Introduction
The article prepared by Sand-Jecklin and Sherman (2014) is focused on the effects of blended bedside nursing shift reports. It discusses improvements obtained due to the implementation of the change. Mainly, professionals focus on patient safety and nurse accountability. Assessment of the effectiveness of nursing shift reports is required due to the lack of authoritative information regarding this point. Literature sources tend to identify several benefits of such reports, but they lack efficient quantitative evidence or sample sizes. Thus, the rationale for the conduct of this study can be seen in the necessity to fill the existing gaps. This paper analyzes the article to prove that it is good enough to make healthcare facilities resort to a blended form of bedside nursing report. Thus, a research question, research design, sample, data collection methods, limitations, and findings of the study will be thoroughly assessed further.
Research Question
This article addresses a research question “what are the outcomes relevant to the implementation of a blended bedside nursing report?”. It is aimed at the calculation of quantities outcomes of change that reveal the most unbiased data. Factors and issues related to it are also discussed. Because miscommunication was claimed to be one of the main causes of compromising patient health, the fact that the authors focused on those reports that can help professionals to share vital information regarding clients’ condition and treatment contributes to the significance of the article (The Joint Commission, 2011). Nurses themselves state patient handoffs must be those events that lead to increased issues, incidents, and misunderstandings. Thus, it is rather advantageous that this research is going to gather information from both healthcare staff and patients.
Research Design
The article under investigation is mainly focused on the evaluation of quantitative data. To meet its aim, quasi-experimental pre- and postimplementation design was used. The quantitative approach is selected because it allows measuring data, defining relations between variables, which makes finding more objective than when using qualitative study. However, it cannot be denied that the lack of contextual influences can be a drawback of this research design because healthcare facilities presuppose a rather challenging environment. It is also critical to have a large sample, which tends to be complicated, but the authors managed to deal with this point. Similarly, quasi-experimental research allows avoiding such limitations as the time that is critical for a real experiment. In addition to that, the research environment is not artificial and belongs to the real world, which ensures that its results can be used in practice without any significant problems (CIRT, 2017). As an assessment is focused on the data gathered before and after implementation of the change, it is not difficult to measure observed alterations.
Sample
Previously conducted research studies that discussed the same issue used to have small or not identified sizes of the sample. This very article discusses the information obtained from hospitalized people who spend in a healthcare facility no less than 48 hours and are expected to discharge within a month. A surgical unit is approached because of its convenience and the fact that nurses’ misunderstanding can cause severe harm to patients’ lives, considering their vulnerability. A part of the sample is represented by nurses from different medical units. Both nurse managers and staff nurses are approached. All in all, the researchers reached 544 patients and 195 family members who answered for their ill relatives. The number of nurses was not that big and included only 148 nurses. Out of them, 98 participated in the second stage of the study in three months after the information was firstly obtained, and 54 were approached in 13 months. Mainly, the sample was 22-34 years old, which meant that nurses already had some experience in the field but were ready to accept something more innovative (Sand-Jecklin & Sherman, 2014). Such a sample is appropriate for the research because its design determines the necessity to have many participants. Even though the number of nurses is not big, it is enough for research as one professional usually serves several clients.
Data Collection Methods
Data for this study was collected with the help of surveys conducted with patients and nurses. In this way, the authors resorted to such tools as the patient views on nursing care survey and baseline nurse perception survey (Sand-Jecklin & Sherman, 2014). Those participants who resorted to seven medical-surgical units were approached so that their position regarding the implementation of a blended bedside nursing report could be obtained. The surveys were conducted by the authors, which ensured their deep knowledge of the issue and understanding of all observed events and actions. It is also significant that the research study was maintained following ethical principles. Thus, the participants agreed to be involved in the study by free will. They were aware of their main purpose and aims. What is more, the authors did not mention any names in the article and ensured the privacy and safety of personal data.
Limitations of the Study
However, like all other research studies, this one has a range of limitations that were not possible to avoid when preparing a paper. Still, the situation can be enhanced in the future. A convenience sampling was used, which means that the participants could have failed to represent the whole targeted population. There were no limitations for nurses who completed surveys. It means that they had an opportunity to send several reports, which can affect the findings greatly. Even though particular inconsistencies of the proposed change were mentioned by the sample, they were not measured and discussed. In addition to that, the effects of another research could have affected obtained results especially those connected with the patient’s condition as the medication error reporting system was tested at the same time (Sand-Jecklin & Sherman, 2014). These limitations prove that not all effects of the nursing report are already assessed. Still, the gaps can be overcome if altering the sampling method, and consider more variables.
Findings
The findings focus on patient and nursing satisfaction, fall rates, nursing overtime, and errors. According to them, significant improvement is observed due to the implementation of a blended nursing report. The way professionals treat it improves even though no critical changes considering over time due to the necessity to spend time on reporting. The number of patient falls reduced, and misunderstanding occurred rarely (Sand-Jecklin & Sherman, 2014). Thus, the research question was successfully answered. The findings are credible as they are obtained with the help of sufficient tools and align with previous studies.
Summary
This paper provides an analysis of the article prepared by Sand-Jecklin and Sherman (2014). It measures outcomes of the implementation of a blended bedside nursing report, emphasizing its benefits for the practice. The analysis reveals that the article answers its research question with its findings, allowing to see a range of advantages for both nurses and patients. The discussed change can be implemented in practice because the evidence reveals positive outcomes within real healthcare settings. Thus, this article is worth discussing as a trigger for change because it deals with a large number of factors and issues relevant to the innovation and is based on a sample of a large size, which makes it more generalized.
References
CIRT. (2017). Benefits & limitations of quasi-experimental research.
Sand-Jecklin, K., & Sherman, J. (2014). A quantitative assessment of patient and nurse outcomes of bedside nursing report implementation. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23, 2854-2863. Web.
The Joint Commission. (2011). Testimonials.