Introduction
The nursing shortage has become one of the central issues in the American healthcare system, especially for the past few years due to the pandemic. The number of nurses working in various hospitals and healthcare facilities does not correspond to patients needing medical care and consultations (Nebehay, 2021). Hence, this paper aims to address the mentioned problem and develop the PICOT question that helps to define the possible interventions and outcomes.
Evidence-Based Solution
The evidence-based solution for this problem is to employ more nurses and offer better enrollment opportunities and bonuses, attracting more people to choose this profession. The solution is supposed to reduce staff layoff, significantly boosting patients’ well-being outcomes.
Nursing Intervention
The shortage of nurses will demand an increase in staff to equate to the nurse-to-patient ratio. This initiative will enhance the quality of healthcare services quality and provide each patient with timely medical assistance.
Patient Care
The nursing shortage is a serious menace to providing patient care. The lack of personnel leads to higher mortality rates, which impacts the state’s death toll. Thus, patient care utterly depends on adequate specialist allocation.
Healthcare Agency
The United States healthcare system struggles to equate the nurse-to-patient ratio, especially during the pandemic, since the staff shortage affects the quality of care (Turale & Nantsupawat, 2021). While trying to meet the demand for medical services, healthcare organizations are solving the issue of nurses’ deficits.
Nursing Practice
Typically, healthcare specialists in any field are assisted by nurses, from registered nurses to advanced nursing practitioners. If there is a nursing shortage in any unit, the quality of services decreases, leading to fatal outcomes.
PICOT Question
Considering the short staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the setting would be the infectious unit. Based on the given information, it is possible to compose the following PICOT question. In the infectious unit population (P), how does increasing the ratio of nurses to patients (I), compared to the reduced ratio (C), impact the health of patients (O) within an average of six months (T)?
Population/Problem
The pandemic led to the expansion of infectious units across the state’s hospitals. While trying to assist the patient, there has been a significant reduction in the number of nurses. Therefore, this paper addresses the impact of the nurse-to-patient ratio among the patient in the infectious units.
Intervention
The primary intervention is to employ newly trained nurses, which will help assist more patients during these troublesome times. In addition, current nurses should be offered bonuses and benefits that would encourage them to keep their workplace (Buchan & Aiken, 2018). These strategies are likely to contribute to better health outcomes among patients.
Comparison
The interventions may be compared to the lowered nurse-to-patient ratio, and the results should be contrasted in order to identify if the suggested interventions work.
Outcomes
Increasing the number of trained personnel will help assist more patients and provide more healthcare services (Spurlock, 2020). The healthcare outcomes are supposed to improve within the chosen period, and the mortality rate is expected to drop. In an average of fourteen days of treatment for infectious diseases, more people are supposed to be released from healthcare facilities.
Time
The selected time frame is six months – during this period, the outcomes will be measured.
Conclusion
In summation, the paper aims to establish the dependence between nursing shortage and the health outcomes of patients since lack of staff is a significant problem in the healthcare system of the U.S. It is anticipated that enhancing the number of nurses in the infectious units will contribute to lowered mortality rates from contagious diseases. The data will be collected within a six-month period and further measured to answer the PICOT question.
References
Buchan, J., & Aiken, L. (2018). Solving nursing shortages: a common priority. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 17(24), 3262-3268. Web.
Spurlock, D. (2020). The nursing shortage and the future of nursing education is in our hands. Journal of Nursing Education, 59(6), 303-304. Web.
Turale, S., & Nantsupawat, A. (2021). Clinician mental health, nursing shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic: Crises within crises. International nursing review, 68(1), 12-14. Web.
Nebehay, S. (2021). Global shortage of nurses set to grow as pandemic enters third year – group. Reuters. Web.