Evidence-Based Practice Problem/Topic
There are several things that help improve safety in the healthcare field. One of these
things is the nurse-to-patient ratio. This is the number of patients that one nurse takes ca
...
Evidence-Based Practice Problem/Topic
There are several things that help improve safety in the healthcare field. One of these
things is the nurse-to-patient ratio. This is the number of patients that one nurse takes care of.
This ratio can vary from the nurse's specialty and what setting is being looked into in the
healthcare field. The ratios can vary greatly from 1:1 patient ratio to 1:20 ratios in some settings.
Significance
Nurse-to-patient ratios are a very important factor to look at in the health care field. As
nurse-to-patient ratios increase the time a nurse has with a patient decreases. It has been shown
that improved outcomes, fewer complications, fewer adverse events, and fewer hospital readmissions come with appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios. They have also been shown to benefit
the staff. Having appropriate ratios can help with job dissatisfaction, burnout, and stress for the
nurses as it can reduce the amount of workload placed on them.
nurse-to-patient ratios typically shouldn’t go over 1:5, and in acute care, the ratio should
be lower as it should be closer to 1:2 or 1:3. In a lot of hospitals, however, the ratios can be closer
to 1:6, 1:8, or even more during the night shift. This has led to unsafe and stressful conditions at
work for nurses and is one of the causes that many nurses leave the field within a few years of
working in it. With higher nurse-to-patient ratios it also leads to burnout of nurses. This problem
leads to more issues. Burnout is defined by disengagement and leads to detachment and dulled
emotions (the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, 2020). This in result can lead to
nurses becoming resentful toward patients, other nurses, and even the people at home.
Patients also face troubles when the nurse-to-patient ratio isn’t appropriate and is higher
than necessary. Missed nursing care is one thing that was found to be strongly associated with a
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higher ratio. Missed nursing care is a phenomenon of omission that happens when the correct
action is delayed, partially completed, or can’t be done at all (PSNet, 2021). It has also been
shown that the higher ratios compromise the ability of the nurse to provide safe, quality care to
patients as the increase in patients eventually compromises their ability to do so. Increased risk
of safety events, mortality, and morbidity are shown with the increase in the number of patients
to a nurse. Other poor outcomes patients can face are increased medication errors, missed care,
and delayed care.
PICOT
The PICOT question that was made in regard to nurse-to-patient ratios would compare a
lowered ratio to a higher ratio in regards to patient safety and their healing.
The PICOT components are as follows: Population- Patients in an emergency
department; Intervention- lowered nurse-to-patient ratios; Comparison- higher nurse to patient
ratios; Outcome- improve patient safety and healing; Time- in a six-month time period.
In an emergency department, how does lowering the nurse-to-patient ratio to 1:3, compare
to having a ratio of 1:4, help improve patient safety and healing, in a six-month time period?
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