How Shortage of Nursing Staff Leads to More Workloads in Clinical Settings

Running head: SHORTAGE OF NURSING STAFF AND WORKLOAD
HOW SHORTAGE OF NURSING STAFF LEADS TO MORE WORKLOADS IN CLINICAL
SETTINGS
Fardowsa Osman
Grand Canyon University
December 14, 2019

SHORTAGE OF NURSING STAFF AND WORKLOAD1
Nursing shortage is a global challenge facing the healthcare industry in all countries around the
globe. Factors that contribute to staff shortage are multifaceted and related to the structural
problems that affect the way healthcare organizations higher the nurses. This is related to the
reduced number of nurses being recruited in nursing institutions and the increased population
that is happening in all states of America (Kaur & Gujral, 2017). The outcome of this problem
has been attributed to many challenges in the practice that lead to reduced quality of the staff.

SHORTAGE OF NURSING STAFF AND WORKLOAD2
Criteria Article 1 Article 2 Article 3 Article 4
Author, Journal
(Peer-Reviewed),
and
Permalink or
Working Link to
Access Article
Duffield, C., &
O’brien-
Pallas, L.
Australian
Health
Review, 26(1),
192-199.
https://
opus.lib.uts.edu.au/
bitstream/
10453/4514/1/200300
0980.pdf
Fagerström, L.,
Kinnunen,
M., &
Saarela1, J.
BMJ Open,
8.
https://
bmjopen.bmj.com/
content/bmjopen/
8/4/
e016367.full.pdf
Griffiths, P.,
Maruotti,
A.,
Saucedo,
A. R.,
Redfern,
O. C.,
Ball, J.
E.,
Briggs,
J., . . .
Smith, G.
B. BMJ
Quality
Safety,
5(3).
https://
qualitysafety.bmj
.com/content/
qhc/
Kaur, N., &
Gujral,
H. K.,
6(5), 23-
26.
Journal of
Nursing and
Health Science.
https://
pdfs.semanticsc
holar.org/
c497/60fdffe81
afe22f1c0d2d29
58c67d52cb815
.pdf

SHORTAGE OF NURSING STAFF AND WORKLOAD3
28/8/609.full.pdf
Article Title and
Year Published
The causes and
consequences of
nursing shortages: a
helicopter view of the
research. (2013).
Nursing workload,
patient safety
incidents and
mortality: an
observational
study from
Finland. (2018).
Nurse staffing,
nursing
assistants and
hospital
mortality:
retrospective
longitudinal
cohort study.
(2018).
Work Load On
Nurses And It’s
Impact On
Patientcare.
(2017).
Research
Questions
(Qualitative)/Hy
pothesis
(Quantitative),
and
Purposes/Aim of
Study
To present an
overview of the
interlinking factors
that cause nursing
shortages.
To investigate the
correlation
between daily
workload of nurses
to patient safety
incidents and
patient mortality.
To determine the
association
between
registered nurse
levels and
nursing assistant
staffing in
reducing
mortality rate.
To study the
role of staffing
levels in quality
patient
outcomes.
The research
aimed at finding
the answers to
the questions
like what is the
impact of
nursing
workload on the

SHORTAGE OF NURSING STAFF AND WORKLOAD4
care of patients,
what is the level
of satisfaction
among the
nursing staffs,
what is the level
of workload in
the nursing
staffs in
different
hospitals. The
final objective
was to find a
conclusive
statement and
recommendatio
ns regarding the
problem of
nursing
workloads on
various
hospitals.
Design (Type of
Quantitative, or
The study design The study design Quantitative A qualitative

SHORTAGE OF NURSING STAFF AND WORKLOAD5
Type of
Qualitative)
used for this
overview study can
be described as
qualitative.
used both
qualitative and
quantitative
designs.
study design was
used for this
study.
study design
was adapted for
conducting this
study.
Setting/Sample There was no specific
sample size
mentioned in the
study. The study
setting was natural
setting.
The study setting
was 3 secondary
acute care hospital
and a tertiary acute
care hospital. The
sample can be
considered as 36
units from all
those hospitals.
The study was
done in a
hospital setting
involving
different wards.
The sample size
was 138133
patients who
were adult per
age.
The study
setting was
natural for this
study and the
sample that
were used in
this study was
previous studies
and the size of
the sample was
not mentioned
in the article.
Methods:
Intervention/
Instruments
Various previous
studies were
reviewed in order to
examine four aspects.
Those aspects are
“Nursing workforce
characteristics”,
The nursing
resources,
incidents of patient
safety and the
mortality rate of
the patients along
with the nursing
The study was an
observational
study that was
done by using a
longitudinal and
retrospective
approach. The
The secondary
data that are
obtained from
the previous
study articles
were subjected
to direct