Mandating Nurse-Patient Ratios - Coursework Example

Running Head: Article Review-Mandating Nurse-Patient Ratios. Article Review-Mandating Nurse-Patient Ratios Institution: Date: Article Review-Mandating Nurse-Patient Ratios The nursing practice is quite challenging, because the working hours are long and they at times entail attending to night shifts, which may include caring for chronically ill or dying people. This challenge coupled by the shortage of nurses in the past decade has presented a big challenge to the health sector. As a result of the shortage and challenging nature of the work, most nurses have been experiencing job dissatisfaction and great burn out associated with work. In turn, this has lowered the quality and safety of care delivered to patients. As a result, experts in healthcare have argued that in order to better safety of patients and quality of care there needs to be a higher number of nurses so as to lower the nurse-to-patient ratio (NPR), which will ensure nurses have more time with patients, which will ensure quality care and assessment-which are contributing factors to enhancing quality and safety of care. The findings and debates around the ratio have already led to the development of legislation in some states and the publication of various researches, articles and papers on the same issue. This paper reviews various articles on this issue as covered in five academic databases accessed online using the following search words: “does mandating nurse-patient ratios improve care.” Title of Source, URL and author: The first work titled “The effect of nurse staffing on selected outcomes of care” is a 2008 publication found on the ProQuest online database. This piece of work can be viewed online at this Uniform Resource Locator (URL): https://online.cdu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_19_1. The work is authored by Moh’d, Ali Saleh from The University of Wisconsin. The “ProQuest Dissertations and Theses” (PQDT) Database is under the ProQuest group of databases which hosts a wide array of European and American dissertations. The collection includes theses that date back to 1962, and dissertations that date back to 1861 to the current time. The database provides access to both old and most recent resources and is particularly resourceful for researchers because it offers access to information from various disciplines. The main objective of this database is to offer access to theses and dissertations from various disciplines to researchers and students in various fields. The source sampled from this database highlights issues that relate to the nurse-to-patient ratio. The major objective of the work was to cover a study that examined the influence of nurse staffing on job dissatisfaction, patient period of admission, satisfaction and safety. The work reveals how a non-experimental, correlational and retrospective study was used to acquire findings which revealed that sufficient registered nurse (RN) staffing was necessary in quality care enhancement. The highlighted study varied care hours and staff mix in terms of qualifications so as to determine the effect on designated variables. The work is important in highlighting the essence of considering the nursing-to-patient ratio in improving the quality of care and safety (Moh’d, 2008). Title of Source, URL and author: The second piece of resource is titled “Effect of mandated nurse-patient ratios on patient wait time and care time in the emergency department.” The 2010 publication was obtained from the Blackwell Journals database (Wiley-Blackwell Journals), and the source can be accessed at the following URL: https://online.cdu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_19_1. The work was authored by five authors including Castillo, M. E. Marshall, B. J. Vilke, M. G. Killeen, P. J. and Chan, C. T. The Wiley-Blackwell database is a general database with no discipline restrictions on the content of its journals. The database holds and offers access to journals under its Wiley Interscience website which contains all journals published by the Wiley-Blackwell company. Full access to full texts is permitted by subscription through institutions and individual accounts, and the database offers an excellent resource to both students and researchers. Like the earlier piece of resource, this piece of research work was also concerned with the establishment of the effect of legally mandated NPRs on patients’ flows within the emergency department (ED). The assessment of patient flow in relation to NPR is one of the measures that can be applied in determining the quality and efficiency of care. This is done by assessing waiting hours and fast response to the emergencies within the ED department. The study is related to the topic under highlight because its seeks to establish the effect of mandated NPR on quality, which in this case is assessed in terms of patient flow rate within the ED department. The research process used an electronic system to track the patients EMR (electronic medical records), in order to establish the rate of flow. The established rates were then related to the NPR ratios obtained from the respective ED departments in order to establish the effect of NPR on the flow (Castillo et al. 2010). Title of Source, URL and author: The third resource is titled “How Have Mandated Nurse Staffing Ratios Affected Hospitals? Perspectives from California hospital leaders.” This 2009 publication can be found in the Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database, which is found under the EBSCOhost group of databases. The article can be located at the following URL: https://online.cdu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_19_1. The work appeared in the Journal of Healthcare Management, and was authored by Carolina, H. Catherine, D. Jennifer, K. Ann, J. S. Joanne, S. and Susan, A. C. The overall EBSCOhost database consists of various databases that hold content from various disciplines under different databases within it. These include examples such as PyschINFO, EBSCO-EJS, e-Journals EconLit and many others. The used database in this case (Nursing/Academic Edition database) offers