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Connecting Healthcare Worker Well-Being, Patient Safety and Organisational Change pp 25–40Cite as

Missed Nursing Care: The Impact on Patients, Nurses and Organisations

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Part of the book series: Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being ((AHSW))

Abstract

The rationing of healthcare, necessitated by limited resources and infinite need, is a global reality and a concern for healthcare providers and the public. The related, but less widely understood and less visible concepts of missed nursing care, nursing care left undone, and implicit rationing of nursing care are increasingly discussed in the nursing literature. These concepts are described and explained in this chapter. Various instruments are used to measure and explain the reasons for this incomplete nursing care, and results point to low nurse staffing levels and high workload, poor teamwork in unsupportive environments and work intensification in the health services.

The consequences of incomplete nursing care are poor patient outcomes, including higher mortality levels, and unfavourable outcomes for nurses such as increased levels of burnout and low job satisfaction. Organisations affected often have reduced overall quality of care levels, poor staff retention and high staff turnover.

A worldwide shortage of nursing staff with higher patient demand is a growing concern for healthcare providers. There are clear and unambiguous patient safety and nurse wellbeing implications. This chapter will examine how greater understanding, monitoring and addressing of missed care can help overcome the challenges for the nursing profession and healthcare organisations, in a context of ever-increasing demands on services.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Marcia Kirwan & Anne Matthews

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  1. Marcia Kirwan
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  2. Anne Matthews
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Correspondence to Marcia Kirwan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education & Social Policy, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anthony Montgomery

  2. Health Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

    Margot van der Doef

  3. Health Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Efharis Panagopoulou

  4. Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

    Michael P. Leiter

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Kirwan, M., Matthews, A. (2020). Missed Nursing Care: The Impact on Patients, Nurses and Organisations. In: Montgomery, A., van der Doef, M., Panagopoulou, E., Leiter, M.P. (eds) Connecting Healthcare Worker Well-Being, Patient Safety and Organisational Change. Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60998-6_3

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