Throughout the different parts of the projects, the topic of understaffing in nursing care was addressed from three separate perspectives. While discussing the issue, both applicable change and nursing theory were implemented in different ways. Changes suggested involved tackling the disproportionate patient/nurse ratio in the American hospitals and restructuring the schedule of the nurses to be more balanced and suitable for the long-term care provision. The theoretical component of the suggested change is related to the detected relationship between the burnout in understaffed nurses and negative outcomes of the patients (Clifford & Doody, 2017). All of these factors go in accordance with the nursing theory’s provision of framework and structure for highly individualistic cases to improve the overall wellbeing of the patients.
The implementation proposed in the plan is to establish consistent rotating schedules for the nurses while simultaneously providing them with adequate training to equip them in dealing with long-term care. Such intervention is based on the detected connection between properly distributed workload and the provision of high-standard healthcare (Muabbar & Alsharqi, 2021). Further research indicates that an increase in staffing and a reduction in individual work hours increases the efficiency of the nurses. As they are able to regain mental and emotional resources, nurses begin to pay more attention not only to the physical but to the psychological health of their patients, providing a new but essential category of care.
To evaluate the proposed implementation, it is possible to carry out a field experiment with two groups. A test group would consist of nurses who had worked reduced working hours for a period of two weeks before the testing and were also provided with an assistant. A separate control group would continue working as usual without additional benefits. The research’s goal then is to monitor and record the experiences of patients of these groups and take in mind potential changes in their health conditions.
Potential barriers might transpire while organizing an evidence-based justification described above, on logistical and ethical levels alike. As with any other experiment, from s financial perspective, it would make sense to stage it in the same hospital and in the same period of time. This approach is the most commonly utilized since it accounts for the influences outside of the studied variables and makes sure to simultaneously keep those in check. Yet, such separation into groups and the discrepancy required for it in a somewhat large working collective are very hard to achieve and even harder to be sure about. Furthermore, from an ethical standpoint, the researchers were to prove once again that understaffing and long hours lead to harm being done to patients. Thus, it is difficult to assign these patients to the members of the comparatively unlucky group, potentially putting them in danger.
To tackle these issues, the field part of the experiment should be kept down to a minimum, whereas the literature review should be expanded to cover the lack of easily obtainable primary data. Whereas in the conditions of the intervention itself, it is possible to inform patients about the planned experiment in advance without the nurses’ knowledge. One should never lose sight of the original goal of the idea in question, namely the provision of more evidential support for the proposed intervention of the schedule restructuring.
References
Clifford, C., & Doody, O. (2017). Exploring nursing staff views of responsive behaviors of people with dementia in long-stay facilities. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 25(1), 26–36. Web.
Muabbar, H., & Alsharqi, O. (2021). The impact of short-term solutions of nursing shortage on nursing outcome, nurse perceived quality of care, and patient safety. American Journal of Nursing Research, 9(2), 35-44. Web.