Quantitative Research Critique on Nurse-to-Patient Ratios in Acute Care

Running head: HEALTH SCIENCE
HEALTH SCIENCE
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

HEALTH SCIENCE1
Introduction:
A research critique is an efficient way that is used in order to accurately reviewing
any kind of research or study in order to highlight both of its strengths as well as its
weaknesses, and the researches applicability for the practice (Cobb, Jackson & Dunlap,
2016). researchers are often observed to be in need of the ability to identify the best existing
practice, and the capability to assess and then the usage of the published articles or research is
acute in accomplishing this (Quinlan, Babin, Carr & Griffin, 2019). Thus, it is an ability
which is required in many situation explanations. The assignment will focus on two
quantitative research articles that has been conducted and is related to the PICOT question
that has been asked. The research studies were conducted focusing on the requirement of
greater nursing staff ratio in a health care setting in order to reduce the chances of medication
administration error and delivery of better health care treatment.
The PICOT question for the assignment is;
“When caring for acute care patients aging from 65 and above, does high nurse-to-
patient ratio compared to low nurse-to-patient ratio decrease or increase quality of care and
nursing errors over a 10-week time-frame using health assessment tools?”
Quantitative Research Critique
Nominated articles:
Article 1: Perceptions regarding medication administration errors among hospital staff
nurses of South Korea
You, M. E., Choe, M. H. Park, G. K., Kim, S. H., & Song Y. J. (2015). Perceptions
Regarding Medication Administration Errors among Hospital Staff Nurses in South Korea.

HEALTH SCIENCE2
International Journal of Quality in Health Care, 27(4), 276-283. Retrieved from
https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article/27/4/276/2357294
Article 2: The effect of nurse-to-patient ratios on nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in acute
specialist units: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Driscoll, A., Grant, M. J., Carroll, D., Dalton, S., Deaton, C., Jones, I., & Astin, F. (2017).
The Effect of Nurse-to-Patient Ratios on Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcomes in Acute
Specialist Units: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. European Journal of
Cardiovascular Nursing, 17(1), 6-22. Retrieved from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474515117721561
Background of Study:
PICOT Question:
When caring for acute care patients aging from 65 and above, does high nurse-to-
patient ratio compared to low nurse-to-patient ratio decrease or increase quality of care
and nursing errors over a 10-week time-frame using health assessment tools?
In article 1, the research question that was asked is that what are the reason behind the
occurrence of medication error. Focusing on the question that was asked, the research aimed
towards identifying the reasons behind the occurrence of the medication administration errors
(MAEs) and also to find out the reason for they being unreported, and to estimate the ratio of
medication administration errors (MAEs) that were actually described among the health care
nurses. The study shows relation with the PICOT question as it provides the understanding on
whether the nursing staffing has any effect on reducing the medication errors (You et al.,
2015).
In article 2, the research question that was asked is that what is the relation among the
nursing staff numbers and the nurse complex patient consequences in an acute health