Change in Practice Assignment
For this assignment, select a problem in nursing practice that you believe needs to be addressed and write a six to seven page paper. Gather evidence on practices that will address the problem. Use the following guidelines and evaluation criteria as a guide. Use the headings below for each section. Use a minimum of seven references from the professional nursing literature in the assigned course readings and other references in the Walden Library. If they are relevant, you may use one or two professional Web sites in addition to the literature references
Begin this assignment with a brief paragraph that provides an overview of the assignment and its purpose. There is no separate heading for this paragraph; the heading for this paragraph is the same as the title of the paper. This paragraph will be about 2–3 sentences. The last sentence in this paragraph is a sentence that begins "The purpose of this assignment is to . . . ”. This paragraph is worth 20 points.
The Problem— 40 points
Describe the practice-related problem you selected. Include why the problem is important to nursing practice, current practice in your work setting, and why the current practice needs to be changed. This section is 2–3 paragraphs.
Practice Change — 40 points
Explain in detail the evidence-based change to practice you are proposing supported by the literature. This section is 2–3 paragraphs.
Evidence Supporting the Proposed Change— 50 points
Describe some of the evidence that supports your proposed change(s). The evidence needs to include at least two original research studies or meta-analyses. Each needs to be summarized in a separate paragraph. This section is 3 -4 paragraphs.
Evaluating the Change - 30 points
Identify how you plan to evaluate whether the change you proposed has an effect on the problem you identified. Explain how data will be collected to decide if the change had a positive, negative, or neutral impact on the problem. It is useful to review the research articles used in the section above for ideas about how to measure outcomes related to this problem. However, remember that you are creating a quality assurance measure rather than outcomes for research.
Summary—20 points
Provide a one-paragraph summary of the main points of this assignment proposal. According to APA format, each paragraph must be, at minimum, three sentences in length.
Change in Practice Assignment
Student’s Full Name
Walden University
Course Number, Section, and Title
Month, Day, Year
Overview of the Assignment
An appropriate nurse staffing is a critical element in health facilities that ensures the safety and well-being of the patients and caregivers. A health facility that has an inadequate staffing level experiences staffing malpractices such as medication errors, falls, respiratory infections, and an increase in heart attacks among other things.
It is therefore upon this central theme that it of significance to point out and acknowledge the fact that this challenge has been challenged by many health institutions. It is imperative to realize that when an institution of health staffs its nurses according to numbers, it would mean that all their patients require the same care methods regardless of the complexities and illnesses they have. However in the event that staffing is done on the basis of numbers, nurses are likely to experience depletions in morale, burnouts a factor that leads to higher levels of staff absenteeism. This also clearly shows the intensity of this problem and, therefore, indicates that a change should be enacted through the introduction of a nursing structure through acuity in order to decrease instances of burnout and increase the satisfaction of patients.
The purpose of this assignment is to pursue approaches of bridging the gaps in health organizations, through the formulation of conceptual frameworks that ensures the staffing levels are done effectively in order to improve patient outcomes, job satisfaction and retention also considering the liabilities that come with this problem (Bogaert, Clarke, Willems, & Mondelaers, 2013).
Problem Statement
Registered nurses remain the single largest group of health care professionals in many countries. However, nurse-to-patient ratios have posed a challenge for many hospitals for quite a period of time. Many hospitals have gone to the point of advocating for the number of nurses required for certain levels of care, a factor that has not been well received in health care industry. It is imperative to realize that when an institution of health staffs its nurses according to numbers, it would mean that all their patients require the same care methods regardless of the complexities and illnesses they have.
Out of this, many hospitals have taken steps in restructuring their systems with the intention of decreasing the costs associated with the large and huge staffing with the aim of increasing productivity (Bogaert, et.al). These initiatives have highly affected the effectiveness of clinical care and patient outcomes, job satisfaction and patient retention. In order to increase the productivity levels of a health institution, it is important that the appropriate staffing approaches are employed. It is through the effective staffing strategies that a health organization achieves its goals. In the event an organization staffs its nurses poorly. The same results are likely to yield, a factor that affects many functions within a health institution.
Many institutions have considerable taken the approaches of staffing their facilities on the basis of numbers. Such institutions that apply the approaches of staffing by numbers experience difficulties in their staff’s performances and with their staffs having difficulties in coping with the increase in workloads (Castaneda, & Scanlan, 2014). Due to this, they remain victims of adverse contributory factors to dangerous, poor and inappropriate standards in care.
Practicing Change
The main dichotomy in this change practice mainly lies in finding the solution to this problem. Through this, it is significant to realize that staffing by acuity would be the most appropriate approach of ensuring that the needs of a patient are addressed adversely, thus resulting in job satisfaction and retention. Staffing by acuity involves the categorization of patients according to classes with the aim of representing the needs of care (Castaneda, & Scanlan, 2014). Through the use of a mathematical prediction, it is easier to determine the amount of nursing care that should be given to each and every patient as opposed to that of numbers.
This approach has been incorporated to control the rising costs of patient care through the properly formulated models that determine the appropriate staffing levels. The system therefore refines the approaches used in the health sector by identifying nursing needs as well as the patients too and finding better approaches that can meet these needs. Through this, accountability at all levels of the organization is shared in the delivery of quality patient care that is cost-effective (Hairr, Salisbury, Johannsson, & Redfern-Vance, 2014). It is important to mention that hospitals should engage in discussions to determine short and long term strategies that can be employed in reversing the accelerating problem experienced in the staffing of nurses in line with the ever increasing demands today. This demand is more likely to increase in the event that proper strategies are not formulated in advance.
Evidence Supporting a Proposed Change
A recent study in a health facility revealed that a patient risks dying within the first 30 days of admission in a health institution in the event that they are added to a nurse’s workload that passes a particular point (Hairr, et.al). This view holds that inadequacies in staffing levels, has led to many nurses spending less or no time with their patients due to excessive busy units. In the event that a health institution decides to staff their nurses on the basis of numbers, nurses are likely to experience low levels of morale, burnouts a factor that leads to higher levels of staff absenteeism as a result of workloads.
This also clearly shows the intens...