Are Pressure Ulcers Related to Nurse Staffing?
Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) remains a serious threat to patient safety. Patient safety requires planning to allocate resources, such as registered nurses, that will improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. Patient safety is affected by registered nurse staffing levels. Given the nursing shortage, the incident of HAPUs will most likely continue to occur. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how inadequate registered nurse (RN) staffing levels affect the risk of HAPUs through the quality nursing care, patient safety, and patient outcomes. The shortage of registered nurses is expected to increase which will result in an increased burden to the nursing workforce. The PICOT …show more content…
Effective leadership is imperative to the ever-changing healthcare organizations today. Transformational leadership is adaptable, engage in relationship-building, and provides empowerment and justice. Transformational leadership influence their staff by focusing on higher moral values and ideas and sustains the greater good instead of their own (Doody & Doody, 2012). Transformational leadership creates a supportive environment where shared responsibility is practiced (Doody & Doody, 2012). Cho, Chin, Kim, and Hong (2016) reports a strong relationship exist between positive patient outcomes and a positive nursing work environment. The nursing work environment includes adequate nurse staffing. The organizational culture affect the climate of the nursing work environment. A positive perception of the nursing work environment climate involves leadership, nurse and patient safety, staffing, and effective communication with administrators, nurse leaders and team members. A positive organizational culture that promotes nurse job satisfaction can impact the quality of patient care. Improved quality of care decreases the risk of adverse events such as HAPU. Transformational leaders are effective in guiding others through a change process. Transformational leaders achieve planned change by encouraging and empowering others through persuasion, empathy, and influence to achieve organizational goals (Doody & Doody, 2012). To implement change to successfully reduce HAPUs, I would implement a Six Sigma method using the DMAIC approach. The five steps are: (1) defining the problem; (2) measuring the performance; (3) analyzing the data; (4) improving the process; and (5) controlling the change (Donovan, Manta, Goldsack, & Collins, 2016). DMAIC address the potential root causes and develop strategies to reduce HAPUs from occurring.
Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) remains a serious threat to patient safety. Patient safety requires planning to allocate resources, such as registered nurses, that will improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. Patient safety is affected by registered nurse staffing levels. Given the nursing shortage, the incident of HAPUs will most likely continue to occur. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how inadequate registered nurse (RN) staffing levels affect the risk of HAPUs through the quality nursing care, patient safety, and patient outcomes. The shortage of registered nurses is expected to increase which will result in an increased burden to the nursing workforce. The PICOT …show more content…
Effective leadership is imperative to the ever-changing healthcare organizations today. Transformational leadership is adaptable, engage in relationship-building, and provides empowerment and justice. Transformational leadership influence their staff by focusing on higher moral values and ideas and sustains the greater good instead of their own (Doody & Doody, 2012). Transformational leadership creates a supportive environment where shared responsibility is practiced (Doody & Doody, 2012). Cho, Chin, Kim, and Hong (2016) reports a strong relationship exist between positive patient outcomes and a positive nursing work environment. The nursing work environment includes adequate nurse staffing. The organizational culture affect the climate of the nursing work environment. A positive perception of the nursing work environment climate involves leadership, nurse and patient safety, staffing, and effective communication with administrators, nurse leaders and team members. A positive organizational culture that promotes nurse job satisfaction can impact the quality of patient care. Improved quality of care decreases the risk of adverse events such as HAPU. Transformational leaders are effective in guiding others through a change process. Transformational leaders achieve planned change by encouraging and empowering others through persuasion, empathy, and influence to achieve organizational goals (Doody & Doody, 2012). To implement change to successfully reduce HAPUs, I would implement a Six Sigma method using the DMAIC approach. The five steps are: (1) defining the problem; (2) measuring the performance; (3) analyzing the data; (4) improving the process; and (5) controlling the change (Donovan, Manta, Goldsack, & Collins, 2016). DMAIC address the potential root causes and develop strategies to reduce HAPUs from occurring.