Nursing Case Study: Saint-Mary's Hospital

807 Words2 Pages

1. A) Saint-Mary’s Hospital assessed the need for training when five nurse managers noticed a problem with high turnover and poor patient satisfaction with nursing care in the oncology unit. From an organizational stand point, organizational measures of performance such as a unit with high turnover and patient complaints of inadequate care from the nurses was indicative of an issue. In respect to the people who needed to be trained, the hospital realized training was pertinent for the nurses in the oncology unit because they suffered from compassion fatigue because cancer patients’ health could suddenly deteriorate and caring for them could be emotionally draining. As a result, nurses in this unit started to detach themselves from patients …show more content…

The program initially focused on 20 oncology nurses and after 6 weeks, nurses reported feeling more positive about their work and better equipped to manage the stress and emotions that are a key component of their jobs. Therefore, the program dealt with who needed to be trained and the tasks that needed improvements. However, it should be noted that it is unclear whether nurse satisfaction resulted in lower turnover and improved patient care. Subsequently, it is hard to conclude if the program resolved the issues previously mentioned simply because it set out to do …show more content…

It is unclear if the program was effective because while the nurses felt that they could handle compassion fatigue better, which the hospital identified as the root cause of other issues such as turnover and poor patient care, we are unsure if nurse satisfaction actually resulted in a reduction in compassion fatigue, nurse turnover, and poor patient care. Just because the nurses are satisfied does not mean that they learned more. Also, workers don’t always know what they actually need to learn. Furthermore, it is uncertain if the program was effective because they only used one qualitative measure (reactions) and zero quantitative measures to determine how the program dealt with problem such as high turnover and subpar patient care by nurses in the oncology

Open Document