PICOT Question and Its Significance in Nursing Practice Paper Example

Introduction

The PICOT question is on the effects of the nursing shortage and its influence on nurse burnout and burden to patients care. The significance of the PICOT question is that it enables the nurses to have a clear understanding of the consequences of the increased nurse to patient ratio and the effects of burnout. It also encourages the development of new methodologies to improve on the standard of patient care. This can be achieved through various steps that include; first, hospitals should take the necessary steps to employ more nurse workforce to meet the shortage that is present and improve on the health outcome. Secondly, the hospitals should develop proper retention methods to control the increased turnover rates among nurses, thus leading to improved patient healthcare outcomes and increased nursing satisfaction.

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Summary of the findings in the articles selected for the literature review.

Several findings have been made from the articles identified in the literature review, these findings include; first, a high amount of workload among the nurses results in a huge effect on the patient health outcomes. This tends to occur due to nurse shortage as compared workload, therefore, leading to the problem of low quality work, quality of patient care and time spent the patients. Secondly, the nursing shortage results in increased cases of medical errors. The errors occur due to huge workload among the nurses therefor the nurse may tend to confuse the patient's treatment prescriptions thus leading to medical complications (MacLean et al. 2014). Thirdly, the issue of nurse shortage has been linked to cases of the long emergency room waiting times and increased amount of time the patient spends in hospitals. the amount of time the nurse interacts with the patient greatly affects his or her health outcome. Forth, there are increased incidences or cases of readmission (MacLean et al. 2014). This occurs since the patients tend to lack some of the services such as patient education, care coordination, and intervention that helps reduce chances of readmission and discharge preparation.

Describe one nursing practice that is supported by the evidence in the different articles. The amount of nurse's workload is considered a key determining factor of the patient healthcare outcome or status. The amount of work will determine the amount of time the nurse will spend with the patient to ensure better health outcomes. This nursing practice is supported by a research in Sri Lanka by Mudihanselage and Chamaru (2015) who present evidence that proves that the amount of workload has an effect on the patient health outcome. Adriaenssens et al (2015) also support the research by Mudihanselage and Chamara by indicating that 75% of the nurses believe that nursing shortage leads to the serious challenge of the quality of work and then the amount of time the nurses spend with the patients.

Explain how the evidence-based practice that you identified contributes to a better health outcome.

The amount of workload among the nurses is a key determiner of the nature of health outcome. Minimising the amount of workload per nurse by increasing the number of nurses in the health facility is essential, leading to better health outcomes. The evidence-based practice results in better health outcomes through, first, increasing the amount of time the nurse spends with the patients checking on the health progress thus leading to quick patient recovery. Secondly, facilitates in minimizing cases of medical errors since the nurse tends to be keen during health care delivery (MacLean et al. 2014). This is attained through ensuring that there is a low nurse to patient ratio thus the delivery of quality services with no medical errors.

Errors that could arise from failing to employ the evidence-based practice.

Failing to minimize the amount of workload per nurse could result to various serious health outcomes such as, first there could be increased incidences of readmission, this occurs as a result of the nurses not having enough time to offer the required services such as patient education and discharge preparation to the patients(Teeter, 2014). Secondly, the patients could take a lot of time to recover; this is because the nurses do not get enough time to check on the progress of the patients due to the high amount of workload among the nurses.

Strategies for disseminating the identified evidence-based practice.

The evidence-based practice on the amount of nurse workload that occurs due to the shortage of nurses will be disseminated through public lectures of conferences. Whereby I will disseminate on the importance of increasing the number of nurses and encouraging the nurses to be keen when conducting their duties in case of high workload to minimize on cases of medical errors and reduce on cases of readmission due.

How would you communicate the importance of the practice colleagues?

I will communicate on the importance of reducing the nurse workload to my fellow colleagues through engaging them in a survey on the nature of health outcome on patient handled by nurses dealing with a high workload as compared to the patients handled by the nurses with a low workload. This kind of survey will enlighten my colleges on the importance of ensuring that the nurses are subjected to low workload levels to help improve on the health outcomes. How to move from disseminating information to implementing the evidence-based practice.

Moving from disseminating information to implementing the practice will be achieved through lobbying through the relevant authorities for the employment of more nurses, this will help minimizes on the amount of workload and reduce on the nurse-patient ratio. Also by encouraging the hospitals to develop proper retention methods to control the increased turnover rates among nurses, thus leading to improved patient healthcare outcomes and increased nursing satisfaction

How to address concerns and opposition to the change in the practice?

The oppositions and concerns in the chance on the practice will be addressed through enlightening them on the importance or benefits of making changes on the practice in the organization. This will be done mainly by engaging the nurses in health outcomes surveys in the hospitals affected by the issue of high workload as compares to the facilities with a low workload.

References

Adriaenssens, J., De Gucht, V., & Maes, S. (2015). Causes and consequences of occupational stress in emergency nurses, a longitudinal study. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(3), 346-358.

MacLean, L., Hassmiller, S., Shaffer, F., Rohrbaugh, K., Collier, T., & Fairman, J. (2014). Scale, causes, and implications of the primary care nursing shortage. Annual review of public health, 35, 443-457.

Mudihanselage, H. S. S. S., & Chamaru, A. A. A. (2015). The nursing shortage impact on job outcome (the case in Sri Lanka). Journal of Competitiveness, 7(3).

Teeter, K. (2014). The relationship between job satisfaction and nurse to patient ratio with nurse burnout. Gardner-Webb University.