Action Research on Workload Management & Dementia Care Quality

This report presents an action research proposal investigating the impact of workload on the quality of care services provided to dementia patients at Frimley Park Hospital. The research aims to determine the association between carer workload and the quality of care, focusing on patient satisf...Read More

Unit 18: Innovation and Improvement through Action Research
[Document subtitle]

Table of Contents
Unit 18: Innovation and Improvement through Action Research..............................................0
ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL.........................................................................................0
Research Title.............................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................1
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................1
Research Questions................................................................................................................1
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................2
Methodology..............................................................................................................................3
Research Approach................................................................................................................3
Research Participants.............................................................................................................3
Sampling................................................................................................................................3
Data Collection.......................................................................................................................3
Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................3
Ethical Considerations...........................................................................................................4
Timeline.....................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5
Appendix....................................................................................................................................8
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................8

Research Title
How to manage workload because of shortage of carers to improve quality of work
Introduction
Improvement of services in healthcare tends to enhance care provisions, streamline services,
and cost-savings as well as also help in mitigating medical errors. While workload
management is the procedure of strategically distributing work all across the staff to enhance
employee performance and skills (Pérez-Francisco et al., 2020). However, in case of an
imbalance of workload management, the reduction in the quality of patient safety and care as
well as also influences the health of the professional group. Additionally, regarding the
patients, the care staff o suffering from increased workload is linked with suboptimal patient
care and may result to mitigate patient satisfaction, which means less quality care provided to
patients (Francisco et al., 2020). Therefore, the proposed will serve to fill the gap in the
literature as the research studies which have been carried out in this area of research do not
explicitly explain the ways to manage workload which may contribute to improving the
quality-of-care services and patient satisfaction. Additionally, in regards to Frimley Park
Hospital in which I am working as a healthcare assistant and serving dementia patients, this
research will help me out to reduce work pressure among the care professionals which
directly results in improving overall care services offered to dementia patients.
Research Aim
This research is aimed to determine the association and impact of the workload experienced
by care staff, on the quality of the care services provided to patients in a dementia ward.
Research Objectives
 To understand the concept of workload and its impact on the care staff
 To assess the impact of workload on patient satisfaction and the quality-of-care
services
 To find out the ways for managing the workload to enhance the quality-of-care
services offered to patients in the dementia ward

Research Questions
RQ1: What is meant by workload and how it influences the care staff?
RQ3: How patient satisfaction and quality of care services are affected due to the workload
experienced by care staff?
RQ3: What are the ways to manage workload in the healthcare setting?
Literature Review
In terms of healthcare, the workload is considered a critical phenomenon in the assessment of
quality and performance, and its definition depends on the perspectives such as unit-level
workload or individual clinician-level and kind of accessible metrics such as subjective and
objective measures (Fishbein et al., 2019). Care professionals play a crucial role in offering
quality healthcare services to patients. The quality of services offered creates a powerful
relationship between patients and healthcare professionals. While the problems of workload
and turnover of care professionals impact the quality of services offered to patients in the
healthcare setting. Additionally, insufficient or shortage of care staff has a negative influence
on the entire health of the patients and services to them (Researchomatic, 2022). Moreover,
(Portoghese et al., 2014), show that healthcare professionals deal with a broad variety of
psychosocial stressors due to which these individuals are at an increased risk of creating
burnout syndrome which in response may impact healthcare setting results, for instance,
safety and quality of offered care.
Additionally, (Boev & Xia, 2015), demonstrates that the efforts of care professionals are
crucial in offering effective care services, mainly in critical care units and other such units.
Adverse and complicated events are more probable to happen among patients in the ICU and
such patients need care and attention. Most of the research in this regard is majorly
emphasised the impact of staffing and its relation to patient satisfaction and safety. Former
research studies also demonstrated that a shortage of care staff is prominently linked with
reduced quality of care services and unmet needs of the patients. With an increase in the
workload among care professionals there is also a high risk of the prevalence of several
infections. Furthermore, (Almenyan et al., 2021), also showed that increased workload may
also influence the quality-of-care services offered to the patients. This is due to the reason

