NR351 Week 3 Discussion, Integration of Evidence-Based Practice into Professional Nursing Practice

Week 3: Integration of Evidence-Based Practice Into Professional Nursing Practice This is a graded discussion: 50 points possible - due May 20 As the professional nurse, you realize that your nursing care area often sees patients with the same particularly challenging nursing care issue (not medical care issue). Include all of the following in your answer to this discussion. • Identify the nursing care issue or problem and justify why it is a nursing care issue in need of implementation of evidence. Remember, this should not be a medical issue. • Explain how you would search CINAHL for evidence on this topic (including search terms you would use) and how you would critically appraise the evidence found in your search. Note: You do not need to perform the search or provide an article for this discussion, but you may do so if you like. While working in the clinical setting, there are a number of nursing care issues that negatively impact patient care. Staffing was always an issue of concern on my floor as being short staffed = unsafe patient to nurse ratio’s. “A study published in Health Affairs found that inadequate staffing can hinder nurses' efforts to carry out processes of care.” These high patient to nurse ratios not only threaten the health and welfare of the patients, but the health and welfare of the nurses as well. Short staffing can lead to longer hours, which can in turn lead to increased fatigue, sickness, and injury. According to page 10 of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Nursing Initiative. "The Nurse of the Future will provide holistic care that recognizes an individual's preferences, values, and needs and respects the patient or designee as a full partner in providing compassionate, coordinated, age and culturally appropriate, safe and effective care". It is widely known that Nursing is among the most trusted professions. As nurses, our patients trust us to provide the safest and best possible care to them. It is also known that patients are treated in the hospital for nursing care, not necessarily physician care. If we as nurses cannot safely and adequately care for our patients, it can lead to tragedy. According to a review of literature by the Minnesota Department of Health, there was “strong evidence linking lower nurse staffing levels to higher patient mortality, failure to rescue and falls in the hospital. There was also strong evidence that other care process outcomes such as drug administration errors, missed nursing care and patient length of stay are linked to lower nurse staffing levels.” When searching CINAHL for evidence on staffing issues negatively impacting nursing care, I would likely search key terms and phrases such as: “unsafe/high patient to nursing ratios”; “short staffing and patient care”, and “nurse fatigue” to name a few. To provide critical appraisal of the evidence found in my research, I would carefully review all of the evidence obtained to determine if the evidence obtained is credible and relevant. References: Gildemeister, S. (2013). Nurse Staffing Levels and Patient Outcomes Study - Minnesota Dept. of Health. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. (2016). Massachusetts Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies© Registered Nurse. Retrieved from Mchugh, M. D., Berez, J., & Small, D. S. (2013). Hospitals With Higher Nurse Staffing Had Lower Odds Of Readmissions Penalties Than Hospitals With Lower Staffing. Health Affairs, 32(10), . doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0613