Role of Nursing in the Changing Healthcare Sector
For a long time, the role of nursing has dominated conversations about the quality of care. Unlike nursing, which has retained the majority of its intrinsic traits, healthcare is a dynamic sector in which the manner in which patients' needs are met has changed over time.
The Importance of Long-Term Care Facilities
Long-term care facilities have evolved into important tools in the delivery of healthcare to groups of patients such as the elderly, those with terminal conditions, and so on. Previous nursing research has been focused on mainstream traditional health settings such as hospitals. Long-term care studies have encompassed all nursing categories.
The Need for Research on Registered Nurses in Long-Term Care
However, there are chances that some types of nurses have little impact on health outcomes in these settings. Few researchers are involved in data collection and analysis to determine how registered nurses impact the quality of outcomes in long-term care. This study will examine how registered nurses (RNs) impact health outcomes in long-term care scenarios. The study will focus on aspects of RN nurse staffing that affect the ability of registered nurses to impact health outcomes in these facilities.
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References
There exists limited research the topic on the impact of RNs on long-term care. A good research in a less explored subject should rely on primary data to seal knowledge gaps. The literature was aimed at yielding journal articles that are based on primary data collected from the field. The research was conducted on major nursing journals such as CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, EBSCOhost and Google Scholar. These platforms provide access to interconnected databases that have a wide range. The following keywords were used for the initial searches on the databases: ‘registered nurses’, ‘long-term care’, ‘patient outcomes’, ‘quality of care’ and ‘nursing homes’. Only quantitative study articles published within the last ten years were chosen for this study.
Article Review
Park, S. H., Boyle, D. K., Bergquist‐Beringer, S., Staggs, V. S., & Dunton, N. E. (2014). Concurrent and Lagged Effects of Registered Nurse Turnover and Staffing on Unit‐Acquired Pressure Ulcers. Health services research, 49(4), 1205-1225.
This article examines how registered nurse turnover affects unit-acquired pressure ulcer rates. The objective of the researcher is to establish how registered nurse staffing mediates on the effects of this condition on patients. This article is appropriate for this study since it gives vast attention to one aspect of nursing outcome. Unit-acquired pressure ulcers and its effects on the patient are a key indicator used in determining nursing outcomes.
Park et al. (2014). conducted a longitudinal study that utilized multilevel regressions to determine how the variables affected the outcomes. The study focused on the time lagged effect of registered nurse turnover. The analysis showed that this effect was significantly positive. It showed that a rise in the turnover of nurses in each quarter resulted in an increase in pressure ulcer prevalence. This article highlights registered nurse turnover as one of the key determinants of quality of nursing services and outcomes. The research draws attention to factors associated with quality of nursing services other than the number of contact hours.
Backhaus, R., van Rossum, E., Verbeek, H., Halfens, R. J., Tan, F. E., Capezuti, E., & Hamers, J. P. (2017). Relationship between the presence of baccalaureate-educated RNs and quality of care: a cross-sectional study in Dutch long-term care facilities. BMC health services research, 17(1), 53.
According to Bakhaus et al. (2017), there is little information about the relationship between RNs and quality of care in geriatric long-term care facilities. This article is important in this studying this subject area because it focuses on the role of registered nurses as change agents and role models. The study specifically focuses on baccalaureate-educated RNs in Dutch facilities.
Bakhaus et al. (2007) conducted a cross-sectional study on 95 facilities that contained 6145 residents. There were controls for background characteristics such as gender, resident’s age, ward size and care dependency status. This study is important in determining what variations within the nursing staff are likely to result in differences in health outcomes. The findings of this study can also be used in coming up with controls for future studies where
Gray-Miceli, D., de Cordova, P. B., Crane, G. L., Quigley, P., & Ratcliffe, S. J. (2016). Nursing Home Registered Nurses' and Licensed Practical Nurses' Knowledge of Causes of Falls. Journal of nursing care quality, 31(2), 153-160.
The article by Gray-Miceli et al. (2016) describes a study aimed at comparing the knowledge of registered nurses against that of licensed practical nurses (LPNs) on the topic of falls. This article is important in this study because it aims at determining the ability of registered nurses to understand and apply issues pertinent to patient safety, specifically on falls. In examining the role of these nurses, one should be able to account for the extent of knowledge and experienced possessed by RNs and hos it is converted into positive outcomes in long-term care settings.
The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study that sought to classify the both LPNs and RNs into 8 levels depending on a randomized observation of validated fall clinical vignettes. The registered nurses were more informed on the underlying factors related to falls than the other group. This study is important in highlighting the experience and knowledge possessed by the RNs. It forms a foundation for understanding and explaining how this knowledge is converted into positive nursing outcomes.
McGregor, M. J., Murphy, J. M., Poss, J. W., McGrail, K. M., Kuramoto, L., Huang, H. C., & Bryan, S. (2015). 24/7 registered nurse staffing coverage in Saskatchewan nursing homes and acute hospital use. Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 34(4), 492-505.
McGregor et al. (2015) notes that many legislations mandate long-term facilities to acquire services of a registered nurse round the clock. The article is based on an observational study conducted in Saskatchewanto compare facilities with 24/7 registered nurse coverage to those with less coverage. Most of the latter facilities are supplemented by various night-shift staffing models. This study is important since it describes how the availability of RNs affect the number of cases of inpatient hospital admission.
This research focuses on inpatient hospital admission as a key nursing outcome in long-care facilities. Hospital admissions are an important dependent variable in my study. The study by McGregor et al. (2015) shows that there is a strong relationship between the number of RN hours and incidents of inpatient hospital admission by the residents.
References
Backhaus, R., van Rossum, E., Verbeek, H., Halfens, R. J., Tan, F. E., Capezuti, E., & Hamers, J. P. (2017). Relationship between the presence of baccalaureate-educated RNs and quality of care: a cross-sectional study in Dutch long-term care facilities. BMC health services research, 17(1), 53.
Dellefield, M. E., Castle, N. G., McGilton, K. S., & Spilsbury, K. (2015). The relationship between registered nurses and nursing home quality: An integrative review (2008-2014). Nursing Economics, 33(2), 95.
Gray-Miceli, D., de Cordova, P. B., Crane, G. L., Quigley, P., & Ratcliffe, S. J. (2016). Nursing Home Registered Nurses' and Licensed Practical Nurses' Knowledge of Causes of Falls. Journal of nursing care quality, 31(2), 153-160.
McGregor, M. J., Murphy, J. M., Poss, J. W., McGrail, K. M., Kuramoto, L., Huang, H. C., & Bryan, S. (2015). 24/7 registered nurse staffing coverage in Saskatchewan nursing homes and acute hospital use. Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 34(4), 492-505.