Number of working hours of Nurses impacts on the safety of patient

Abstract

The research proposal is based on the identification of developing or identifying the link between the Number of working hours and the impact on patient safety. In this, we tried to understand the basis of the relation, to support the question we reviewed the research paper given in the reference too in which we determine to analyze the schedule of nurses through the methodology of developing logbooks. In those logbooks, all subjects were objectified, and results were mentioned in which we identified the relationship between errors and near errors with working schedule nurses. The discussion has been conducted to support the analysis of the support identified finding that nurses need can face different kinds of issues that can affect patient safety. There is a need for proper working in this area using research tools and legislating law at federal and state levels.

Number of working hours of Nurses impacts the safety of patient

Nurses are the backbone of the development of the health and medicine sector. From the historical background, we have seen that either it is an emergency situation nurses appear to be more active than doctors and they have toughest duties than doctors. They have to deal with patients all the time; sometimes it is noted that they have to get calm during the aggression of patients and they tackle them well than the doctor. The most patient gets attached to their attending nurses because of their good behavior. But, there is an issue highlighted that sometimes the working hours disturb the nurses and affect their work.

Human work has a direct impact on time because human needs nourishment which they need to relax their body to get peace of mind and it is possible when you are getting time properly in a day to sleep. While we have seen in different research the different kinds of conditions getting originated due to the influence of working hours. Every research had taken its dimension and areas differently. The relationship between working and sleep is scientifically defined as the normal person requires having slept for six to eight hours which helps to develop neurocognitive to do more efficient performance and the ability to keep physically and mentally stable.

There are different figuring on the issue of some working hours of nurse and their impact on the safety of the patient. In this research, we are trying to conduct an argumentative analysis with using statistical detail from the deep study of Anne. Rogers’s research work with the title. The Working Hours of Hospital Nurses staff and patient safety.

In this research, they analyzed severe hospitals in a subjective manner in which they tried to analyze the upcoming disastrous condition in the sector of health with regard to patient safety. There is a lot of nurse shortage observed which is creating changes in shift hours. The development of time is disturbing per the daily work of nurses, and they are working long days with nominal time breaks, there are nurses noted as working sixteen hours out of 24 hours. Most of the nurses face the daily base addition in their schedule and some even voluntarily work for twenty-four hours once in the seven days cycle. It is recommended under the research report by the Institute of Medicine to cut voluntary overtime to assure the safety of the patient. The cause has been identified the sleep deprivation and restlessness in the routine of nurses. The purpose is to identify the relationship between the working hours of nurse and their impact on the safety of patients.

Study base data

There was random sampling was done by forwarding the explanation of the project with criteria’s about 1700 who took part in it, and they were chosen out of other nationwide members of the American Nurses Association and given two log books. All over 62 returned both of them and also they were given a stipend for being a part of this research participation. In the process of sampling 393 registered nurses in which only 26.3% of the participants took part and reported properly their all experiences in the hospital it was not possible to identify the characteristics of the nurses due to the geographical and sampling structure. There 56% of nurses were working in the urban locality, 19% in suburban, 18% in small towns, and 7% in rural areas.

Instruments

There were log books provided and used as an instrument in research to take the schedule and the actual hour they worked in the office in which subjects who had active roles properly filled up all the subjects through which we could analyze if there is any errors or errors near things that occurred. Also, items were covering the long day detail which sleeping hours, and caffeine consumption like how many cups of coffee they had in which their moods were tried to be analyzed. We trended out the electronic and paper logbook, and both were used to collect the data for many years it has been done for approximately ten years. We also tried to identify the group base working from the air traffic controllers and sleep patterns from the spaceship flight controller so we can objectify the data collected and make it comparable to the logs we are collecting from the nurses.

Finding methodology

The demographics are derived from the use of descriptive statistical methods and the help of tables in which the duration schedule is collected. In we tried to analyze the timing of the actual shift and the overtime with half hour break everyday work. There were different variables on the binary analysis developed regarding the errors noting when the nurse is mentioning her analysis of making an error or getting near to an error. The logistic regression model has been used to analyze the timing of shifts, and every variable is estimated separately in the research. There were some nurses participating from one hospital in research to save it from manipulation Generalized Estimating Equation was used to reduce the odds ratio.

Analysis

The data of 5,317 nurses revealed the fact that nurse staff usually do work more than their working hours and work more than 40 hours per week. 14% of nurses claim in the month they have to give duties of twenty-three hours with a break of one hour only and they are unable to sleep and do not get the time to conduct their other activities. There were about 199 errors, and 213 errors were reported during compiling data. These mistakes include medication administration and information categorization. 56% of the nurses were involved in a medication error, 12% in charting errors, and 7% in transcription error, and 90% of the nurses highlighted that they were near to performing errors and the reason was overtime, long shift, sleepiness, and headache. The result which is described in the research has not found any relation between overtime and effect due to age, hospital capacity, and units where they are performing duties (Rogers et al., 2004).

Discussion

There is one thing we can narrate from it there are factors that can be a reason to impact the patient’s safety. Most of doctors rely on nurses, and they guide them with directions they have to practice with the patient and lead them towards betterment. The ratio of error is high in medication administration and has the highest percentage.

There are medical issues that can rise through this if the patient is provided with the wrong prescription of medicine can lead to a hazardous situation and can be unexpected the patient can get severe health, can get a reaction in any part of the body, and can develop external and internal disorders. Medicine is the main concern which had to be delivered to the patient, and all patients are dependent on it. If some misadministration happens so there could be a vulnerable situation for the patient and can create seriousness regarding patients’ health.

With long working hours, the nurses can get ultimately affected they could feel exhausted and burnout by the daily schedule they have. The nurse’s behavior matters to the patient if it is disturbing patient will be unsatisfied and would be unable to recover properly because there is a need for proper attention and every patient have a different situation that they had to balance out during their working. There are many patients enrolled every year in the hospitals, and for some time nurses have to handle 300 beds at the same time might be the cause of the shortage of nurses in the hospitals.

Long shift hours affect the sleep of the nurses in which they are unable to get stable different kind of disease takes place which is not even good for patients might there could be a nervous breakdown and circadian rhythm disorder. In this condition, they will not be able to take good care of the patients. Also, they will be in need of medical assistance which is not good news for the hospital and even patients although many hospitals are facing a shortage of nurses and staff.

Conclusion

There is a need for proper research development to develop a link between the timing of nurses working an hour and the effects on patients because patients get to the hospital to get safe from the revoking of the disease from the environment. There is the absolute possibility of errors in the efficiency of nurses because they will be conscious and will be unable to stabilize their health situation. Government at Federal and state levels should legislate on this issue and take it on a serious note with the matter of social concern.

References

Rogers, A. E., Hwang, W. T., Scott, L. D., Aiken, L. H., & Dinges, D. F. (2004). The working hours of hospital staff nurses and patient safety. Health Affairs, 23(4), 202-212.