Nurses have reported high levels of burnout and job unhappiness as the number of patients attending hospitals for various treatments has increased. Because the number of nurses available to serve such patients is small in comparison to the number of patients admitted to the hospital, nurses are forced to overwork in order to meet the demands of all patients. As a result, the nurse becomes quickly weary, leading to burnout and job discontent (Booker, 2007). Furthermore, burnout among nurses results in the delivery of low quality treatment, leaving patients dissatisfied. As such, a solution should be implemented to get rid of burnout among nurses hence an improved quality of care and satisfaction among nurses as well as patients (Booker, 2007). The proposed solution is to increase the number of nurses in the hospital hence nurses will be able to share the workload brought about by the increased number of patients. The following paper will provide a discussion of how the hospital can evaluate the proposed solution to determine if it will be effective in addressing this problem facing the nurses and the hospital.
Variables That Will Be Assessed
A number of variables can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution; for instance, since the problem is burnout among nurses, the level of burnout before and after the implementation of the solution can be used as a variable to evaluate the effectiveness of the solution (McDavid, 2006). Another problem being addressed by the proposed solution is dissatisfaction among patients; thus, the level of patient satisfaction with care provided can be used as another variable to determine if the solution was effective. Nursing staff turnover rates can also be used as a variable. Finally, the quality of healthcare can be used as another variable to evaluate the effectiveness of the solution after it has been implemented (McDavid, 2006).
Methods for Evaluating the Solution
The methods that will be used to determine the above variables include conducting surveys on the nurses before and after the implementation of the solution. Surveys will also be conducted on patients being discharged from the hospital. Such surveys will help determine the attitudes and perceptions of the nurses and the patients. Also, we will obtain the nursing staff turnover rates before and after the implementation of the solution since this will help evaluate the overall effectiveness of the solution (McDavid, 2006). Finally, we will utilize the quality and safety review system (QSRS) to determine the overall quality of care provided at the hospital before and after implementation of the solution (Manolitzas et al., 2016).
Tools to Educate Project Participants
To begin with, we will carry out an awareness campaign where we will inform the nurses and all involved stakeholders about the proposed solution; this will be done through the use of an internal memo. This will keep the nurses updated and hence they will readily avail themselves for the survey; the hospital will also be ready to allow as carry out a survey of the patients as well as on the hospital itself to determine the overall quality of care (McDavid, 2006). Conducting an awareness campaign will also guarantee that the hospital will provide any necessary information such as nursing staff turnover rates to help with our evaluation.
Assessment Tools to Evaluate Project Outcomes
The survey for nurses will include questions designed to determine their level of job satisfaction as well as how tired they get after a day’s work. As such, the questions will allow the nurse to rate their level of satisfaction as well as how tired they get on a scale of 1-10. On the other hand, the patient survey will contain questions that will focus on determining their overall satisfaction with the healthcare services provided in the hospital; patients will also be required to rate their level of satisfaction on a scale of 1-10. Nurse staff turnover rates will be obtained directly from the hospital records while the QSRS will make use of structured data such as clinical information obtained from the hospital records to determine the overall quality of care before and after the implementation of the solution (Manolitzas et al., 2016). The following is an example of the survey that will be used for nurses;
QUESTION
ANSWER (on a scale of 1-10)
How satisfied are you with your current job?
How tired do you get after a long day of work?
How likely are you to leave your current nursing job due to dissatisfaction and being overworked?
The following is a sample survey that will be used on the patients;
QUESTION
ANSWER (scale of 1-10)
How did you like the treatment you received at the hospital?
How likely are you to come back for our services?
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the services you received from the hospital?
The variables obtained from these methods will then be evaluated to determine how effective the solution was. The expected outcomes to show that the solution was effective include reduced burnout among nurses, improved job satisfaction and reduced nursing staff turnover rates (Booker, 2007). Also, improved satisfaction among the patients will show that the solution was effective. Finally, the QSRS is supposed to point towards an overall improvement in the quality of care provided at the hospital once the solution has been implemented.
Conclusion
To sum up, the paper above, evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed solution will require us to compare data before and after implementation of that solution. As such, data from nurses and patients will be recorded before and after implementing the solution. Data from these stakeholders will give variables such as nursing turnover rates and overall satisfaction with the job and quality of care. The variables will then be compared to determine if the solution was successful. Improved satisfaction with the quality of care will be a major indicator that the solution was successful (McDavid, 2006).
References
Booker, C., & Waugh, A. (2007). Foundations of nursing practice: Fundamentals of holistic care. Edinburgh: Mosby/Elsevier.
Manolitzas, P., Grigoroudis, E., Matsatsinis, N. F., & Yannacopoulos, D. (2016). Effective methods for modern healthcare service quality and evaluation. Hershey, PA: Medical Information Science Reference.
McDavid, J. C., & Hawthorn, L. R. L. (2006). Program evaluation & performance measurement: An introduction to practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
