Research Critique on Nurse-to-Patient Ratios and Medication Errors

Running head: HEALTH SCIENCE
HEALTH SCIENCE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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HEALTH SCIENCE1
Introduction
A research critique is defined as the process of analysing a research paper that will
focus on the limitation and strength of the research study. Research Critiquing is considered
as the systematic method or approach that is primarily used to evaluate the research study and
report the result accordingly (McDonald, 2017). The researchers focus on the best existing
exercise that will highlight the capability of the researcher to assess and evaluate the
explanation of the study. The study will focus on critiquing two qualitative study and two
quantitative study that is associated with the PICOT question. This research study was
conducted based on the necessity of higher nursing staff proportion within a health care
situation to decrease the probabilities of medication error and distribution of improved health
care management and treatment.
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?”
Qualitative Research Critique
Nominated articles:
Article 1: 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.

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Article 2: Nurse staffing and medication errors: cross sectional or longitudinal
relationships?
Mark, B. A., & Belyea, M. (2009). Nurse Staffing and Medication Errors: Cross Sectional or
Longitudinal Relationships? Research on Nursing and Health, 32(1), 18- 30.
Background of Study
The first article focus on identifying appropriate nursing care that is frequently missed
at the acute hospital setting. The researcher had also focused on determining the association
between the missed care of the patient and the care that is given to the patient in the nursing
staff. The mortality rate was also focused that was majorly affected due to the nursing staff
level and patient outcome (Driscoll et al., 2017). The PICOT question was associated and
linked with the objective of the research as the study provided a detail explanation of the
result that exhibit the low registered nurse staffing associated with missed care that was not
given to the acute inpatient.
In the second article, the researcher has focused on the cause of error or the factors
that lead to error rather than highlighting the steps of error recovery. The researcher had
focused that it is very crucial for the nurse to keep the patient safe and utilize their nursing
practice through effective education and experience. The study focused on the nurses of
medical-surgery background and how their knowledge and experience will help them to treat
the patient effectively and reduce medication error (Mark & Belyea, 2009). The researcher
had concluded that it is very crucial for the nurse to be proficiently trained in order to create a
safe and healthy healthcare system that will also assist in reducing the possibility of
medication error. The significant of the studies are to reduce the occurrence of medication
error in the health care settings, also it demonstrates the association of the nursing staff with
the appropriate nursing care for the patient.

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Methods
In article 1, the researcher had focused on collection of secondary data and hence used
qualitative study method for extraction of relevant information. Literature review and
comprehensive examination was done that would help the researcher to determine if the
interpreted research question is relevant and significant (Driscoll et al., 2017). This data
collection method is based on the primary resources and thus might not be fully acceptable
for an unbiased review of the literature.
In article 2, a descriptive correlational and cross-sectional study was performed that
comprised of 184 participants who were nurses and they evaluated the relationship among the
organizational factors, nurse characteristics and medical-error recovery within the nurses
belonging to medical-surgery background (Mark & Belyea, 2009). The benefit of the study is
that, it helped the nursing staffs to understand the characteristics of the nursing role and its
impact on the medication administration and error occurrence rate in a healthcare setting.
Result
In article 1, the key findings obtained from the study was that lower registered nursing
staff is related with the missed or skipped nursing care within the hospital setting. The
findings exhibited that missed nursing care was primarily due to nursing staff adequacy
(Driscoll et al., 2017). This also shows that the presence of the nurse is also very important in
order to provide better patient outcome. In article 2, the key findings obtained from the study
exhibited that effective nursing education and experience is crucial for correcting the medical
error that will enhance the patient safety and healthcare (Mark & Belyea, 2009). It also
helped to show that medical errors can be reduced by their timely reporting and analysis.
In article 1, the implication of efficient registered nursing staff within the acute care
setting is significant for reducing missed nursing care and efficient knowledge to the
registered nurse will help the nurse to gain knowledge about the factors that result in bad