Background
Providing the services of the finest quality to target populations and met their requirements, at the same time adhering to high quality standards of healthcare, can be seen as the primary goal of nursing (McHugh et al., 2016). However, maintaining the quality of nursing services consistent is a rather challenging task for modern healthcare organizations due to a declining nurse-to-patient (NTP) ratio. The specified issue has special significance for nurses that operate in the environment of an ICU and similar settings where a quick response to patients’ needs is essential to receiving a positive outcome. Therefore, legal tools for reducing NTP must be studied.
Definition
NTP can be defined as the correlation between the number of nurses that are supposed to cater to the needs of a particular type of demographic, and the number of patients in question (Cho et al., 2015). Although being a fairly loose representation of the quality of services, it does provide a general idea of how fast a nurse can deliver the required services to each member of a target population. NTP can be seen as one of the ratios that allow controlling the quality of care by providing the critical number of patients per nurse (McHugh et al., 2016).
Epidemiology
Although a high NTP ratio cannot technically be viewed as a health concern since it is neither a disease nor a disorder, it does pose a significant threat to patients’ well-being and, thus, needs to be regarded as a legitimate danger. Particularly, high NTP may lead to the lack of control over nurses’ performance, as well as a possible drop in motivation rates among nurses. Therefore, one must keep in mind that nurse shortage takes its toll on patients’ well-being, leading to the exposure of target population to external factors such as the threat of developing a nosocomial disease, which is especially dangerous for patients in the ICU setting (Zanten et al., 2014).
Clinical Presentation
A rise in NTP rates may lead to a significant deterioration of nursing service quality (Aiken, Sloane, Ball, Bruyneel, Rafferty, & Griffiths, 2018). Due to the increase in the number of nurses per patient, the management of crucial tasks requires successful collaboration and very efficient management of data. The specified task has become even more difficult with the rise in the levels of diversity in communities (Cho et al., 2015). The factors mentioned above may lead to a steep rise in the number of medical errors, thus, making the contemporary nursing setting equally difficult for both nurses and patients (McHugh et al., 2016).
Complications
As stressed above, the issue of NTP is associated with a range of health complications. Although a connection to nosocomial infections is the one that is made most frequently when addressing the subject matter, there is also the threat of medical errors, workplace burnouts, rise in depression levels and similar mental conditions among nurses and patients alike, a rise in hospital stay length, etc. (Cho et al., 2015).
Diagnosis
When considering the impact that a drop in NTP has on patients with different conditions, one should keep in mind that the target population is extremely diverse and, therefore. However, seeing how closely the issue of workplace burnout among nurses is connected to changes in the NTP ratio, one may consider the general deterioration of health among patients the official diagnosis, whereas the overall level of well-being is the desired outcome.
Conclusion with PICOT Question
Conclusion
Despite the fact that a high NTP ratio is usually viewed as a positive phenomenon since it ostensibly implies paying more attention to each patient individually, it, in fact, may trigger a steep drop in positive outcomes among patients, as well as the quality of nursing services. Therefore, exploring the legal means of maintaining a medium NTP should be regarded as a necessity.
PICOT Question
Does implementing legislations and laws for NTP management reduce negative outcomes for the nurse and the patient?
References
Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., Ball, J., Bruyneel, L., Rafferty, A. M., & Griffiths, P. (2018). Patient satisfaction with hospital care and nurses in England: an observational study. BMJ Open, 8(1), e019189. Web.
Cho, E., Sloane, D. M., Kim, E. Y., Kim, S., Choi, M., Yoo, I. Y.,… Aiken, L. H. (2015). Effects of nurse staffing, work environments, and education on patient mortality: An observational study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(2), 535-542. Web.
McHugh, M. D., Rochman, M. F., Sloane, D. M., Berg, R. A., Mancini, M. E., Nadkarni, V. M.,… Aiken, L. H. (2016). Better nurse staffing and nurse work environments associated with increased survival of in-hospital cardiac arrest patients. Medical Care, 54(1), 74-80. Web.
Zanten, A. R. V., Sztark, F., Kaisers, U. X., Zielmann, S., Felbinger, T. W., Sablotzki, A. R.,… Vincent, J. L. (2014). High-protein enteral nutrition enriched with immune-modulating nutrients vs standard high-protein enteral nutrition and nosocomial infections in the ICU: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 312(5), 514-524. Web.