Prepare this assignment as a 1,500-1,750 word paper using the instructor feedback from the previous course assignments and the guidelines below. PICOT Question Revise the PICOT question you wrote in t

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE PAPER

JESSY JOSEPH

GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY

Introduction

Nurses are among the essential careers today since it involves saving lives and promoting the overall wellbeing of society. Thus, without appropriate nursing practices, even economies would not grow without healthy people. However, nurses are exposed to different challenges while at their duty of work which affects not only their performance but also productivity. The current problem affecting nurses not only in the US but also in other parts of the world is nursing shortages. This has led to the present practitioners being overwhelmed with work and having to work overtimes. This leads to job exhaustion and burnouts since the workloads for the already existing nurses is high. Some states have developed regulations about the nurse-to-patient ratio, which may not be practical due to inadequate finances and licensed nurse shortages. For this paper, I will be analyzing two Quantitative articles which have explored the issues of nursing shortages and how they have overwhelmed the existing practitioners and which interventions may be assumed. I will further analyze the importance of teamwork and how it can reduce burnouts in instances where nurses are overwhelmed by work. The core aim of these articles is to understand what may be implemented to improve job satisfaction of the licensed nurses and how burnouts may be reduced due to increased workloads. This paper will give the background information of the two studies, the study method, results and outcome comparison.

The background of the study

The authors of the two articles conducted a quantitative analysis method when trying to solve job dissatisfaction, high nurse turnouts rated and burnouts that arise from nursing shortages and increased patients who require urgent and holistic care. The first article was authored by “Montgomery, A., Spânu, F., Băban, A., & Panagopoulou, E. in 2015.” Who have explained burnout to be psychological reactions which arise when a person’s characteristics are blended with their jobs? Satisfaction at the job can be solved by communication, accuracy and efficiency; thus, promoting communication will ensure the quality of care increases gradually. This research used a JD-R approach to understand hoe burnouts affects the overall performance of nurses, especially on their team working skills. The aim of this research was testing the results of increased workloads, depersonalization and emotional exhaustion among professional nurses. The research question was “does the job demand have any effect on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The subjects sampled include 24 therapists, nurses, social workers and patient care assistants to evaluate their satisfaction, safety and efficiency.

The second study was developed by Gausvik, C., Lautar, A., Miller, L., Pallerla, H., & Schlaudecker, J. in 2015. to understand and evaluate the patient and family-centered use of SIBR “bedside interdisciplinary bedside rounds” when careering for the elderly patients. The problem addressed how nursing satisfaction affects retention and leads to improved communication between patients and their colleagues. The research question was “does communication, workloads and organizational demands improve teamwork and job satisfaction?”

How this study supports nursing practices

Gausvik, C., in 2015 indicates that for nursing practices to be successful, communication, teamwork, proper nurse to patient ratio is essential. Additionally, improvement of communication among interdisciplinary teams is crucial in facilitating and improving the hierarchical orders. It also ensures coordination and ideas are flowing from all team members, thus promoting satisfaction. This study is essential in answering my PICOT question about how the nursing shortage problem can be solved despite the current issue, where we have a few registered nurses all over the US. Teamwork can ensure that the few available nurses can distribute various activities evenly between themselves. Additionally, interdisciplinary rounds have positive impacts on job satisfaction despite people being positively overwhelmed. Nurses will be able to raise their opinions, questions and concerns during the rounds based on their working conditions or how culture in a hospital may be adjusted to make them more satisfied.

My project on the shortage of nurses is highly related to the research carried about on the group used for bedside nurses. According to Montgomery, A., in 2015, several stressors will keep affecting nursing practitioners due to increased need for holistic care, high healthcare costs, implementation of regulations etc. however, this can be partially solved through team working where nurses will rarely get stressed when working together while supporting one another. Thus; the articles are essential in helping me answer my PICOT question which engaging various medical experts in trying to reduce burnouts resulting from many assigned responsibilities. This article understands the importance of team working and improved communication.

The methods of study

Montgomery, A., in 2015applies a correlational design to understand how different variables are related throughout the study. Some variables include nurse’s workload, burnouts, emotional and organization demands. The researchers then try to investigate whether increasing one variable will reduce the other one through correlational designs. Based on the results, the correlation was positive since teamwork was positively related to nurses being engaged. The major limitation of applying this method is that causation is not shown.

On the other hand, Gausvik, C., in 2015 applies an experimental design to understand the effects of communication on one’s satisfaction, thus reducing the turnout rates. This design is being called true experimentation since its aim is understanding the causes and consequences of a single variable in the study. The core benefit of this method is that it is simple and straightforward. The weakness is that the researcher has to follow the set ethical protocols keenly.

The results of the study

According to a study by Montgomery, A., in 2015, it was established that there is a positive correlation between job demand and burnouts. Additionally, there was a negative correlation between burnouts and team working among the members. Based on the two articles’ regression analyses, it was established that organizational and emotional demands had a high priority in determining the vigor. 96% of the participants accepted that nurses working as teams reduced job dissatisfaction levels and burnouts. While in Gausvik, C., in 2015 when answering about communication, nurses argued that it was essential in improving teamwork and satisfaction. 85% of Nurses also agreed that the most reasons for leaving their jobs included; overwhelming jobs, high nurse to patient levels, burnouts and poor communication. However, team working was essential in alleviating the problems faced compared to working alone, according to the details collected from 38 control and 24 SIBR staff, where 96% of them agreed with the team working. In contrast, 100% agreed that bedside rounds increased their levels of job satisfaction.

The outcome comparison

My expected result anticipated outcome is that the bedside nurses working as a team often experience lower dissatisfaction and burnout compared to those that have implemented a to-do list or fixed schedule. This implies that despite the number of registered nurses being relatively lower, appropriate communication channels can eliminate burnouts and other challenges nurses face. The results from the two analyzed articles are aligned to my thoughts since proper communication and teamwork is an essential sept in reducing nurse’s distress. This further implies that the hospital management should develop steps to improve communication while addressing the nurse to patient ratios, enhancing the overall nurse and patient satisfaction, thus increasing the hospital’s reimbursement from ACA.

Conclusion

In conclusion, working as a healthcare practitioner requires a highly ethical, moral resilient and hardworking individual. Nurse’s emotional state highly determines whether a patient will heal or not. Additionally, almost every hospital is understaffed due to low numbers of licensed nurses, leading to increased workloads among the current practitioners.

References

Montgomery, A., Spânu, F., Băban, A., & Panagopoulou, E. (2015). Job demands, burnout, and engagement among nurses: A multi-level analysis of ORCAB data investigating the moderating effect of teamwork. Burnout Research, 2(2-3), 71-79. doi:10.1016/j.burn.2015.06.001

Gausvik, C., Lautar, A., Miller, L., Pallerla, H., & Schlaudecker, J. (2015). Structured nursing communication on interdisciplinary acute care teams improves perceptions of safety, efficiency, and understanding of care plan and teamwork as well as job satisfaction. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 33. doi:10.2147/jmdh.s72623