Case-Study: Challenging Nursing Care
Case-Study: Challenging Nursing Care
Case-Study: Challenging Nursing Care
Week 3: Integration of Evidence-Based Practice Into Professional Nursing Practice 2828 unread replies.8181 replies. 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.
Nurses play an integral role in the healthcare industry, providing care to patients and filling leadership roles at hospitals, health systems and other organizations.
But being a nurse is not without its challenges. It’s a demanding profession that requires a lot of dedication and commitment.
Here are five big issues facing nurses today.
1. Compensation. When it comes to nurse compensation, regional differences are to be expected based on cost of living.
Nurses living in certain regions of the U.S. much more than nurses in other regions, according to the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses organization.
Nurses in the Pacific region make about $18,000 more than the average staff nurse, for instance. Next is the Mid-Atlantic region, where nurses make $14,800 more than average. Nurses in the East South Central region, however, make $4,300 less than average.
Beyond regional differences in pay, nurse pay gaps also persist between genders.
Male registered nurses , on average, upwards of $5,000 more than their female counterparts. The gender pay gap is present in all specialties except orthopedics, according to a study published in JAMA. Among nurse specialties, chronic care had the smallest gender pay gap, at $3,792, and cardiology had the highest gap, at $6,034.
2. Workplace violence. Another major challenge nurses face is violent behavior while on the job, be it from patients or coworkers.
Between 2012 and 2014, workplace violence injury rates for all healthcare job classifications and nearly doubled for nurse assistants and nurses, according to from the Occupational Health Safety Network. A total of 112 U.S. facilities in 19 states reported 10,680 Occupational Safety and Health Administration-recordable injuries occurring from January 1, 2012, to September 30, 2014. There were 4,674 patient handling and movement injuries; 3,972 slips, trips and falls; and 2,034 workplace violence injuries.
This year, North Carolina against workplace violence. Starting Dec. 1, people who attack hospital workers in North Carolina could be charged with a felony, thanks to a new state law. reported that the new law passed by “large margins” and was signed into law last month.
Other states are also cracking down on workplace violence: In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Nurses Association union is that would add enhanced plans around workplace safety.
3. Short staffing. Staffing is an issue of both professional and personal concern for nurses today. In fact, issues related to staffing levels, unit organization or inequitable assignments are one of the nurses leave a hospital job, according to Karlene Kerfoot, PhD, RN, vice president of nursing for API Healthcare.
Back in June, the Health Policy Commission a mandate on nurse staffing in intensive care units throughout Massachusetts. The regulations require that nurses in intensive care units in hospitals, including hospitals operated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, be assigned only up to two patients at a given time. The regulations apply to all ICUs, including special units for burn patients, children and premature babies.
If staffing is inadequate, nurses contend it threatens patient health and safety, results in greater complexity of care, and impacts their health and safety by increasing fatigue and rate of injury.
Indeed, a Minnesota Department of Health of literature found 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.
