Problem Conceptualization
When caregivers are not well, deterioration in the quality and quantity of patient care may occur. The research has indicated that nurses’ workloads and schedules can pose problems for addressing the issues mentioned above (Roberts & Grubb, 2014). This paper provides an intervention defining whether the implementation of stress reduction, time management strategies, and appropriate hour schedules, or leaving the profession, is a better choice to increment patient safety and nursing satisfaction.
Intervention
Population
The healthcare agencies will be chosen among large local hospitals to select at least one hundred nurses willing to participate. To be eligible for the study, nurses would have to be 21 years of age or older and work in oncology, general surgical, intensive care unit (ICU), and orthopedic wards. The participants would have to be knowledgeable about the phenomena under study, have at least six months of working experience, and be willing and able to transfer experience.
Intervention
The present study would use a quantitative approach through the pretest-posttest randomized controlled trial method. The web-based breath: Stress Management for Nurses program would be tested. As claimed, this program provides nurses with the tools and information they need to manage stressors influencing their work-life (Hersch et al., 2016). Given that the study will be aimed at health professionals, nursing interventions are irrelevant to the chosen topic.
The selected evidence-based solution, the BREATHE program, involves the use of web-based educational modules targeted at both nurses and managers. During this course, nurses study the basics of stress assessment, personal stressors, stress management tools, threats of negative coping, and seeking counseling services (Hersch et al., 2016). The comparative analysis of pre-and post-intervention stress scores in 104 people supports the program’s effectiveness (Hersch et al., 2016).
Long shifts negatively affect the care that patients receive, thus promoting their dissatisfaction (Khademi, Mohammadi, & Vanaki, 2015). Using the length of individual nurse shifts, the effects of different shift category proportions on each patient outcome will be studied. The participants would be randomly assigned to either a wait-list control group or the experimental group (receiving access to the BREATHE program). The experimental group would also be asked to arrive early to plan their work and prioritize their activities. Upon completion of the study, all participants would be given post-test questionnaires and access to the BREATHE program.
Comparison
Research indicates that nursing staff working in neonatal care has not been extensively studied (Tomazoni, Kuerten Rocha, de Souza, Anders, & Correia de Malfussi, 2014). In this connection, the results obtained from the present study would be compared to those assessing how stress reduction and time management strategies, as well as appropriate hour schedules, influence patient safety culture at neonatal intensive care units. It would allow hypothesizing if findings were generalizable and exclude potential bias, as well as determine potential strengths and limitations of the study.
Outcomes
The present study would hypothesize that participants receiving the BREATHE program would experience greater reductions in stress-related to nursing. The results are expected to be extremely relevant to both nursing practice and the quality of patient care. Nurses will be aware of stress reduction techniques to be used at the workplace, and this knowledge will enable them to minimize the frequency of mistakes in nursing practice. Upon this condition, fewer nursing errors will immediately increase patient satisfaction rates in the healthcare agency, indicating improvements in inpatient care (Nayak, 2018). The results obtained would allow further hypothesizing whether the implementation of the strategies mentioned above is a better choice than leaving the profession to increment patient safety and nursing satisfaction.
Time
The experimental group would be given individual access to the BREATHE program for a three-month test period. However, the experimental group would receive reminders to use the program both at work and at home. In contrast, the wait-list control group would only receive information about when the posttest questionnaire would be available.
References
Hersch, R.K., Cook, R.F., Deitz, D.K., Kaplan, S., Hughes, D., Friesen, M.A., & Vezina, M. (2016). Reducing nurses’ stress: A randomized controlled trial of a web-based stress management program for nurses. Applied Nursing Research, 32, 18-25.
Khademi, M., Mohammadi, E., & Vanaki, Z. (2015). Resources-tasks imbalance: Experiences of nurses from factors influencing workload to increase. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 20(4), 476-483.
Nayak, S.G. (20178). Time management in nursing – an hour of need. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 11(3), 1997-2000.
Roberts, R.K., & Grubb, P.L. (2014). The consequences of nursing stress and need for integrated solutions. Rehabilitation Nursing, 39(2), 62-69.
Tomazoni, A., Kuerten Rocha, P., de Souza, S., Anders, J.C., & Correia de Malfussi, H.F. (2014). Patient safety culture at neonatal intensive care units: Perspective of the nursing and medical team. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 22(5), 755-763.