I think you chose a very good statement due to the reason that a lot of mistakes in the hospitals happen due to nurses’ long shifts. There is a good question to ask about the long hours shift, “working 12 consecutive hours in a fast-paced, high stress, physically and mentally demanding environment a good idea?” (Donna Cardillo, 2015). I believe a lot of mistakes is due to the stress of the short time to perform all the tasks for all the patients. If nurses have less patients and more time to spend with each patients, mistakes will be decreased and eventually the communication will be done in a therapeutic way. “A recent study done by the University of Maryland concludes that the odds of making patient errors increases three-fold when nurses
Nurse staffing have an effect on a variety of areas within nursing. Quality of care is usually affected. Hospitals with low staffing tend to have higher incidence of poor patient outcomes. Martin, (2015) wrote an article on how insufficient nursing staff increases workload and job dissatisfaction, which in effect decreases total patient care over all. When nurse staffing is inadequate, the ability to practice ethically becomes questionable. Time worked, overtime, and total hours per week have significant effect on errors. When nurses works long hours, the more likely errors will be made. He also argued that inadequate staffing not only affects their patients but also their loved ones, future and current nursing staff, and the hospitals in which they are employed. An unrealistic workload may result in chronic fatigue, poor sleep patterns, and absenteeism thus affecting the patients they take care of.
Since the 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), To Err is Human, there have been many new efforts and initiatives to reduce the incidence of medical errors. While some people argued the report exaggerated the magnitude of the problem, others were concerned about the annual number of preventable medical errors.1 Medical errors include, but not limited to medication errors, hospital acquired infections, surgical mistakes, and communication failure.2
errors is fundamental to prevent errors and improve patient safety (Wolf & Hughes, 2008). There
Fatigue and sleepiness, tendency to fall asleep, go hand in hand as nurses struggle to stay awake during long, consecutive, day or night shifts. For example, in the Staff Nurse Fatigue and Patient Safety Study, the number of nurses who reported an error or a near miss had less hours of sleep than the nurses who did not report an error or a near miss, and it was determined that there is a 3.4 percent chance of a nursing error when nurses get 6 hours of sleep or less in the prior 24 hours; another study found that the chances of making an error was three times higher when nurses worked more than 12.5 hours per shift (Rogers, 2008). In the Staff Nurse Fatigue and Patient Safety Study, over two thirds of the participants reported that they struggle to stay awake while working and 20 percent reported incidence of falling asleep during their shift (Rogers, 2008). Nurses also do not get adequate breaks while working long shifts, according to the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) less than 50% of work breaks for are away from patient care, which means nurses never truly get a chance to relax (Phillips, 2014). Not only is the patient safety at risk when nurses are fatigued, but the well being of nurses is at stake as well. While nurses are fatigued they are risking their
However, data over the last decade reveals that it is not to the advantage of the nurse or the patient to continue in this fashion. This is an important issue, since patient outcomes and quality improvement are at the crux of every issue in health care. Increased medication errors, falls, inadequate discharge preparation and instructions and consequent early readmissions are all undesirable events in health care facilities and can affect reimbursement as well as hospital ratings. Risks to nurses are prevalent as well, including needlesticks, musculoskeletal injuries, and physical as well as psychological fatigue. Eventually this results in increased nurse burnout, lower retention rates by hospitals, and increasing shortages which perpetuates the overtime cycle.
Although it may seem that the United States’ Healthcare is more improved than that of third-world countries and other places around the globe, hospital errors are still the third leading cause of death in America as of the last couple years (Hospital, 2013). Whether it is due to a miscalculation of drug dosages, an avoidable infection, or even caused by an accidental mistake because the nurse was overwhelmed with numerous assigned patients, it is still occurring and there must be a change. On occasion nurses on a typical medical-surgical floor may be required to care for 4 or 5 patients a
There are 440,000 people a year that die from a preventable variety of mistakes that are made in hospitals, which comes out to a little over 1,000 deaths a day, and is the number three cause of death behind cancer, and heart disease (hospitalsafetyscore). According to a group that rates hospitals named The Leapfrog Group a nonprofit watchdog group that grades hospitals for safety, (leapfrog) a majority of these deaths are very avoidable and are most of the time simple mistakes. Errors in Hospitals are a broad issue that gets hundreds of thousands of people killed every year; for the most part, they are preventable and are caused by overtesting, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, non-reporting, and lack of oversight, though there are ways to prevent
There were 11,516 registered nurses included in the study and factors that were examined included nurse characteristics, work hours, and adverse events and errors (Olds & Clarke, 2010). The results showed that all of the adverse events and errors were related to working extensive hours within a week. The errors that were most reported were medication errors and needle stick injuries. This study, along with other research, confirms that excessive work hours increase the chances of adverse events and errors when caring for patients (Olds & Clarke, 2010). This study also shed light on the problem with voluntary overtime. Even though voluntary overtime is the nurse’s decision; it can still lead to adverse events if the nurse had worked too many hours prior and is fatigued.
