PICOT Question and Literature Search: Insufficiency in Nursing Staff

Literature Evaluation Table
Student Name:
Clinical Issue
The nursing field is usually faced with a number of challenges. In a clinical setup, perhaps the biggest challenge is usually the insufficiency in the number of staff. When there is an inadequate number of hands on deck, it becomes quite difficult for an institution to run its services efficiently (Roh et al. ,2013). This is especially so when looking at aspects such as cleanliness, patient experience and even accurate diagnosis. Everyone gets exhausted when there is too much work. Everyone will need some external assistance when tired. In a hospital setup, this external help never comes. In the end, it results in chronic cases of fatigue, which greatly impact the service delivery within the institution. Too much workload usually results in burnouts for the working staff. Some departments in the hospital are usually quite labor-intensive. As a result, any hiccup in the availability of this labor can be quite disastrous. For example the emergency department, where any second means everything for the patients being brought in and those being attended to. When there is an absence of that constant presence, these patients can easily and quickly deteriorate, and even die. An understaffed hospital can sometimes be borderline equated to a death trap; too many patients in need of treatment while very few attendants to do so Griffiths et al. (2016), They therefore end up just waiting on the line, either for medical attention or for the worsening of their respective conditions. There is need to address this properly, for the best patient outcomes.
PICOT Question: “In inpatients in acute care units, does an increased nurse staffing levels, compared to low staffing levels, improve patient health outcomes on day 7 of hospitalization?”
Criteria

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APA-Formatted Article Citation with Permalink

Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Drennan, J., Dall’Ora, C., Jones, J., & Maruotti, A. et al. (2016). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes: The evidence's strengths and limitations to inform policy and practice. A review and discussion paper based on evidence reviewed for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Safe Staffing guideline development. International Journal Of Nursing Studies, 63, 213-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.03.012

Roh, Y., Kim, S., & Kim, S. (2013). Effects of an integrated problem-based learning and simulation course for nursing students. Nursing &Amp; Health Sciences, 16(1), 91-96. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12069

Haegdorens, F., Van Bogaert, P., De Meester, K., & Monsieurs, K. G. (2019). The impact of nurse staffing levels and nurse’s education on patient mortality in medical and surgical wards: an observational multicentre study. BMC health services research, 19(1), 1-9. DOI: 10.1186/s12913-019-4688-7. PMID: 31752859; PMCID: PMC6868706.



How Does the Article Relate to the PICOT Question?

This article reviews the importance of nurse staffing in improving nursing outcomes.

This article analyzes the importance of integrated problem-based learning and simulation courses. These course...