Premise: Bettering Working Conditions in Healthcare Facilities
Problem Statement
Conditions of workplaces significantly contribute to motivating employees to give their best in ensuring that the organization attains its corporate objectives and goals. In their article, Rasmussen, Højberg, Bengtsen, & Jørgensen (2018) contend that “There is no public health without good workplace health.” This implies that to attain a goof public health, the conditions of working in healthcare facilities has to be good. Ideally, most scholars term workplaces to be conductive in the setting of preventing occupational injuries and protecting the workers from any harm while performing their duties in organizations. Based on this, most evidence-based researches in the past have concluded that healthcare facilities across the United States of America are providing a conducive working environment to its workers. They further that this is what has led to improved healthcare delivery across the country.
Despite evidence-based practice showing that working conditions in most healthcare facilities across the United States of America are conducive for healthcare providers, practice-based evidence proves otherwise. Practice-based evidence shows that the working conditions in most healthcare facilities are not conducive to healthcare providers. Healthcare providers would be protected from any occupational injuries that may occur while in their workstations, but the conditions of their workplaces do not ensure their general wellbeing. Rasmussen, Højberg, Bengtsen, & Jørgensen, (2018) assert that the evidence provided in evidence-based practice in most cases comes from artificially controlled research, which does not reflect the actual picture of what is happening on the ground.
Evidence-based researches are mandated to observe protocols to control study validity. This implies that some of the information provided in such researches may not be true. On the other hand, practice-based evidence provides information about what is practically happening in practice. The difference between these two types of research is what has enabled me to identify a practical-knowledge gap that is existing in the healthcare sector. The policies, programs, or interventions that are being implemented in the healthcare sector would not actually be achieving their end goals of providing a conducive work environment to practitioners, nurses, and other healthcare providers in healthcare facilities across the country (Rasmussen, Højberg, Bengtsen, & Jørgensen, 2018). Policies such as the Affordable Care Act are not providing healthcare providers with ideal conditions for their general wellbeing. In some healthcare facilities, the patient to nurse ratio is very high, reducing their efficiency and also overstraining them in their duties of providing the best quality healthcare services to their patients.
Anticipated Approach for my Study
Rather than relying on evidence-based practice that has been modified to follow strict protocols that control them, I suggest using interviews and observation approaches for my study. Evidence-based practices will always show that the quality of healthcare services in the United States of America is high because both the Federal and State governments and other relevant bodies are implementing sound programs and policies in the facilities that provide a conducive working environment to nurses and other healthcare providers. By interviewing healthcare providers in some of the healthcare facilities across the country and closely observing them in their workstation, I will determine whether the policies and programs being implemented in the healthcare facilities are providing a conducive working environment for them or not. By doing this, I will be conducting a practice-based evidence study that will enable me to identify the reality of what is happening in our healthcare facilities and whether the policies in place are really supportive to healthcare providers across all healthcare facilities in the country.
Can I Research the Problem?
The current Pandemic, Covid-19, is not the first situation to expose the harsh reality that healthcare providers across the United States of America may not be working in a conducive working environment. Previous Pandemics such as the Swine flu of 2009 had also disclosed the por working conditions in some healthcare facilities in the country. This prompted some scholars to conduct practice-based evidence research that would help in painting the reality in healthcare facilities across the country and whether healthcare providers in these facilities are truly working in a conducive environment.
I am sure of finding journals and other professional publications in the library discussing poor working conditions of healthcare providers in American healthcare facilities. Some of these journals have been done and published in respectable online sources such as Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Science Direct. I believe that I have access to journals in these websites that I need to conduct my study. Additionally, I will require to collect primary data as part of my dissertation effort. I will need to conduct interviews with a number of healthcare providers working in some of the healthcare facilities in the country.
While conducting my research, there is no ethical concern that I am likely to encounter. The only challenge that I should encounter is booking appointments with the healthcare providers, considering that most of them are very committed and working around the clock to provide all the help they can give to the country in controlling the spread of Coronavirus. Even so, if I book appointments with them, say a week earlier, I can have them and conduct an interview of about twenty minutes with each of them. Considering the shutdowns in the country to curb the rapid spread of Coronavirus, I will be using online video callings to interview them. Personally, I feel that I am qualified to conduct this research. With my elite interviewing abilities and communication skills, I am able to structure interview questions in such a way that they will be precise and strict on the point. This will ensure that the healthcare providers that I interview give all the relevant information that I need for my research in the twenty-minute interview.
How Novel is the Study?
I believe that my study is novel because it seeks to bring out the harsh reality of how healthcare providers in the country are being subjected to poor working conditions by the programs and policies that are being implemented by the Federal and State governments. This study is likely to contradict most evidence-based practices that were limited to strict protocols controlling such studies. Most of such studies show that healthcare providers in the country are working in conducive environments, something that may not be the truth.
Who Cares Anyway?
The findings of my study are likely to help healthcare providers across the country to voice their true feelings about the policies and programs that Federal and State governments are implementing. The research will provide them with a platform that they will freely give their views without fear of prejudice or intimidation from their employers. Through this, the Federal government, State governments, and other relevant authorities will understand the actual impacts of the policies they are implementing in the healthcare sector and change for the better to ensure that healthcare providers in the country work in conducive working environments.
References
Rasmussen, C. D. N., Højberg, H., Bengtsen, E., & Jørgensen, M. B. (2018). Identifying knowledge gaps between practice and research for implementation components of sustainable interventions to improve the working environment–A rapid review. Applied Ergonomics, 67, 178-192.