Introduction
With the increased cost of operation and dwindling funds, health care organizations are currently pressured to efficiently utilize their cost of medical care (Cook & Gaynor, 2012). The organizations are expected to effectively manage their cost of medical care without compromising on the quality of health care offered in these institutions. Similarly, the changes are anticipated to enhance patient health outcomes by minimizing health errors (Hall, 2005). The article below focuses on a study seeking to highlight the impacts of hospital nurse staffing orders on patient outcomes.
Summary of the study
The study evaluates the effects of one of the US health care bills on the delivery of care. As such, the bill being analyzed is California Assembly Bill 394 (Cook & Gaynor, 2012). The law authorized the highest patient level for each nurse in the health service setup. During the enactment of the bill, some of the hospitals had satisfied the required recommendations. Notably, other hospitals had not met these recommendations. The article indicates that alterations in staffing quotients from the pre-order to post-order eras were partially caused by the law. With illustrations, the study indicates that the bill had the envisioned impact of lessening patient-to-nurse ratios in health care institutions, which earlier did not satisfy the required standards.
Equally, the study also shows that the developments in staffing ratios do not seem to be linked with comparative developments in measured patient safety in the subject hospitals (Cook & Gaynor, 2012). The study also seeks to shed light on new inquiries focusing on nurse staffing and patient outcomes. The inquiries employ a debatably exogenous order to nurse staffing levels for reviewing the association between nurse staffing and patient outcomes.
Ways in which the findings might be used in nursing practice
The study’s findings indicate that AB394 did have the envisioned impact of lessening patient-to-nurse ratios in health centers, which did not initially satisfy the required standards. However, similar findings indicate that failure to rescue ratios have not changed with the implementation of the law in the same health service centers. The above implies that the study did not find convincing proof that the implementation of the bill transformed patient safety in the sampled health service centers. The above findings can be useful in nursing practice. They illustrate that a combination of reforms can lead to enhanced patient outcomes. Similarly, the findings can be utilized in nursing practice to investigate the missing reforms to guarantee enhanced patient outcomes.
There is a significant caution offered by the study’s findings. The findings illustrate that a bill seeking to lessen the ratio of patient to nurse, on its own, may not guarantee enhanced patient outcomes (Cook & Gaynor, 2012). The above does not imply that initiatives taken to lessen the nurse-to-patient ratio or other nurse staffing policies are insignificant as a constituent in a hospital’s general approach for safeguarding enhanced patient safety. It is worth stressing that in the study’s findings, there are important optimistic links between patient-to-nurse quotients and failure to rescue. The study noted that there were several challenges related to drawing fundamental implications on the foundation of such outcomes. Nevertheless, health service centers that are operative in safeguarding patient safety usually find it ideal to lessen the ratio of nurse to patient. Maybe, there are complementarities amid nursing contributions and strategies, which lead to enhanced patient outcomes. Therefore, enhanced nurse staffing seems to be vital in enhancing patient safety when only integrated with other features. In this respect, health care shareholders, forecasters, policymakers should take note of these significant issues.
Ethical considerations associated with the conduct of the study
Just like any other study, the above study encountered a number of ethical issues studies. The problem of consent is a major challenge that might have affected the progress of the study. As indicated in the study, the populations were made up of human samples. In this respect, the researchers had to seek their consent before undertaking their studies. In particular, the issue of examining individual perspectives concerning nurse/patient ratio might have been a critical issue because several individuals fear revealing their true feelings about corporate strategies or orders. For instance, it is expected that a number of the nurses interviewed supported the idea of reducing the ratio of nurse to patient. They did so because by reducing the ratio, their workload will be reduced. However, it should be noted that most of them did not understand the impact of this reduction.
Another major ethical issue that might have been encountered in the study is the problem of privacy. Researchers are required to safeguard the privacy of their populations. Therefore, there is a possibility that it was a challenge to locate the ideal sample as most individuals fear participating in such studies owing to privacy concerns.
To tackle the above and other probable ethical issues, it is expected that the researchers sought advice from psychologists and research experts (Mensik, 2012). Through the consultations, they learned how to tackle sensitive research concerns. In this regard, before the data collection process was undertaken, permission for the study was requested from the relevant health care stakeholders and the Institute of Research Board. Equally, the research abided by the directives of the required code of ethics. As such, they caused no harm to the participants. Similarly, the research safeguarded the participants’ privacy. During the research, participants were informed of what was required of them before the start of the project, the length of the project benefits accrued from the project, possible risks associated with the research, and who to consult.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be noted that increased operational costs and dwindling findings have forced health care organizations to effectively manage the cost of medical care. The organizations are expected to effectively manage their cost of medical care without compromising on the quality of health care offered in these institutions. The study analyzed above evaluated the effects of one of the US health care bills on healthcare. As such, the law authorized the highest patient level for each nurse in the health service setup. The study’s findings indicated that AB394 did have the envisioned impact of lessening patient-to-nurse ratios in health centers, which did not initially satisfy the required standards. However, similar findings indicated that failure to rescue ratios had not changed with the implementation of the law in the same health service centers. The above implies that the study did not find convincing proof that the implementation of the bill transformed patient safety in the sampled health service centers.
References
Cook, A., & Gaynor, M. (2012). The Effect of Hospital Nurse Staffing on Patient Health Outcomes: Evidence from California’s Minimum Staffing Regulation. Journal of Health Economics, 31(12), 340-348.
Hall, L. (2005). Quality work environments for nurse and patient safety. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett.
Mensik, J. (2012). The nurse manager’s guide to innovative staffing. Indianapolis: Sigma Theta Tau International.