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Posted: May 13th, 2023
Abstract
Low staffing ratio in the nursing industry is one of the main challenges affecting many of the healthcare institutions. The lack of registered nurses is one of the main factors that the overall quantity of the number of nurses in many facilities. The study has evaluated that lows staffing ratio has a direct relationship with the quality of healthcare and increasing the overall safety. Healthcare institutions face challenges in hiring enough staff from the cost and the process of policymaking. The study would also entail examining past scholar material which is an evidence-based practice that would show the relationship between low staffing ratio and the overall quality of healthcare. The implementation plan in the analysis of the study entails using the Rodgers’ change theory since it accommodates the change over a longer time frame. The Rodgers theory allows the facilities to increase the number of nurses withing a longer time frame and increasing the overall operational efficiency.
Keywords: Low Staffing ratio, registered nurses, quality healthcare, Evidence-based nursing
Contents
Abstract 2
Introduction 4
SWOT analysis 4
Literature review 7
Low Staffing and Quality Healthcare 7
Registered Nurses and Quality Healthcare 9
Implementation Plan 9
Strengths and Weaknesses 11
Informatics 11
Conclusion 12
Introduction
Nursing is one of the factors that has been affected by changes in the last years. Due to the increase in population healthcare in services in nursing is increasing with each of the institutions focusing on the process of ensuring quality services and customer satisfaction. One of the issues facing most of the healthcare institution includes the low staffing ration that has been caused by shortages and severities. Many of the hospitals in the region have a low number of nurses causing low staffing ratios. Despite the qualification and the hard work of nurses, it is one of the factors that affect the overall factors that affect the quality of service delivery and the rate of safety (Malinski, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). Low staffing ratios are one of the main factors that have caused a high rate of nurse dissatisfaction reducing the rate of specialization and service delivery. The increase in low staffing ratios has also facilitated the increase in insufficient service retention and a high turnover rate leading to customer dissatisfaction in most healthcare institutions (Griffiths, Ball, Drennan, Dall’Ora, Jones, Maruotti & Simon, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). By evaluating low staffing ratios and shortage of registered nurses, one would be able to evaluate an implementation plan based on evidence-based practices (EBP) using Rodgers change based theory to find a solution to increase the overall quality of services in the healthcare industry and nurse’s satisfaction.
SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis would be able to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to find a sustainable solution concerning the problem. One would be able to evaluate all the factors in detailed thus showing what the main factors affecting the process of finding the solution are. The following shows the SWOT analysis of the problem:
Figure 1: SWOT analysis
Strengths: The shortage of registered nurses is one of the main factors that has caused low staffing ration in the facility. However, one of the strengths is that there has been an increase in the number of registered nurses in the past five years. The increase in registered nurses allows the facility to hire more skilled and qualified individuals to balance the staff ratio. One of the strengths of the organization is quality compensation. The organization has an excellent nurse pay ratio per hour compared to other institutions in the same field. Also, it allows overtime charge rates which is one of the compensation packages to ensure quality pay. The factors allow the nurses to be motivated despite a high workload compared to the number of staff. The institution has a quality administrative support system with the management actively taking part in daily activities. It has allowed the growth of good interdisciplinary relations and socially supportive environment that facilitates the overall growth the service delivery in the facility.
Weaknesses: Despite the facility having constant growth, it has different weaknesses that reduce its overall achievement of a balance staffing ratio. One of the weaknesses in the facility is the lack of enough resources that would ensure the institution to achieve its goal. The institution works under a strict budget which reduces the capability of the facility to hire more individuals. The probability of retaining registered nurses is quite challenging due to the high workload and the extended work shifts making most of the employees to have a high rate of job dissatisfaction. One of the weaknesses of the institutions is also increased demand to float nurses who, on the other hand, is caused by insufficient funds which cause overlapping of nursing in staff duties. The weaknesses have reduced the overall efficiency in balancing staff ratio in terms of nursing.
Opportunities: The facility also has different opportunities that have to facilitate its overall external environment. One of the opportunities is that the institution has established and effective nurse education and empowerment program. The program facilitates the overall training, which has increased the skill of nurses in the organization allowing quality services offered. Also, each department due to the low number of staff plans its overall staffing plan which can ensure quality balance. The staffing plan can integrate the internship programs which on the other hand, can reduce the workload pressure and increase skilled based programs for beginners. Strategy and frameworks that are used by an organization are one of the crucial factors to consider. The facility has a practical policymaking framework that is objective-based according to the goals of the institution allowing the process of legislation for new employees to examined and implemented.
