Critical Review
Critical Review
The research identifies the recent issue of the patient centric care system as a major trend in the recent times. The patient centric care system is dependent on the feedback received from the patients. Therefore, the satisfaction of all the patients will be a key determinant of the assessment of any healthcare facility going into the future. Patient satisfaction is also included in the Medicare system whereby the hospitals that provide more satisfactory services receiving incentives from the federal government capped at two percent. As a result, the hospitals have been struggling to develop systems that will lead to the increased satisfaction for all the patients. With the increased need to increase the level of patient satisfaction, the hospitals have been forced to revisit the issues touching on service delivery. One such issue is state of the nursing operations in the hospitals. Quality monitoring has led to the need to focus more on the consumer based surveys (Kutney-Lee et al., 2009). Some of the identified determinants of the level of satisfaction are. the nature of the nurse and physician interactions, the workload per nurse, the staffing levels for the nurses and the nature of the working environment. Therefore, the state of nursing department will determine how the hospitals will be ranked on the mandatory national surveys. The purpose statement identifies the goal of the research project. It also notes that the current trends are the main causes of the increased need to focus on the patient. The above identification accords the research some level of relevance and currency since it revolves around the arising trends in nursing.
Purpose of the Study
The goal of the study is to show the importance of the nursing environment to the level of patient satisfaction experienced (Kutney-Lee et al., 2009). The study moves beyond the common perceptions in the research whereby the patient satisfaction is merely studied but not tied to the working environment. The study establishes evidence that the increased patient satisfaction depends on the nursing environment. The environment aspects that the research evaluates include the staff level, the quality of staff, which assumes the form of the nurse and registered nurses mix, the collaboration or general interactions between the nurses and the physicians.
The purpose of the study is clear since it provides a succinct indication of the direction that the research will be following. The purpose is not allocated a clear heading. Hence, the reader has to look inside the document in order for him or her to understand what the research is about. However, the flow of the research paper is considerably easy to follow hence the reader can identify the purpose of the study even without the clear marking. The purpose of the study is broad and covers different aspects that may determine the level of nursing in any hospital. Therefore, it may be considerably difficult for the research to fully satisfy the variables that may affect the level of satisfaction reported by the patients in the government mandated surveys. However, it fully covers the issue of patient satisfaction.
Research Question
The research question is, “Are staffing and other dimensions in nursing important key to the creation of patient satisfaction?” The research commences with the definition of the current trends in nursing profession. The paper identifies the pay for performance model as the important determiner of the recent interest towards the development of better satisfaction levels. The paper hypothesizes that nursing is an important aspect in the delivering of the best service hence increasing patient satisfaction (Kutney-Lee et al., 2009). The survey of 430 hospitals was conducted to test the hypothesis. The research also hypothesizes that the nursing environment is an important determiner in the level of patient satisfaction. A staffing issue of interest in the study is the ratio between the nurses and the patients. The patient to nurse workload is hypothesized to increase the patient satisfaction. Since the research evaluated where the patients’ reports of satisfaction in the hospitals with favorable work environment and desirable patient to nurse ratios.
The research question is well phrased since it provides the researchers with the source of their hypotheses. The research question provides a clear indication of the interest area of the research. The research question also consists of the indication of the variables that are to be relied upon in the study (Kutney-Lee et al., 2009). The independent variable is the nursing environment and the patient to nurse workload. The dependent variable is the patient satisfaction. The research question forms the entire basis of the research creating the foundation of the research from the onset. It also points out the relationship between the variables from the onset. Hence, the reader can understand the research and its main basis.
Literature Review
The study is based on the analysis of the previous studies on patient satisfaction. The studies investigated by the researchers point towards the importance of nursing in the development of best levels of patient outcomes and high level of satisfaction. The mandatory requirement by the government and insurance agencies to collect the consumer feedback also provided the researchers with the accurate and relevant data on patient satisfaction. The reviewed literature was reputable and the arguments presented there in were also backed by the government data through the frequent surveys. The authors of the researches were authorities in their respective fields. The literature indicated that the level of patient satisfaction was turning into an important aspect in the assessment of the patient satisfaction. Governmental publications outlining the focus areas in the healthcare system were also reviewed. The regulations on patient centered care accorded much validity to the research area covered (Kutney-Lee et al., 2009).
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework covered by the study is system model. The theory asserts that nursing is dependent on the individual as well as the systems. According to the theory, the nursing outcomes depend on the environment stressors both actual and potential. The environmental stressors include the shortage of care givers, the systemic problems in the given care environment, and the collaboration issues. If the patient is to attain full wellness, they have to be kept in the optimal system in order for them to be well. One of the determinants of the optimal environment in nursing is the level of the prevention of stress that the system has in place for the patients. The patients ought to feel attended to in the right moment. This calls for the creation of the perfect balance between the nurses and the patients. The above theoretical framework is accurate and representative of the real image in the modern nursing environment. Even though there are more theories of nursing in the paper, the system model is the most prominent. The fitness of the theory to the paper comes from the fact that the patient satisfaction has to be born out of the systems that the nurse administrators invent in terms of scheduling of shifts and the creation of the perfect mix of nurses and registered nurses. The systems have to be instilled to ensure that the patient wellness is at the optimal level at all times. The patient to nurse workload ought to be considered when setting up the systems of care. The scheduling decisions also have to be considered in order to reduce instances of nurse burnout since these incidences often lead to the reduction of the level of wellness experienced by the patients hence hindering the level of patient satisfaction.
Reference
Kutney-Lee, A., McHugh, M. D., Sloane, D. M., Cimiotti, J. P., Flynn, L., Neff, D. F., & Aiken, L. H. (2009). Nursing: a key to patient satisfaction. Health Affairs, 28(4), w669-w677.