access to 600 full text scholarly journals highlighting content within various disciplines under the medical field. This database is thus strictly discipline specific and tremendously helpful to researchers and students within the medical field. It also offers indices and abstracts on estimated 600 journals. The research within this source is related to the topic under highlight due to the fact that it highlights results from a practical qualitative research, which analyzes the effect of mandated NPRs within hospitals in the state of California. The resource offers an actual real-life example of the assessment of NPR’s effect in work within actual health set up. The practicality of NPR is affected by nurse shortage and financial constraints which most hospitals have to overcome in order to operate efficiently. This research looks at the effect of the mandated NPR as well as the influence that financial constraints and nursing shortages have in terms of influencing the success of NPR institutions within states. The resource is thus essential in offering an answer as to whether NPR institution can improve quality (Carolina et al. 2009). Title of Source, URL and author: The fourth work highlighting the same topic is titled “States Respond to Nursing Shortage.” The work was authored by Brodeur, A. M. and Laraway, S. M. from the University of Maryland. It was later published within the Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice Journal in 2002. The article is accessible at the following URL: http://ppn.sagepub.com.ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/content/3/3/228.full.pdf+html. The article was accessed from the Sage Journals database which holds thousands of journal articles from various disciplines. The database holds full text articles from 1999 to the present time. The articles under 450 journal titles are from various fields such as medicine, social sciences, technology, humanities and business. Sage Journals is thus a multidisciplinary database which holds content from various disciplines. This resource is directly related to the topic under highlight, because it reviews the legislative response of policy makers with regard to issues of nurse shortage and quality of care. It looks at the overview of legislative measures undertaken by the states in relation to addressing issues of the nursing shortage and quality of care. The work gives a critical look into how NPR is affected by nursing shortage and legislative measures such as limiting mandatory overtime, mandating of NPRs and nursing commissions’ establishments. The article offers a critical overview of the proposals made with regard to the making of legislations to control quality of care and delivery in various states across the nation (Brodeur & Laraway, 2002). Title of Source, URL and author: The fifth resource is an article from Life Science Weekly, which was published in 2008. The article is titled “Hundreds of Texas Registered Nurses March on Capitol Thursday to Demand Lifesaving Patient Safety Improvements.” The article is accessible on this URL: https://online.cdu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_19_1. This article was group-authored by editors in the Life Science Weekly staff, by the use of other related reports. The article was obtained from the Health Reference Centre Academic, which is a database under the Gale, Cengage learning databases. The database offers access to various health journals and a wide array of personal health related information. The database is solely an informational tool, meant to provide information to the practitioners, students and researchers in health related disciplines. The article is not research based or inquisitive in nature, but rather a news piece highlighting the effects of a high NPR and the resulting poor quality of care and patient satisfaction. It presents a public advocacy case in which nurses in Texas rallied for the legislation of the “Texas Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009,” which was meant to introduce some rules which would ensure better quality of care is attained. The articles’ relevance to the topic under highlight lies in the fact that the legislation championed for in this case was also meant to ratify the implementation of a lower NPR ratio. The article is essential in highlighting the importance of mandating NPRs and how society has taken steps to ensure that this is realized. The article specifically highlights the dangers of assigning too many patients to a single nurse and thus showing the essence of mandating NPR (Life Science Weekly, 2008). References Brodeur, A. M. and Laraway, S. M. (2002). States Respond to Nursing Shortage; Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice Journal, 3 (3): p. 228-234. Retrieved on 31st March 2012 from http://ppn.sagepub.com.ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/content/3/3/228.full.pdf+html Carolina, H. Catherine, D. Jennifer, K. Ann, J. S. Joanne, S. and Susan, A. C. (2009). How Have Mandated Nurse Staffing Ratios Affected Hospitals? Perspectives from California hospital leaders. Journal of Healthcare Management, 54 (5), p. 321-355. Retrieved on 31st March 2012 from https://online.cdu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_19_1 Castillo, M. E. Marshall, B. J. Vilke, M. G. Killeen, P. J. and Chan, C. T. (2010). Effect of mandated nurse-patient ratios on patient wait time and care time in the emergency department; Journal of Academic Emergency Medicine 17 (5): p. 545–552. Retrieved on 31st March 2012 from https://online.cdu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_19_1 Life Science Weekly (2008). Hundreds of Texas Registered Nurses March on Capitol Thursday to Demand Lifesaving Patient Safety Improvements. Life Science Weekly, p3283, retrieved on 31st March 2012 from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA190408994&v=2.1&u=ntu&it=r&p=HRCA&sw=w Moh’d, S. A. (2008). The effect of nurse staffing on selected outcomes of care. The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, retrieved on 31st March 2012 from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304451945?accountid=10424 Read More