Threats: Threats are one of the external factors that have reduced the efficiency of the organization to maintain a balanced staff ratio. One of the threats is that companies and organization have note focused on data-based research that links low staffing ratio to poor quality care. Also, there are no models that tend to show the relationship between the two models in different literature. Since most of the scholars have not focused on such, it makes it quite difficult to find sustainable solutions to the problem. Besides, having a balanced nursing staff ratio entails having a higher operating cost for the facility. Due to the fact, it has brought resistance and opposition from external stakeholders, including customers, since it would increase the overall cost of healthcare. Many of the nurses teaching and training facilities do not have enough funding from external stakeholders which acts as a weakness in facilitating the overall increase of skills for the nurses.
Literature review
The literature review will be able to examine past scholar materials such as books and journals examining low staffing ratios. The literature will be able to build a framework of the study based on articles that have focused on evidence-based nursing. The following covers the literature review of the study:
Low Staffing and Quality Healthcare
Low staffing and quality healthcare are one of the factors that many of the scholars have focused on building different models that tend to explain the issue. Many of the nurses and institutions, according to different studies, have shown that there is a high correlation between the number of nurses and the quality of healthcare. According to Griffiths, Ball, Drennan, Dall’Ora, Jones, Maruotti & Simon evaluated the low number of nurses in a healthcare institution results to adverse and negative outcomes that affect the quality of healthcare such as higher mortality rates (Griffiths, Ball, Drennan, Dall’Ora, Jones, Maruotti & Simon, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). The research is done on Nurse Practitioner-led primary care (NICE) it is evident that most of the evidence reviewed suggests that having more nurses onward for patients increasing the overall quality of healthcare in many institutions. The benefits of having a higher number of nurses done on the practical approach show that the increase in the number of nurses has reduced the number of severe cases (Griffiths, Ball, Drennan, Dall’Ora, Jones, Maruotti & Simon, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). However, the study also shows that there is a minimum of correlation with less than eight peer-reviewed journals out of thirty-five models showed that there is a weak correlation between the number of nurses and mortality rate in many NICE institutions.
The quality of skill and mixed based nursing is one of the crucial factors that has affected the quality of healthcare in many facilities. According to Aiken, Cerón, Simonetti, Lake, Galiano, Garbarini & Smith evaluated that the number of registered nurses affects the overall quality service outcome in the healthcare industry (Aiken, Cerón, Simonetti, Lake, Galiano, Garbarini & Smith, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). The authors found that there is a high variation between patient-to-nurse ratios in the United Kingdom hospitals, including England. The study showed that all the hospitals in the United Kingdom have a patient-to-nurse ratio ranging from 8.6 to 5.6 with some of the hospitals averaging to a value of 11.5 (Aiken, Cerón, Simonetti, Lake, Galiano, Garbarini & Smith, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). The evidence-based review showed that there is a significant correlation between the number of nurses, the patient-to-nurse ration with a lower mortality rate in a healthcare institution. From the study, National policymakers and many of the hospital management in the past century and years have viewed nursing as additional operational expenses. However, countries that have lower patient-to-nurse ratios workloads have resulted in quality healthcare despite the allocation of limited resources available in many hospitals (Aiken, Cerón, Simonetti, Lake, Galiano, Garbarini & Smith, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). Using an evidence-based approach, the article evaluated that hospitals have created an increase in value and quality by investing in the quality and quantity of staffing. The study evaluates that a healthcare institution investing in a higher number of nurses would increase the overall operating cost. However, the cost of operation may be offset by the overall increase of profitability by patient’s satisfaction due to patient care.
Registered Nurses and Quality Healthcare
The number of registered nurses (RN) in the healthcare system is one of the factors that affect the quality of the healthcare system. The skills of nurses for centuries determine the overall quality of healthcare in most of the healthcare institutions. According to Orton, Andersson, Wallin, Forsman, & Eldh evaluated that the skill of nurses determines the safety and quality of service offered. Registered nurses have been associated with safe practices globally due to their skill and experience in the field of nursing (Orton, Andersson, Wallin, Forsman, & Eldh, 2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). All types of nurses are accountable for their actions, but registered nurses have more accountability compared to others. The government has set up a concrete framework with an evidence-based approach and data with enhanced regulation to guide nurses in the process of offering healthcare in many institutions (Orton, Andersson, Wallin, Forsman, & Eldh, 2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). The model used in the study showed a direct relationship between the number of registered nurses and the quality of healthcare. Companies that have more registered nurses have fewer adverse events occurring in the wards leading to better healthcare.
