Financial Nurse Review

¶ … nurse to patient ratios within large clinical settings has been well document. The data gathered from this somewhat obvious problem has created avenues of research that delve into many different aspects of knowledge and understanding. The clinical problem discussed in Rothberg et al. (2005) is based on the idea that there are harmful patient to nurse ratios that negatively affect the way a hospital is successful in healing with patients. Their research article sought to find relationships between nurse to patient ratio data and cost effective safety interventions.

The authors of this research article established significance to this study by premising their argument on the fact that new state laws are mandating certain patient to nurse ratios. The reader should be interested in this study because the simple act of under or over-staffing a clinical setting is breaking the law. The authors wrote " some advocates propose that lower PTN ratios might actually save money by decreasing nurse turnover, hospital complications and length of stay. If this were shown to be true, hospitals might limit PTN ratios without legislation.

To date, research on nurse staffing has not considered the cost effectiveness of different PTN ratios." Purpose and Research Questions The authors of this study looked to improve upon the known sources of empirical data by investigating this problem by determining the cost effectiveness of various nurse to staffing ratio. This was an economical or financial approach to the problem.

While reducing patient mortality down to an economic dollar figure is somewhat inhumane and slightly morose, this type of investigation can be useful to help solve the problem of finding adequate nurse to patient ratios guided by economic figures. The authors hypothesized that by doing a cost analysis on the way that nurses are staffed and how they relate to patient satisfaction, a better understanding can be reached and hospitals can adopt models of nurse staffing to avoid the problems with more government involvement with health care and medical practices.

The methods associated with this research question used by the authors combines several different tools and sources of data. The article reported "This was a cost-effectiveness analysis from the institutional perspective comparing patient-to-nurse ratios ranging from 8:1 to 4:1. Cost estimates were drawn from the medical literature and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Patient mortality and length of stay data for different ratios were based on 2 large hospital level studies.

Incremental cost-effectiveness was calculated for each ratio and sensitivity and Monte Carlo analyses performed." Literature Review In order to bolster the credibility of this investigation, the authors of this study did incorporate literature and empirical data in this report relevant to the topic.

Throughout the article the authors referred to several studies that commented on previous works that documented the eventual investigation into this specific issue dealing with nurse to patient ratios and how they may positively or negatively affect the patient outcomes that are a direct result of such interventions or lack of interventions. The authors successfully incorporated this evidence throughout the article and helping to support their conclusions.

One example of this is noted: "Can the same benefits be achieved through the use of licensed practical nurses and nursing extenders? Both Aiken and Needleman found that decreases in adverse outcomes were related to registered nurse staffing alone. Increases in licensed practical nurse hours or the use of nurses' aides had no effect on any patient outcome. In another study, Aiken found that nurses' education level was also inversely correlated with patient mortality.

Results of other studies havebeen mixed." Conceptual / Theoretical Framework In this research article, no explicit concept or theoretical framework was mentioned or explored in any meaningful way. The intent of the.