Introduction
Distractions in a patient-care delivery setting are a huge barrier to the delivery of timely and high-quality care. Kollstedt et al. (2019) conducted a study to discover various distractions of patient-centered care delivery from the hospital nurses’ perceptions. The research conducted in acute care settings applied for the literature review as a method of collecting data whereby several studies related to the topic under research were examined. The findings revealed that there are many distractions in care delivery, with the most severe being connected to staffing, phone ringing, computer issues, and multitasking. Thus, although such distractions are manageable in nursing practice, they could become a barrier to better care delivery. The purpose of this paper is to draw three conclusions from the study and three implications of the conclusion to clinical practice.
Conclusions
The study shows that there are several types of distractions in an acute care setting. As expressed by hospital nurses, some of the distractions include improper staffing, ringing of staff phones, computer issues, multitasking, noise, music, equipment, and medication availability problems, and lack of teamwork (Kollstedt et al., 2019). Staffing activities topped the list of major sources of distraction which is based on institutional decisions and not related to clinical nursing. The ringing of the phones amongst staff during working hours is increasingly a problem from all the research studies under review. Considering the presence of limitations of the study, some of the distractions recorded may not count toward the opinions of all nurses. Thus, since the study only covered a few nurses, the most common distraction that could affect all nurses are the ringing of phones, noises, staffing issues, and multitasking.
From the study, it is also significant to conclude that distractions in patient-centered care settings interfere with care delivery. One of the most crucial objectives of nursing in hospitals is to deliver high-quality care that meets patients’ needs. They aim to work against all odds to ensure the safety and well-being of patients are put first in all clinical settings. However, the presence of distractive activities may compromise the attainment of such objectives. The various distractions mentioned by the study contribute to service delivery interruptions and medical errors and, at times, put patients’ safety at risk (Kollstedt et al., 2019). Consequently, instead of delivering high-quality and timely patient-centered care, the care is either delivered late or in poor quality. Consequences like medical errors become a huge liability for the nurses and the institutions involved.
It is critical to recognize and control sources of distractions in hospitals to prevent or minimize cases of poor quality in service delivery. Some distractive activities, such as noise, music, and computer issues, may be controlled. Limiting their distractions would mean less interruption in clinical practices. However, controlling such activities should be done with lots of care because creating awareness about such distractions makes them worse. Kollstedt et al. (2019) noted that a study by Hay and coauthors (2016) revealed an increase in distractions upon creating awareness among hospital nurses as they try to be more vigilant, observing minimization of interruptions to more focus while decreasing focus in patient care delivery. Thus, hospital nurses need to understand which distractions are controllable and that is uncontrollable.
Implications for Practice
There are many types of distractions whose effect or intensity may not be understood by all nurses. Distractions are based on each clinical setting in the hospital and so is the understanding of their frequency and intensity (Thomas et al., 2017). Therefore, in such a study, it is only wise to question nurses about the interruptions from their respective settings. This implication is based on the limitation of the study whereby nurses were questioned based on general settings.
Interventions for various distractions should be specifically applied based on the type of distraction activity. Some interruptions are manageable while others are not; hence should not be treated the same (Thomas et al., 2017). Phone ringing may not be eliminated in all hospital settings because different clinical information is shared through phone calls and messages. Thus, although they may be minimized, their distraction is positive and necessary and hence may not be avoided. Other interruptions, such as staffing and computer issues, should have convenient interventions to ensure their elimination.
Evaluation of interventions for distractions should be done from time to time to ensure their effectiveness. Closely monitoring the intervention help in the identification and elimination of the least effective and ensures reduced distractions (Fiorinelli et al., 2021). After the evaluation, the least effective interventions should be discontinued, especially those that rather increase interruption than reduce it. Such evaluation is critical to the sustainability of high-quality and timely patient-centered care delivery.
Conclusion
Identifying and acknowledging distractions in hospital settings is essential to keeping the hospital environment safe. Patient safety is significantly dependent on the activities of the nurses during care delivery. Thus, interruptions during service delivery is a negative impact on the nursing practice and should be controlled accordingly. Henceforth, necessary interventions must be applied to control care delivery, correspondent nursing practices, and ensure patient safety.
References
Fiorinelli, M., Di Mario, S., Surace, A., Mattei, M., Russo, C., Villa, G., & Di Muzio, M. (2021). Smartphone distraction during nursing care: A systematic literature review.Applied Nursing Research, 58(1), 15-45.
Kollstedt, K., Fowler, S. B., & Weissman, K. (2019). Hospital nurses’ perceptions about distractions to patient-centered care delivery. MedSurg Nursing, 28(4). Web.
Thomas, L., Donohue-Porter, P., & Fishbein, J. S. (2017). Impact of interruptions, distractions, and cognitive load on procedure failures and medication administration errors. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 32(4), 309-317. Web.