Importance of Optimum Nurse to Patient Ratio in Healthcare Settings

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
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1LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction:
The quality of effective care delivery within a healthcare setting is largely determined by
the optimum nurse to patient ratio. It should be noted in this context that the ability of a nursing
professional to deliver effective care to the patients is dependent on the number of patients the
RN has been assigned to attend for the day. An optimum nurse to patient ratio within a care unit
helps in the smooth distribution of workload and also renders effective decision making (Gnanlet
& Gilland, 2014). It can be stated in this context, that a care environment that is not equipped
with ample care professionals but has a huge patient load is bound to cultivate poor job
satisfaction and excessive workload among the existing workforce. Further, as mentioned by
Knudson (2013), stretched shift hours, excessive workload and poor job satisfaction serve as the
major reasons that lead to nurses burnout. Also, according to Watson et al. (2016), maintenance
of an optimum nurse to patient ratio can help in rendering quality care services within the elderly
and the neonatal care unit. It has further been stated in this regard, that effective nurse to patient
ratio can play an integral role in the prevention of the high rates of morbidity and mortality
among a specific care setting. This paper intends to compare and contrast the available literatures
that are relatable to the research question and establish a discussion based on the findings.
Discussion:
A number of researchers have laid emphasis upon the fact that maintenance of an optimal
nurse to patient ratio within a care setting can help in improving patient outcome. This paper
intends to evaluate a number of scholarly sources to compare and contrast between the impact of
a high nurse to patient ratio on the quality of care and a low nurse to patient ratio on the quality
of care within a care environment.

2LITERATURE REVIEW
Eunhee et al. (2016) conducted a quantitative cross sectional study in order to examine
the relationship between the work environment and nurse staffing level to the incidence of
medical adverse events. The researchers used a combination of the patient discharge data, facility
data as well as the nurse survey data to conduct the research. The sample size considered by the
researchers for the study included a total of 4864 nurses and 113426 patients and the data was
collected from 58 hospitals of South Korea (Eunhee et al., 2016). The collected data was
analyzed using the descriptive statistics and the elements of Nurse staffing level, work
environment and adverse events and characteristics of the patients and nurses was also evaluated.
The results showed that less patients allotted to each nurse reduced the frequency of adverse
events. Therefore, it can be mentioned that the research study included a huge sample size and
therefore the findings can be generalized. According to Driscoll et al . (2018), a higher nurse
staffing could help in reducing the mortality rate of the patients within the care environment by
14%. The researchers conducted a systematic review and included a total of 35 articles (Driscoll
et al., 2018). The collected data was analyzed using the meta-analysis. Therefore, it can be said
that the research offers a multiple range of data from different care settings, but the number of
articles included in the study is considerably minimal to generalize the results. Another research
study conducted by Debra et al. (2014), investigated the relationship between nurse staffing and
job satisfaction. The researchers conducted a quantitative co-relational study and included nurses
who had been working for at least a period of 6 months. The sample size included 70 nurses and
a combination of NWI-R (Reversed nursing work index) and Survey was used to understand the
job experience of the nurses (Debra et al., 2014). The collected responses were evaluated using
statistical analysis. The findings critically evaluated that the nurses experienced low level of job
satisfaction due to heavy workload and were unhappy with the extensive patient load. The