that care professionals may have less time to spend with other physicians which elevates the
risk of creating errors and reducing the quality of care.
Methodology
Research Approach
There are two common types of research approaches; qualitative and quantitative approach,
apart from this another approach is the mixed approach. However, to attain the outlined aim
of the proposed research, a qualitative research approach will be used. The rationale for
choosing this research approach is that it provides more suppleness in designing the research,
and enables the association of factors of various kinds of research to extract the most useful
results (Molina-Azorín et al., 2015).
Research Participants
The participants of this research will be dementia patients’ carers providing care services at
the Frimley Park Hospital. The number of research participants will be 10 carers working in
the dementia ward providing dementia care services at Frimley Park Hospital.
Sampling
The research will use simple random sampling to select the research participants (Sharma,
2017).
Data Collection
In general, there are two data collection methods; secondary and primary data collection.
Primary data is collected using; a survey questionnaire, interviews, and others. While
secondary data is collected by accessing previous research from valid and credible sources of
information. However, for the proposed research primary data collection methods will be
used to gather the views of dementia patients’ carers (research participants).
Data Analysis
There are several methods to analyse the data collected from the quantitative approach and
primary data collection methods. For instance, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics

as well as other tools to do so such as Ms Excel, SPPS, and others. Therefore, for the
proposed research Ms Excel tools will be used in which responses of the research participants
will be presented in the form of a pie chart and it will be analysed using external sources of
information (Watson, 2015). Therefore, the analysed results will help in improving overall
care services offered to the dementia patients in Frimley Park hospital.
Ethical Considerations
To work following the ethical principles the researcher fills in the ethics form. In the form,
research participants will be offered the aim and objectives of the research and will also be
given the freedom of withdrawing from research at any point without giving any reason.
Moreover, the personal information of all the research participants will also be kept
confidential (Sloman et al., 2019).
Timeline
Activities 5 Days 10 Days 15 Days 20 Days 25 Days
Choose the research topic and create
an action research proposal and get
approval for it
Collect information and initiate action
research proposal
To analyse the collected information
Start writing the report or action
research
Review and submit the action research

References
Almenyan, A.A., Albuduh, A. and Al-Abbas, F. (2021) “Effect of nursing workload in
Intensive Care Units,” Cureus [Preprint]. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.12674.
Boev, C. and Xia, Y. (2015) “Nurse-physician collaboration and Hospital-Acquired
Infections in critical care,” Critical Care Nurse, 35(2), pp. 66–72. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2015809.
Fishbein, D. et al. (2019) “Objective measures of workload in Healthcare: A narrative
review,” International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 33(1), pp. 1–17.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa-12-2018-0288.
Francisco, P. et al. (2020) “Influence of Workload on Primary Care Nurses’ Health and
Burnout, Patients’ Safety, and Quality of Care: Integrative Review.,” Healthcare. ,
8(12). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8010012.
Molina-Azorín, J.F. et al. (2015) “The effects of quality and environmental management on
competitive advantage: A mixed methods study in the hotel industry,” Tourism
Management, 50, pp. 41–54. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.01.008.
Pérez-Francisco, D.H. et al. (2020) “Influence of workload on Primary Care Nurses’ health
and burnout, patients’ safety, and quality of Care: Integrative Review,” Healthcare,
8(1), p. 12. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8010012.
Portoghese, I. et al. (2014) “Burnout and workload among health care workers: The
moderating role of job control,” Safety and Health at Work, 5(3), pp. 152–157.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.05.004.

Researchomatic (2022) Impact of nursing heavy workload on nurses and patients,
Researchomatic. Available at: https://www.researchomatic.com/impact-of-nursing-
heavy-workload-on-nurses-and-patients-168943.html (Accessed: December 25, 2022).
Sharma, G. (2017) “Pros and cons of different sampling techniques. ,” International journal
of applied research, 3(7), pp. 749–752.
Sloman, K.A. et al. (2019) “Ethical considerations in fish research,” Journal of Fish Biology,
94(4), pp. 556–577. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.13946.
Watson, R. (2015) “Quantitative research,” Nursing Standard, 29(31), pp. 44–48. Available
at: https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.29.31.44.e8681.

Appendix
Questionnaire
1- Workload has a negative impact on the overall performance of the care workers
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
2- The workload on the care professionals leads to less effective care services provided
to patients in the dementia ward
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
3- Care professionals working with an increased workload fail to meet the needs of the
patients in the dementia ward
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
4- Hiring additional staff may result in managing the workload
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
5- Training and development sessions offered to care professionals help them to work an
increased workload
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neutral

• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
6- Introducing and maintaining effective retention strategies in the healthcare
environment may prevent the shortage of staff
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
7- Creating a positive and supportive working environment may also help in managing
workloads
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree