Shift Scheduling and the Effect of Patients Care

Bench Mark: Capstone change project objective
Review your problem or issue and the cultural assessment. Consider how the findings connect to your topic and intervention for your capstone change project. Write a list of three to five objectives for your proposed intervention. Below each objective, provide a one or two sentence rationale.
After writing your objectives, provide a rationale for how your proposed project and objectives advocate for autonomy and social justice for individuals and diverse populations.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
RN to BSN
1.5: Advocate for autonomy and social justice for individuals and diverse populations.

ANSWER

Problem: Long working Hours among Nurses

Long working hours and shift work has put nurses at risk of sleep disturbances and short sleep durations. Considerably, insufficient sleep has increased the risk of injuries, reduced job performance, fatigue-related errors, and a wide range of chronic diseases which might harm the patient and other people. By the nature of their work, the nursing personnel has been vulnerable to workplace injuries. Nurses that work for long hours have longer exposure to psychosocial and physical stressors and thus are at a high risk of suffering illnesses and injuries (Kaliyaperumal et al., 2017). Giving nurses increased control over their shifts through shift schedules can intervene in the physical and psychosocial stressors, thus reducing sickness absence, reduced job performance, and fatigue-related errors.

Objectives

The first objective is to develop a healthy working environment to improve patient care. A shift schedule will establish a healthy working environment for the nursing staff. Shift scheduling is important in engaging the work and offers a vital experience that overcomes long working hours among nurses. This is because the nurses will have opinions on work tasks, duration of shifts, rest and break periods, and welfare and environment facilities.

The second objective is to reduce turnover and sickness absence to improve patient care. Shift schedule will focus on reducing sickness absence and turnover. Extended shifts affect the nurses’ well-being, resulting in expensive sickness absence and turnover that can negatively influence patient care. Organizing the nurses’ shifts around their preferences and experiences improves the working condition, lowering sickness absence and turnover. For instance, designing a work schedule that lows fatigue risk and limits the number of hours that a nurse can work will reduce turnover and sickness absence.

The third objective is to reduce fatigue-related errors and nurse burnout to improve patient care. Considerably, shift scheduling will reduce nurse burnout and fatigue-related errors. Burnout and fatigue-related errors among nurses have been characterized by emotional exhaustion and sleep disorders. Woo et al., (2020) show that prolonged working hours is a major cause of burnout and medical errors. Shift schedules will ensure that nurses work in shifts with fewer hours to prevent medical errors and burnouts that result from prolonged working hours.

The fourth objective is to improve the quality of patient care and patient satisfaction. A shift schedule will effectively improve the quality of care and patient satisfaction. The change in shifts will positively impact the productivity and morale of the nurses. Considerably, assisting the nurses in choosing their schedules will positively impact organizational loyalty, the interaction between professional and personal life, improved social time, and teamwork, which will boost the quality of care. Nurses satisfied with their job are likely to improve their performance, thus positively influencing patient satisfaction.

Autonomy and Social Justice

The shift scheduling allows the nurses to control their shifts, thus advocating for their autonomy. The nurses will be responsible for making decisions regarding shifts and standing behind those decisions. Social justice means that all people have equal access to health, wealth, privileges, and opportunities regardless of circumstances. The shift scheduling project will improve the working condition of nurses by ensuring that they have equal access to social time and work duration. Through shift scheduling, nurses will feel valued equally as healthcare workers in the health systems.

References

Kaliyaperumal, D., Elango, Y., Alagesan, M., & Santhanakrishanan, I. (2017). Effects of sleep deprivation on the cognitive performance of nurses working in shifts. Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR, 11(8), CC01.

Woo, T., Ho, R., Tang, A., & Tam, W. (2020). Global prevalence of burnout symptoms among nurses: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of psychiatric research, 123, 9-20.