Errors pervade in our lives whether it is our home, in our workplace, or in our society. The effects of healthcare errors have impacted all our lives either directly or indirectly. Patient safety and quality care are at the core of healthcare system which strongly depends upon nurses. “To achieve goals in patient safety and quality, thereby improve healthcare, nurses must assume the leadership role. Nurses need to ensure that they and other healthcare providers center healthcare on patients and their families. Even though the quality and safety of healthcare is heavily influenced by the complex nature
Today’s healthcare environment is evolving and changing rapidly and it is imperative for nurses and other healthcare providers to be aware of the most recent changes and mandates in healthcare delivery practices. The origins of the reform date back to late 1990s and early 2000s, when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its original report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, on the prevalence of medical errors, and directed the nation’s attention to the need for modification of medical practices (Kronick et al., 2016). The IOM’s report stressed the importance of providing a safe healthcare environment, where patients receive quality patient-centered care and nurses are equipped with sufficient knowledge
Nurses are in charge of taking care of patients and their families through illness and wellness, but that is a difficult task to perform when the nurses themselves are not cared for. Townsend & Anderson (2013) suggested that nurses whom worked long shifts were more likely to be burned out, dissatisfied with their job, and were intending on leaving the profession within a year. Fatigue in itself is linked to decreases in alertness, memory, reaction time, and decision-making. There are many consequences due to nursing fatigue, which may be detrimental to the patient’s safety or the nurse’s. For instance, having a slowed reaction time, compromised problem solving and critical thinking, and experiencing lapses in attention to detail all lead to poor judgments furthering leading to poor patient care (Townsend & Anderson, 2013).
Patients in a hospital and/or healthcare facilities have to be cared for all day and all night, everyday of the week by nurses. The usual way to fulfill this need is to divide up the day into three 8-hour shifts. Different shifts have been put into place to help improve nurse satisfaction, decrease the nursing shortage and save the hospital money. The 24-hour day is made up of two 12-hour shifts; 12 hours in the day and 12 hours at night. There has been quite an ongoing debate over the years regarding this issue of nurses working over 8 hours in a single day. Many people, such as hospital nursing administrators, have reason to believe that working long hour shifts causes more errors in
The demands on nurses are greater than ever do to the shortage. Nurses often find themselves working longer hours under intense and stressful conditions. The shortage of nurses creates a higher nurse to patient ratio. These factors often have a number of negative consequences that range from overwhelming, exhaustions, injury and job dissatisfaction. According to the American Nurses Association, nurses working in stressful environments are more prone to making mistakes and medical errors (ANA). Studies show that when nurses are forced to work with high nurse-to-patient ratios, patient outcomes are negatively impacted. Death rates, infection rates, and readmission rates are all increased when the ratio is high. When nurses have fewer patients, they can take better care of them.
The risks of making an error were significantly increased when work shifts were longer than twelve hours, when nurses worked overtime, or when they worked more than forty hours per week. (Trossman, 2009). Working longer hours in a high stress area will always increase the error rate. Designating an adequate number of RN positions to ensure nurses work an appropriate schedule without overtime and that their workload allows for breaks. Managerial staff must work to develop specific policies about the length of work times based on the setting, patient and provider needs. Those policies should limit nurses from working more than 12.5 consecutive hours. Provide education for all care providers on the hazards and causes of fatigue. Continue to document unsafe staffing conditions and work with others to change the current work culture so that it recognizes the effects of fatigue on patient safety, as well as the nurse. (Berger, et al. 2006)
As stated medical errors are not the result of one person or one thing, it is the accumulation of various factors (Spector, 2011). These factors include the environment, person directly involved, and colleagues, as well as hospital administration. To address these areas, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (2016) has