Nurse Staffing Literature Review

Since 2011, the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (RPNAO) has undertaken an annual review of RPN-related research as reflected in scientific and academic literature. The objective of this year’s review was to locate research material published in the last twelve months that relates to the nursing themes identified in previous studies, follow up on the status of enrolled nurses, and investigate high-functioning nursing teams. The review project involved a three-phase process that coincided with each objective, and necessitated the searching, compiling and evaluating of documents from publicly available information sources and databases. The results corresponded with many of the findings from the previous reviews. Education and training is primarily RN focused, as is nurse staffing. Nursing work environments can be simplistically summed up as “a positive nursing work environment is associated with fewer patient adverse effects.” When thinking of nursing categorization, the role of nurses in a global environment should be considered. The selection of nursing care models still needs evidence-based decision making. The UK has moved from having Enrolled Nurses to struggling with how nursing Assistant Practitioners should fit into its healthcare system, while Australian Enrolled Nurses are viewed as major contributors to patient care delivery. Although the topic of teams is a major area of research, no studies were located that dealt with high-functioning nursing teams. As has been seen in the previous reviews, RPN research continues to be a wide-open field for future research endeavours.

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