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Tenise Williams
Professor Deborah Strehle
English 1201
22 June 2019
Research Proposal

When thinking about what I wanted to research, I choose a topic that I care about. I have

been in healthcare for more than 11 years. Seven of the years I have dedicated to nursing. I was

an LPN for 5 years before I received my RN. I have been a RN for almost 2 years now. I spent

my first year as an RN working on a busy medical/surgery unit. On the med/surg unit the

nursing patient ratio was 1:5, and when short staffed 1:6. I often asked myself the question is it

safe to have 6 patients to care for?

How do I feel about this topic? I feel strongly about this topic. I became a nurse to help

people get better, I go above and beyond for my patients. When having 6 patients it’s incredibly

hard to make sure all patient’s needs are being met. What do I think about this topic before

doing the research? I think that the research will say that nursing ratios do affect patient

outcomes. This research will help for nursing leaders to change nursing ratios for the better to

improve patient outcomes. What do I believe about this topic? I believe that this topic is very

important to healthcare and the community. I also believe with more data and research about

this topic it will help change our staffing ratios. What do I already know about this topic? I

already know that many nurses have problems with staffing ratios. I know that we are in a

critically low nursing shortage. I also know we need more nurses, so we can have less patients.

When nurses have less patients, they receive better care and improved patient outcomes.
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What I hope to learn from this research project? How exactly does nursing ratios affect

patient outcomes? What is a good nurse to patient ratio on a medical/surgical unit? How can a

lower nurse patient ratio improve patient outcomes? I think I will be able to find answers to

these questions by doing my own research.