Nursing Education, Hospital Ratio, and Thesis

This study will look for a hospital which has a wide variation in terms of educational attainment of its nurses. The nursing population of this chosen hospital will then become the participants of this study. Only the currently-employed; full-time nurses are eligible for the survey.

IV. Data Collection and Analysis

This study will use secondary information. The researcher will request the educational attainment data of their employed nurses to the Human Resources Department. The data for patient-nurse ratio and patient outcome on the other hand, will be requested to the administrative authorities of the hospital.

After completing the data-gathering phase, the researcher will encode the answers and will analyze data using statistical software that will generate: (a) Pearson's r, which will determine the strength of association of these three variables; (b) linear regression, which will specify the nature of relationship among variables (Nachmias & Nachmias, 1996, p.421).

Bias

Since this study will be using secondary data, there is a very low possibility of bias entering the study. It can be susceptible to statistical errors though. Since this study will be analyzed via significance testing, Type I (rejection of true hypothesis) and Type II (acceptance of a false hypothesis) error are possible. In order to minimize these errors, the significance levels (alpha) will be lowered at.05 (ibid.).

V. Significance of the Study

This study aims to contribute to the scholarly works on nursing education but more importantly, this study aims to contribute to undertakings that will benefit the greater majority.

The results of this study aim to develop a more effective health policy by presenting the needs of the health education sector. These needs are hypothesized in the level of health education and staffing. By imposing higher standards not only the health education sector but also in the admission of nurses in hospitals, we can aim for lower mortality rates among hospital patients. This study also aims to present the importance of imposing the ideal nurse-patient ratio which will hopefully improve the state of our health institutions.

References

Aiken, L.H. et al. (2003). Educational Levels of Hospital Nurses and Surgical Patient Mortality. JAMA, 290(12), 1617-1623.

Callahan, M.A. (2004). Surgical Patients are at Lower Risk of Death in Hospitals with More Degree-Educated Nurses. Evidence-Based Health Care and Public Health, 8(2), 67-68.

Kutney-Lee, A. & Aiken, L.H. (2008). Effect of Nurse Staffing and Education on Outcomes of Surgical Patients with Comorbid Serious Illness. Psychiatric Services, 59, 1466-1469.

Nachmias, C.F. & Nachmias, D. (1996). Research Methods in the….....