Implementation Plan
The process of getting a balanced staffing ratio is one of the most challenges factors that affect the overall quality of the healthcare system. From the literature, it is evident that the process of establishing a balanced workforce needs time to factor the operating cost of running the hospitals, stakeholders and the availability of registered nurses. Due to the fact, the man theory of change that is best on evidence-based practices is the Rodgers’ change theory (Malinski, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). Rodgers’ change theory is a long-term strategy that ensures the change in an organization using a five-step project which includes awareness, interest, evaluation, implementation and adoption. The following figure shows the five steps of Rodgers’ change theory:
Figure 2: Rodgers Change Theory
The first step includes creating awareness of the problem in the facility. From the articles, it would include establishing the awareness of increasing the number of registered staffs in a hospital to all the stakeholders and its overall advantages. The process would increase the interest of all the stakeholders since it would show how it directly increases the service and quality of health care (Malinski, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). The third step would entail evaluation which will include the process of achieving the goals and its overall impact on the facility. The last step of the theory evaluates the lengthy process of adopting the different strategies’ in balancing staff ratios. The five steps would allow the facilities to be able to achieve their goals of a balanced workforce.
Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the strengths of the implementation plan is that the theory and framework of the model plan accommodate change over a more extended period. The model allows the facility to be able to accommodate the change over a given period (Orton, Andersson, Wallin, Forsman, & Eldh, 2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). Thus, it reduces the cost of adapting to the increase of the number of registered nurses in the organization without necessarily having an expensive high budget to the organization. Also, it allows all the stakeholders in the organization from the nurses to the management in adapting changes.
One of the weaknesses of the implementation plan according to the theory, is that it takes a long-time frame to achieve the desired goal. Thus, the long-term frame would still result in more workloads for the nurses and poor quality of care which might result in work dissatisfaction and low customer satisfaction (Malinski, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). Thus, the facility needs a consistent framework that would ensure a step by step policy for achieving the given goal.
Informatics
The implementation plan entails the process of collecting data according to evidence-based practice in the process of evaluating the process of policy change. Informatic and technology in the given implementation plan ensures the process of collecting and analyzing data in showing the correlation between an increase in the number of trained nurses and the quality of care including the quality of safety (Malinski, 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). Software’s would help gradual steps in the process of collecting data and analyzing thus checking if the policy is increasing the quality of healthcare in the facility.
Conclusion
Low staffing ratios is one of the main challenges that affect the overall growth of quality healthcare in many of the healthcare institutions. Nurses usually face heavy workload and more shifts to accommodate the high number of patients. From the evidence-based practice, it is evident that low staffing ratios increases reduce the overall quality of care. Using Rodgers’ change theory healthcare institutions would increase the overall number of staffing hiring registered nurses without having a financial strain and the same allowing the smooth adaption by all stakeholders.
1. Aiken, L. H., Cerón, C., Simonetti, M., Lake, E. T., Galiano, A., Garbarini, A., … & Smith, H. L. (2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). Hospital nurse staffing and patient outcomes. Revista Médica Clínica Las Condes, 29(3), 322-327.
2. Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Drennan, J., Dall’Ora, C., Jones, J., Maruotti, A., … & Simon, M. (2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes: Strengths and limitations of the evidence to inform policy and practice. A review and discussion paper based on evidence reviewed for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Safe Staffing guideline development. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 63, 213-225.
3. Orton, M. L., Andersson, Å., Wallin, L., Forsman, H., & Eldh, A. C. (2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). Nursing management matters for registered nurses with a PhD working in clinical practice. Journal of nursing management, 27(5), 955-962.
4. Malinski, V. M. (2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online). The Importance of a Nursing Theoretical Framework for Nursing Practice: Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings and Barrett’s Theory of Knowing Participation in Change as Exemplars. Cultura del Cuidado Enfermeria, 15(2), 6-13.
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