I HAVE TO Respond substantively to at least two other students. Comment on their identified safety concerns and the elements of healthcare finance applicable to their nursing practice issue. How do their responses compare to yours? Are there any similarities or differences that surprised you?

Answers must be evidence-based and include sources in APA format.

SINCE YOU HAVE TO SEE IF IT IS SIMILAR TO WHAT I SAID. THIS IS WHAT I TYPED:

Safety Concern Medication errors have been a significant health safety concern and are directly connected to a high patient-to-nurse ratio. Medication errors occur in almost all medication procedures, from registration, prescription, dispensing, and administration. Most of these errors result from physical and emotional disturbances of nurses when providing care. Bakhamis et al. (2019) present an unfavorable nurse-to-patient ratio as one of the leading causes of emotional and physical disorders. A high patient-to-nurse ratio leads to long working hours, fatigue, stress, and burnout, which increase the chances of nurses committing medication errors. Also, by working for long hours, nurses are left overwhelmed and unable to face the demand of their job. They may even develop a sense of cynical detachment from work, which leads to destructive feelings (Bakhamis et al., 2019). This may negatively affect the quality and effectiveness of the care provided to the patients. They become less attentive when administering medication, increasing the risk of committing errors. Elements of Healthcare Finance Inefficient healthcare financing adversely affects an organization’s ability to invest in appropriate nurse staffing. The healthcare system is in an escalating era where more pressure is being put on healthcare organizations to streamline their functioning while reducing the total cost of care. Most healthcare units consider value as a return on investment and achievement of desired regulatory requirements while optimizing payments, which increases the patient-to-nurse ratio. However, the value from the nursing perspective is considered as promoting positive health outcomes, preventing health risks, and maintaining professional and ethical concerns. This leaves a gap between the management and the nursing practice (Begley et al., 2020). Therefore, most units lack adequate evidence-based allocation of nursing resources since they consider having fewer nurse professionals as an initiative to cut costs and maximize their value. The available nurses, therefore, end up being overworked, leaving them overwhelmed and susceptible to committing medication errors. Best practices are needed to establish trust between nursing and finance by developing shared goals that will lead to enhanced quality while minimizing cost (Begley et al., 2020). New initiatives such as cost containment pressures, regulatory requirement, and changing payment models act as an avenue for enhancing the healthcare financing system so that more focus is put on improving patient experience in the care environment.

References
Bakhamis, L., Paul III, D. P., Smith, H., & Coustasse, A. (2019). Still an epidemic: the burnout syndrome in hospital registered nurses. The health care manager, 38(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1097/HCM.0000000000000243 Begley, R., Cipriano, P. F., & Nelson, T. (2020). Common Ground:: AONL, ANA, and HFMA Outcomes-Based Staffing Report Provides Guidance, Insights. Nurse Leader, 18(3), 216-219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2020.04.007

NOW THIS IS WHAT THE STUDENT PUT:

One aspect of safety that impacts nursing practice is medication errors, which in many studies, have been found to be the number one cause of adverse patient outcomes in the clinical setting (Panagioti et al., 2019). A medication administration error is when a nurse incorrectly administers any medication in any capacity. By any capacity, I think back to the five rights of medicating; right patient, right dose, right drug, right route and right time. A medication administration error is an error in any of these rights, for example if a medication was given IV instead of IM or the dose was accidentally doubled. Many tools are put in place to prevent medication errors, such as electronic medical records and barcode scanning. Nonetheless, medication administration errors still manage to slip through the cracks extremely often.

My personal favorite solution to most professional nursing issues is safe staffing. One study found a direct correlation between nursing workload and medication administration errors, which should come as no surprise to anyone (Jin et al., 2023). When the workload of the nurse is lesser, the nurse has less physical and mental barriers to the care he or she provides. As far as physical barriers, I think of time. With more patients, it is much easier to get behind on tasks, and feel the need to rush through current tasks to accomplish everything in a timely manner. As far as mental barriers, pure stress in itself explained a 45% variance in medication safety competence in another study by Ga-Hyun Kim, & Hyun-Ju Lee (2022).

Safe staffing is truly the solution that hospital administration likes the least, as it minimizes profit, but it is ultimately one of the most logical solutions to a reduction in medication administration errors. It’s certainly no secret that nurses get paid a "decent" amount of money as far as working class jobs go, so hospitals will do whatever they can to maximize the amount of productivity with the least amount of staff. One element of up-staffing that can positively affect financial outcomes however, is injury and illness prevention. Both healthcare acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) and catheter associated urinary infections (CAUTIs) are massive financial drains on hospitals. It was proven in a study by Margo Halm (2019), that safe staffing drastically decreased the number of HAPIs, CAUTIs, and other financial burdens such as post- operative infections and sepsis. Hospital administration needs to realize that hiring more staff is an investment into safe patient outcomes, higher patient satisfaction, and a decreased possibility of financial ruin due to poor patient outcomes.

References:

Ga-Hyun Kim, & Hyun-Ju Lee. (2022). Factors Influencing Clinical Nurses’ Medication Safety Competence. Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing, 29(2), 237–247. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.7739/jkafn.2022.29.2.237

Halm, M. (2019). The Influence of Appropriate Staffing and Healthy Work Environments on Patient and Nurse Outcomes. American Journal of Critical Care, 28(2), 152–156. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.4037/ajcc2019938

Jin, H., Yao, J., Xiao, Z., Qu, Q., & Fu, Q. (2023). Effects of nursing workload on medication administration errors: A quantitative study. Work, 74(1), 247–254. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.3233/WOR-211392

Panagioti M., Khan K., Keers R. N., Abuzour A., Phipps D., Kontopantelis E., Bower P., Campbell S., Haneef R., Avery A. J., & Ashcroft D. M. (2019). Prevalence, severity, and nature of preventable patient harm across medical care settings: Systematic review and meta‐analysis. BMJ, 366, l4185. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4185

PLEASE HAVE THIS DONE BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON. THANK YOU.