout increases significantly and the quality of care offered reduces (Mudallal, Othman, & Al Hassan M., 2017).

Significance of the Problem

Addressing the problem could improve nurses’ concentration on their work, reduce mental exhaustion, and decrease the rates of inpatient mortality. Low nurse to patient ratios contribute to nurses resignation before their retirement age, which reduces the number of nurses available in healthcare facilities. Studies have also shown that a 10% increase in the number of professionally trained nurses leads to an 11% reduced likelihood of mortality (Aiken, et al., 2018).

Proposed Solution

Some of the solutions that can eliminate the challenges of nurse-patient ratios in healthcare facilities include increasing the number of nurses in these facilities, increasing nursing motivation either financially or through career development opportunities, and ensuring that the nurse-patient ratio in different units does not overwhelm the nurses. Aside from that hiring nurse assistants to help nurses with simple roles can also be useful (Oliveira, Sousa, Gadelha, & Nascimento, 2019). Training more nurses can also be helpful.

Nursing care is the foundation of caregiving practices. Increasing the number of nurses in healthcare facilities can promote positive patient outcomes. It can also reduce nurse burnouts and improve collaboration between nurses and other staff. Low nurse-patient ratio is responsible for most of the errors committed by nurses.

References

Aiken, L. H., Ceron, C., Simonetti, M., Lake, E. T., Galiano, A., Garbarini, A., . . . Smith, H. L. (2018). Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Outcomes. Revista Médica Clínica Las Condes, 29(3), 322-327. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0716864018300609.

Cañadas-De la Fuente, G. A., Vargas, C., San Luis, C., García, I., Cañadas, G. R., & De la Fuente, E. I. (2015). Risk factors and prevalence of burnout syndrome in the nursing profession. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(1), 240-249. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2014.07.001

Driscoll, A., Grant, M. J., Carroll, D., Dalton, S., Deaton, C., Jones, I., . . . Astin, F. (2017). The effect of nurse-to-patient ratios on nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in acute specialist units: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 17(1), 6-22. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1474515117721561.

Griffiths, P., Recio-Saucedo, A., Dall’Ora, C., Briggs, J., Maruotti, A., Meredith, P., . . . Ball, J. (2018). The association between nurse staffing and omissions in nursing care: A systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 74(7), 1474-1487. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6033178/.

Halter, M., Boiko, O., Pelone, F., Beighton, C., Harris, R., Gale, J., . . . Drennan, V. (2017). The determinants and consequences of adult nursing staff turnover: a systematic review of systematic reviews. BMC Health Services Research, 17. 824. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5732502/.

Li, S., Pittman, P., Han, X., & Lowe, T. J. (2017). Nurse‐ Related Clinical Nonlicensed Personnel in US Hospitals and Their Relationship with Nurse Staffing Levels. Health Services Research, 52(S1), 422-436.

Mudallal, R. H., Othman, W., & Al Hassan M., N. F. (2017). Nurses’ Burnout: The Influence of Leader Empowering Behaviors, Work Conditions, and Demographic Traits. Inquiry, 54, 0046958017724944. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5798741/.

Oliveira, S. M., Sousa, L. V., Gadelha, M. d., & Nascimento, V. B. (2019). Prevention Actions of Burnout Syndrome in Nurses: An Integrating Literature Review. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 15, 64-73. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6446475/.

NRS 490 Week 3 Nursing Care Capstone Project Change.