Research Report: Rural Nurse Challenges in Tasmania Hospitals

This research report investigates the workplace issues faced by nurses in rural Tasmania, focusing on challenges related to recruitment and retention. The study examines how factors such as work injuries, work-related disabilities, extended absences, and increased stress affect the quality of care provided to consumers. Furthermore, the report explores the impact of human resource management on the wellbeing of nurses working in Tasmanian hospitals. The research utilizes a conceptual framework to illustrate the relationships between independent variables (workplace challenges) and dependent variables (provision of care to consumers), with positive and negative factors identified. The methodology includes research area identification, proposal formulation, literature review, data collection, and report preparation. The findings highlight the significance of addressing these challenges to improve both nurse wellbeing and patient outcomes in the Tasmanian healthcare system. The report also includes a Gantt chart outlining the project timeline and a list of references to support the research.

RESEARCH BUSINESS 1
Name:
Institutional affiliation:

RESEARCH BUSINESS 2
Research questions
1) What are the workplace issues regarding recruitment and retention that rural area nurses in
Tasmania face?
2) How do the various workplace issues regarding the nurses affect the care provided to
consumers?
3) What is the impact of the human resource management on improving the wellbeing of the
nurses working in hospitals in Tasmania?
Research hypothesis
Based on the literature review the following research hypotheses have been formulated:
Hypothesis 1:
H0: Null hypothesis: Workplace issues affecting nurses do not have an impact on care provided
to the rural consumers
H1: Alternate hypothesis: Workplace issues affecting nurses do have an impact on care provided
to the rural consumers
Hypothesis 2:
H0: Null hypothesis: Hospital management does not affect the wellbeing of the nurses working
in hospitals in Tasmania
H1: Alternate hypothesis: Hospital management does affect the wellbeing of the nurses working
in hospitals in Tasmania

RESEARCH BUSINESS 3
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Patient’s safety and satisfaction primarily depends on the caregiver’s ability to perform their
tasks productively. In the rural and remote areas of Tasmania nurses have challenges sticking to
their jobs or applying for the jobs due to various reasons. The challenges include work injury,
work related disability, extended work absence due to workplace health and safety issues and
increased workload. This in turn affects the quality of care that the consumers in Tasmania
receive. However the human resource management plays an important role in protecting nurses.
All these factors affect the health sector in Tasmania.
1) WORK INJURY
This refers to the consequences encountered as a result of poor work ergonomics, high patient to
nurse rations which unfortunately contributes to overstraining of the nurses. This may translate to
physical injury such as intense back ache, emotional injury such as burnout and breakdown. Also
mental health may be deteriorated due to intense workload(Cho,Chin, Kim & Hong, 2016)
2) WORK RELATED DISABILITY
Risks involving fires may result in life threatening disability for example irreversible
contractures. Nurses may also have persistent back pain which may limit them from performing
activities of daily living. Accidental falls may result in fractures which is a limitation for the
nurses in their work and personal lives. Depression can easily result due to fatigue and caregiver
inability to create healthy work boundaries.
3) EXTENDED WORK PLACE ABSENCE

RESEARCH BUSINESS 4
When the hospital environment is hostile towards the nurses, there is a high likelihood that
nurses have increased sick leaves and mandatory leaves. Nurses are at risk of infections and
injuries while handling equipment. Also the clients may be violent towards the nurses which may
result in actual physical, verbal and emotional abuse. This in turn results to shortage of staff.
4) INCREASED STRESS
The inability of the health system to recruit and retain nurses causes a cycle of
desperation(Hayward, Bungay,Wolff, MacDonald, 2016).. This also causes worsening of the
fatigue of the nurses who agree to work in the hospitals in Tasmania. Contributing to this also
includes poor geographical environment such as poor road conditions and long drives to access
the hospitals in the rural areas.
5) QUALITY OF THE CARE PROVIDED TO CONSUMERS
The shortage of nurses, the stress of the workplace that nurses encounter contribute to poor
quality of care provided to the nurses. This is because healthy nurses are more likely to enjoy
their work and be more satisfied. Nurses who are unwell or injured are unable to work resulting
to poor patient safety(Todaro-Franceschi, 2019).
6) HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ON WELLBEING OF THE NURSES
The hospital human resource management should ensure that there is adequate number of nurses
to serve a large population of nurses. Also the availability of mental health services for nurses
within a span of various shifts. The management should accommodate the opinions of the nurses
and provide a friendly environment for the nurses to work such as leaves and
teambuilding(Wong,Liu,Wang,Anderson Seib & Molasiotis, 2015)

RESEARCH BUSINESS 5
GHANTT CHART
Activities Commencement date Final date Duration in days
Research area
identification
7th October 2019 11th October 2019 5 days
Formulating research
proposal
14th October 2019 28th October 2019 14 days
Review of literature 29th October 2019 4th November 2019 6 days
Collection of data 5th November 2019 13th November 2019 8 days
Report preparation 14th November 2019 22nd November 2019 8 days
Total number of days 41 days

RESEARCH BUSINESS 6
CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
The main objective of this study is to explain the association between challenges nurses in
Tasmania and the care provided to consumers. The diagrammatical representation below
provides a conceptual framework to understand the above association.
NEGATIVE
Work injury
Work related disability
Extended work absence
Positive
Human resource management
Independent variable
Key challenges in
recruitment of nurses
in Tasmania
Dependent
variable
Provision of
care to
consumers

RESEARCH BUSINESS 7
REFERENCES
Cho, E., Chin, D. L., Kim, S., & Hong, O. (2016). The relationships of nurse staffing level and
work environment with patient adverse events. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(1),
74-82.
Hayward, D., Bungay, V., Wolff, A. C., & MacDonald, V. (2016). A qualitative study of
experienced nurses' voluntary turnover: Learning from their perspectives. Journal of
clinical nursing, 25(9-10), 1336-1345.
Todaro-Franceschi, V. (2019). Compassion fatigue and burnout in nursing: Enhancing
professional quality of life. Springer Publishing Company.
Wong, F. K. Y., Liu, H., Wang, H., Anderson, D., Seib, C., & Molasiotis, A. (2015). Global
nursing issues and development: Analysis of World Health Organization
documents. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 47(6), 574-583.