Nursing Policy and Procedure - Research Paper Example

The paper will also focus on the organization culture, expected outcomes of the solution, methods used to achieve the outcomes, and the impact of these outcomes on quality of care.

             A good and meaningful solution to the core question of this research paper is to let nurses take their Accu-Chek findings and adjust their staffing ratios. Currently on the med-Surg units, during the day shift the nurse-patient ratio is 5:1 while the night shift nurse-patient ratio is 6:1. Increasing the number of nurses will enable the nurses to obtain Accu-Chek readings more easily and effectively while at the same time increasing efficiency in the hospital. The newly hired nurses would undergo training on the use of Accu-Chek meters as is the requirement by both the manufacturing company and hospital policy. A closer look at the practice in today’s hospitals would give a general idea of the current practice. For example, The State Hospital of Utah has a Nursing Policy and Procedure Manual that states that all its newly hired staff are to receive training on the use of Accu-chek (2005).  

            This is a realistic intervention to the setting because it increases the total number of nurses available resulting in the nurses being in a better position to take their own Accu-Chek readings and institute any urgent action that may arise based on the readings obtained. The nurses currently stationed at the hospital can train the newly hired nurses on how to use the Accu-Chek meter. This would reduce the cost of implementing this intervention to the cost of hiring new nurses. But is the intervention consistent with the organization's culture and resources? The members of staff have a basic idea of EBS. The resources required to implement the intervention are minimal as only a few nurses would be hired. The nurses would educate the newly hired nurses on the use of the Accu-Chek meter. This would allow prompt response and action by any nurse in situations where abnormal findings are obtained from the Accu-Chek. In this way, the organization can provide quality care to type two DM patients.

             With the implementation of this intervention, certain outcomes are expected. They include: administrators becoming more flexible and allowing members of staff to act in accordance with the best practices rather than the tradition of the organization. The management would also communicate more effectively with the employees as a result of conforming to EBP which is the basis of the intervention. The DM patients would also benefit from improved healthcare and the decreased turnaround time (Roche, 2005). The expected outcomes would then be achieved via the hiring and educating of new nurses. The nurses will then be allowed to take their own Accu-Chek readings. Such outcomes would have an impact on the organization. As a result of increasing the ratio of nurses and letting nurses take Accu-Chek readings, there would be an improvement in the quality of healthcare service provided and more lives would be saved.  The service would be timelier and more professional and with a notable increase in inefficiency. This is largely due to the increased number of nurses offering POCT to DM patients and taking critical decisions at the earliest time possible.