Relationship Between Nurse Staffing and Outcome in Intensive Care Unit - Research Paper Example

? Relationship Between Nurse Staffing, Quality Of Nursing Care And Outcome In Intensive Care Unit Relationship Between Nurse Staffing, Quality Of Nursing Care And Outcome In Intensive Care Unit Hospitals need to have enough nurses in order to improve the services offered to patients. However, nurses from various countries complain that most hospitals do not have enough nurses. Recent research show that the number of nurses employed to give quality services to a patient has decreased from 98% to 51%. The lack of nurses is also being experienced in developed countries. After a comparison was done in five countries that are considered to be developed, only 40% of the nurses agreed to have enough registered nurses (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). In order for a hospital to perform well, they need to have enough registered nurses. Hospitals that have enough nurses are associated with positive patient and nurse outcomes. The paper will give a review of the relationship between nurse staffing, quality of nursing care, and outcome in the intensive care unit. Among the different nursing care units in hospitals, the intensive care unit needs to have the highest number of nurses. The intensive care unit receives patients who are seriously ill and need to be watched closely. The nurses in charge of the ICU have to provide quality services as well as safe nursing interventions without delay so as to save life. For developed countries like the United State, the ratio of nurse in the ICU to a patient is 1 – 2 patients per nurse (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). The staffing of nurses in the ICU influences the number of patients who survive at the end of the day. Hospitals with fewer nurses assigned in the ICU are probably over worked and end up having patients admitted for long with more complications. Korea is said to have inadequate staffing in hospital. Research was carried out in Korea, which included 200 hospital showed that only a small fraction of 5%, of the hospitals met the required ratio of a patient to nurse of two patients per nurse (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). The lack of nurses has caused the family members of the offer services to their patient. In response to the shortage of nurses in Korea, the country came up with a policy meant to improve nurse staffing. According to the policy, nurse staffing is a priority and the National Health Insurance should increase inpatient nursing fee especially to hospitals with the highest number of registered nursing staffing. This policy by the Korean government was aimed at preventing hospitals from leaving a patient under the care of their family members. In addition, the policy aims at improving the quality of nursing care being offered in Korea. The policy is meant, however, for general wards, such as the medical surgical and units excluding the ICU. Various methods were used to measure nurse staffing and evaluate staffing adequacy. The common methods used are the nurse’s perceptions of staffing adequacy and the quantitative objective using empirical data, such as nurse to patient ratio. The study aims at examining the relationship between nurses staffing and the quality of nursing care, burn out, and job dissatisfaction among ICU nurses in Korea. The study in Korea involved all the nurses working in the ICU of the 22 hospitals. The hospitals in the study were general ones that provide either secondary or tertiary care. The measures in the study were composed of the nurse, ICU, and the hospital characteristics. Hospital characteristics include the level of care, its ownership, location, and the size. The ICU characteristics include the unit specialist, such medical surgery and pediatrics, the number beds in the ICU unit, and the level of nurse staffing (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). During the study, the number of nurses was compared to the number of patients they were attending. On the other hand, the nursing information included the nurses ICU specialty, sex, age, education, marital status, among other import things. The quality of service portrayed by the nurses was measured by looking into the level of education of the nurses, complains and how well they perform their duties, especially in the case of emergency. At the end of the study, data analysis of the responses from the nurses was conducted. From the analysis, most nurses who rated the quality of nursing care in Korea as high were low. Most of the nurses working in Korea ICU were not pleased with the working conditions and were planning to quit their jobs if nothing was done in time. Most of the nurses think that they are over worked especially when the numbers of emergencies are so many. From the results of the analysis, the General medical ICU had the largest number of patients checking in each day, yet was the one with few nurses. This was followed by the general surgical units, which had 23% of patients. Of the 22 hospitals that were interviewed, only three hospitals were operating the pediatric ICU. Of all the nurses that were interviewed during the study, it was found that only 13% of them could meet the policy of one nurse for each 1-2 patient (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). The rest had to take care of more than two patients. It was noted that a majority of the nurse were being over worked and had no time for their families. Ninety percent of the nurses were single and worked in secondary hospitals. Very few nurses - about 7% - were in charge of nursing position while 62% had a higher degree with at least four years of experience. 40% of nurses working in tertiary hospitals have five years of experience while thirty one percent of the nurses working in secondary hospital (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). Most nurses had an idea of what was expected of them thus provided quality nursing care to patients. From the results, it was clear that most of the nurses working in Korean hospitals are learned, therefore, know how to administer the services required of them. In addition, the nurses have more than five years of experience, with a majority of them having a higher degree. However, in most hospitals the number of patients was higher compared to the number of nurses. The ratio of nurses to the patient has been the cause of poor services being offered. The nurses have to serve more than three patients, and in case of an outbreak the situation worsens. At times, the situation gets worse thus forcing the family of patients to perform the duties of a nurse. The lack of nurses in hospitals has cost the lives of the few nurses that are there. Most of the nurses are over worked to the point of not having time of their own. From the result, it was clear that most of them are women who are single. They spend more time in hospital taking care of the patients leaving them with no time for socialization. References Cho, S. H., June, K. J., Kim, Y. M., Cho, Y. A., Yoo, C. S., Yun, S. C. & Sung Y. H. (2009). “Relationship between Nurse staffing, Quality of nursing care and outcome in insensitive care unit” Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18, 1729-1737. Read More