patient safety in hospitals
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Patient Safety in Hospitals
Jennifer CashBachelor of Science in Nursing
What is the problem?
• In the United States, there is reason to believe that nurse related stress and overload can be a major cause of patient safety, patient error, and possible mortality. The reason for these issues is the fact that there are not enough nurses. When there are too few nurses and too many patients this causes a higher likelihood that not enough concern and handling can be placed on each patient individually, especially ones in high risk units
Hypothesis
• My hypothesis is that when rules are made within an institution regulating an allotted number of patients to each nurse, patient mortality issues will decrease, along with other patient safety errors.
Lives are at risk
Nurses keep patients aliveNurses control medicinal dosages, observe medical changes, report these changes to Doctors, and in effect try to keep each of their patients alive and healthy to the best of their ability.
Increasing Nursing Staffing can Save Lives
• In order for patients to receive the best care possible, nurses should be allowed an allotted number of patients per shift. This allotted number should be a quantity that is settled to be best for patient’s safety, which will allow nurses to give the suitable care needed for each individual patient.
High Staffing Levels Associated with Poor Patient Outcome
• High Staffing levels are associated with heightened risks of unfortunate patient outcomes. “Researchers have generally found that lower staffing levels are associated with heightened risks of poor patient outcomes. Staffing levels, particularly those related to nurse workload, also appear related to occupational health issues (like back injuries and needle stick injuries) and psychological states and experiences (like burnout) that may represent precursors for nurse turnover” (Donaldson, 2008).
How can We Save Lives?
Research!
• The research study will take place in 300 randomly selected, similar sized hospitals across the country. The nurses that will participate will be from the ICU unit of the hospitals, in order to ensure a degree of standardization.
Materials for Research
• The only materials needed will be additional nurses at these 300 hospitals in order to ensure each nurse will only have ‘XXX’ number of patients. According to ‘XYZ’, this is the safe number of patients that will maximize patient outcomes.
What will happen?
• For 6 months 100 hospitals will be provided with additional staffing in order to reduce the number of patients per nurse. The changes in patient mortality and care will be recorded. After the 6 months are over, the hospital will go back to their original staffing and once again patient mortality and care will be recorded. This will be the control portion of the study. The results will be compared. The next year the experiment will be replicated at 100 more hospitals in the same format. After 3 years, the results will be reviewed.
Expected Results
• I hypothesize that as a result of these regulations on the allotted number of patients to each nurse, patient mortality issues will decrease, along with other patient safety errors. Observing the work environment and making adjustments to enhance the stress management of nurses by avoiding overburdening them with a high number of patients per nurse, will increase the chances of patients surviving their hospital visits
Why will this work?
Given a lighter work load nurses will be able to focus on the inclining or declining health of their patients with more skill and determination as opposed to a nurse who is psychologically burned out from being overworked
Post-Experiment
• Upon completion of the aforementioned experiment lasting a duration of three years, I will seek publication of the results given that they adhere to my hypothesis. The American Journal of Nursing would be an ideal prospect for publication since it is the most prestigious peer reviewed journal in the nursing profession. Another possible journal for peer reviewed publication of my experiment’s results would be The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing: A Scholarly Journal of the American Nurses Association.