Nurse-Patient Ratio and Patient Outcomes in US Healthcare: A Literature Evaluation
Overview
This literature evaluation examines the relationship between patient-nurse ratios and patient outcomes in US healthcare settings over the past decade. The paper presents a PICOT question framework and systematically evaluates three peer-reviewed articles that investigate staffing ratios, nursing work environments, and their direct impact on patient care quality and nurse performance outcomes.
What this literature review covers
- Summary of Clinical Issue: Overview of understaffing problems in US healthcare, particularly in rural areas, and the mandate from the American Nursing Association
- PICOT Question: Structured research question examining the relationship between patient-nurse ratio and improved patient outcomes in the US within the last decade
- Literature Evaluation Table: Critical analysis of three selected articles and their relevance to the PICOT question
Preview
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Summary of Clinical Issue
Nurses have a significant mandate in patient care since they oversee their overall recovery performance. In many cases, nurses are overworked because they are understaffed. They have to take up more hours at work than required (Smiley et al., 2017). This is risky because they deal with human life, and any avoidable mistake can lead to a fatal outcome. For instance, a nurse assigned to take care of more patients than required and working overtime might exchange the patients' doses or overdose. Sometimes they may fall asleep and forget to monitor the patients who need regular monitoring. Therefore, the nurse-patient ratio is a problem that many health facilities face.
The US has faced the same problem for decades where health facilities are understaffed, especially in rural areas. The Nurses have taken up more significant roles in helping keep the communities healthy in situations where the health ministry concentrates more on urban areas. Smiley et al. (2017) note that understaffing is a common phenomenon in the US's rural parts and has resulted in poor patient care outcomes. Several lives of patients lost in the hands of nurses resulted from overstretched of their services to a limit they could not effectively care for all patients. This one reason led the American Nursing Association to back up a legislative model that calls nurses to create unique staffing plans for each unit ("Nurse Staffing | Health Care Advocacy | American Nurses Association," n.d.).