The Impact of Nurse-Patient Ratio on Delivering Quality Patient Outcome

The Impact of Nurse-Patient Ratio on Delivering Quality Patient Outcome
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The Impact of Nurse-Patient Ratio on Delivering Quality Patient Outcome
Introduction
The nurse-patient ratio is a significant concept of nursing practice that plays an important role in the outcome of patient care. The ratio refers to the number of patients a nurse is assigned to, and it affects the quality of care that a patient is assigned to. A high ratio of patients to nurses increases the amount of workload. It reduces the available time for patient care, resulting in minimum medication errors and adequate monitoring with decreased patient satisfaction. Thus, the nurse-patient ratio remains a crucial factor that impacts the quality of care and the patient outcome.
II. Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study will be to investigate the impact of the nurse-patient ratio on patient outcomes and nursing practices. The study aims to determine if a relationship exists between the quality of healthcare delivery and the nurse-patient ratio. The research question of this study is whether an increase in the nurse-patient ratio results in a decrease in the quality of care and patient outcome. The hypothesis in this research is that a high nurse-patient ratio leads to poorer patient outcomes with decreased quality of care.
Literature Review
Various studies have investigated the impact of the nurse-patient ratio on patient outcomes and nursing ratios. A systematic review that was performed by (Mokoka, McGuinness & Humphries, 2021) established that a high nurse-patient ratio is associated with an increased rate of mortality, longer stays at the hospital, and decreased patient satisfaction. Similarly, a study was conducted by Aiken et al. (2020) and established that an increase in the nurse-patient ratio is associated with increased falls, errors in medication and pressure ulcers. These studies established that the nurse-patient ratio remains an important factor affecting the quality of care and patient outcome.
However, there remain to be conflicting findings which regard to the impact of nurse-patient ratios. Another study by (Aiken et al., 2020) established that although a low nurse-patient ratio is associated with better outcomes, the relationship has no significance after controlling for patient and hospital characteristics. This study established that the impact of nurse-patient ratios may be affected by other factors.
Research Design and Methodology
The study shall apply a quantitative research design to investigate the impact of the nurse-patient ratio on the patient's outcomes and nursing practices. The data collected will use a questionnaire distributed to nurses in various hospitals. The questionnaire shall include the nurse-patient ratio, quality of care and patient outcomes. The questionnaire will be tested to examine its reliability and validity before use. The study population shall comprise registered nurses who work in various hospital facilities. The sample size shall be determined using power analysis aimed at ensuring that there is sufficient statistical power. The collected data will be using convenience sampling methods. The description of the Research Methodology will ...