Introduction
Nurse-to-patient ratio is a rather important factor that contributes to the overall performance of a healthcare facility or institution, and that determines the quality of work and patient safety (Cimiotti, Barton, Gorman, Sloane, & Aiken, 2014). In addition, this ratio is also tightly connected to the level of job satisfaction and occupational stress of staff members – two highly significant factors that impact personnel’s performance on a daily basis (Martin, 2015). As a result, this problem requires solutions evidence-based and practical solutions that could be implemented as soon as possible in order to bring positive results and help defeat negative outcomes. This paper is dedicated to the identification of the clinical problem as well as the presentation of the PICOT question for the project.
Problem
As it was mentioned previously, the problem selected for this project is nurse understaffing. This issue stands for the insufficient number of nursing practitioners available at a certain healthcare facility or institution at any given period (Kiekkas, 2013; Shang, Stone, & Larson, 2015). Practically, there exists nurse-to-patient ratio that varies for different types of units and facilities. This ratio determines the allocation of workloads and also ensures that each patient in the unit is provided with the required level of care and professional attention. Units and facilities with the insufficient nurse-to-patient ratio endanger their patients’ health by failing to provide high-quality care and expose their staff to excessive workloads.
PICOT Statement
The problem of nurse understaffing in home health care institutions is just as important as in hospitals and medical centers. The setting for the present project is Empathy Care Home Health center. As a result, the population this project will target includes all nurses in this institution. The intervention will be based on the increase of nurse-to-patient ratio per unit compared to the current state of affairs where the number of nurses employed in the facility is insufficient. The outcomes expected from this intervention will include an increased rate of retention of the present staff members due to the alleviated work-life balance and the minimization of excessive workloads.
Additionally, this intervention is anticipated to help prevent the prevalence of medical errors and boost the level of patient satisfaction. The overall period in which the present project is expected to take place is three months. All of these pieces of information are necessary parts of the PICOT question of this project. The proposed solution is evidence-based as many studies propose that the sufficient nurse-to-patient ratio is key to the improvements in patient happiness, personnel’s health and wellbeing, an increased level of staff retention, and a better organizational performance (Cimiotti, et al., 2014; Martin, 2015; Beltempo, Blais, Lacroix, Cabot, & Piedboeuf, 2017; Kiekkas, 2013). In that way, the positive patient outcome is the major but not the only positive outcome that is expected to occur after the implementation of this intervention.
PICOT Question
Consequently, the PICOT question for this project will include a brief and clarified version of the statement presented in the previous section. Namely, it will be the following: “In the nurses of Empathy Care Home Health, does the increased nurse-patient ratio per unit, compared to the current practice, help achieve the increased staff retention rate, prevent medical errors, and increase patient satisfaction within three months?” This PICOT question reflects the population, intervention, comparison, outcome, and time selected for the present project. Also, it covers the setting in which the project will be carried out, the evidence-based solution chosen to address the issue under discussion, and nursing practice.
References
Beltempo, M., Blais, R., Lacroix, G., Cabot, M., & Piedboeuf, B. (2017). Association of nursing overtime, nurse staffing, and unit occupancy with health care-associated infections in the NICU. American Journal of Perinatology, 34(10), 996-1002. Web.
Cimiotti, J. P., Barton, S. J., Gorman, K. E. C., Sloane, D. M., & Aiken, L. H. (2014). Nurse reports on resource adequacy in hospitals that care for acutely ill children. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 36(2), 25-32.
Kiekkas, P. (2013). Nurse understaffing and infection risk: Current evidence, future research and health policy. Nursing in Critical Care, 18(2), 61-62.
Martin, C. J. (2015). The effects of nurse staffing on quality of care. MEDSURG Nursing, 24(2), S4-S6.
Shang, J., Stone, P., & Larson, E. (2015). Studies on nurse staffing and health care-associated infection: Methodologic challenges and potential solutions. American Journal of Infection Control, 43(6), 581-588.