Relationship between nurse staffing, quality of nursing care and Research Paper

Relationship between nurse staffing, quality of nursing care and outcome in intensive care unit - Research Paper Example After a comparison was done in five countries that are considered to be developed, only 40% of the nurses agreed to have enough registered nurses (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). In order for a hospital to perform well, they need to have enough registered nurses. Hospitals that have enough nurses are associated with positive patient and nurse outcomes. The paper will give a review of the relationship between nurse staffing, quality of nursing care, and outcome in the intensive care unit. Among the different nursing care units in hospitals, the intensive care unit needs to have the highest number of nurses. The intensive care unit receives patients who are seriously ill and need to be watched closely. The nurses in charge of the ICU have to provide quality services as well as safe nursing interventions without delay so as to save life. For developed countries like the United State, the ratio of nurse in the ICU to a patient is 1 – 2 patients per nurse (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). The staff ing of nurses in the ICU influences the number of patients who survive at the end of the day. Hospitals with fewer nurses assigned in the ICU are probably over worked and end up having patients admitted for long with more complications. Korea is said to have inadequate staffing in hospital. Research was carried out in Korea, which included 200 hospital showed that only a small fraction of 5%, of the hospitals met the required ratio of a patient to nurse of two patients per nurse (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). The lack of nurses has caused the family members of the offer services to their patient. In response to the shortage of nurses in Korea, the country came up with a policy meant to improve nurse staffing. According to the policy, nurse staffing is a priority and the National Health Insurance should increase inpatient nursing fee especially to hospitals with the highest number of registered nursing staffing. This policy by the Korean government was aimed at preventing hospitals from le aving a patient under the care of their family members. In addition, the policy aims at improving the quality of nursing care being offered in Korea. The policy is meant, however, for general wards, such as the medical surgical and units excluding the ICU. Various methods were used to measure nurse staffing and evaluate staffing adequacy. The common methods used are the nurse’s perceptions of staffing adequacy and the quantitative objective using empirical data, such as nurse to patient ratio. The study aims at examining the relationship between nurses staffing and the quality of nursing care, burn out, and job dissatisfaction among ICU nurses in Korea. The study in Korea involved all the nurses working in the ICU of the 22 hospitals. The hospitals in the study were general ones that provide either secondary or tertiary care. The measures in the study were composed of the nurse, ICU, and the hospital characteristics. Hospital characteristics include the level of care, its own ership, location, and the size. The ICU characteristics include the unit specialist, such medical surgery and pediatrics, the number beds in the ICU unit, and the level of nurse staffing (Hyun Cho et al., 2009). During the study, the number of nurses was compared to the number of patients they were attending. On the other hand, the nursing information included the nurses ICU specialty, sex, age, education, marital status, among other import things. The quality of service portrayed by the nurses was