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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page research paper that examines the issue of mandatory nursing overtime and legislation that addresses this problem. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khnurman.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
long shifts lead to increased medical error, many healthcare employers continue to make mandatory overtime a stipulation of employment for nurses. This not only constitutes a problem for nurses, but
seriously impacts patient safety. The following examination of this problem, first of all, examines the issue and then looks at legislation, at the state and federal level, that is designed
to remedy this potential public health hazard. The Issue--Mandatory overtime A 1999 report generated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), "To Err is Human," estimates that each year as
many as 98,000 hospitalized Americans die as a result of errors made in their care (UAN works, 2005). In an IOM study conducted in 2003 on the role of nurses
in patient safety, this research concluded that the findings revealed that "the typical work environment of nurses is characterized by many serious threats to patient safety" and that the long
hours worked by nurses constituted the most serious of these threats (UAN works, 2005, p. 8). As this indicates, extreme use of overtime in regards to nursing is an
issue that directly affects the patient safety. A 2004 study revealed that, roughly 40 percent of the time, American nurses work shifts whose length are such that it raises
the risk of medical errors, such as dispensing the wrong medication or the wrong dose (Nursing overtime, 2004). The study, which was published in the journal Health Affairs, was conducted
by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and it shows that the likelihood that a nurse working within a hospital setting wold make a mistake was three times higher
when a shift exceed 12.5 hours (Nursing overtime, 2004). These researchers tracked the shifts of 393 hospital nurses and found that 40 percent of their shifts exceed 12.5 hours
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