EFFECT OF NURSE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON QUALITY OF CARE IN NIGERIA

EFFECTS OF NURSE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON QUALITY OF CARE IN NIGERIA


 Geographical location of Health Care: The quality of health care and Nurse job satisfaction depend on where the health care center is situated. For instance, appropriate and standard health care facilities and equipment would be more readily available in the cities compared to rural areas where Nurses would need to improvise for most of the equipment needed to aid effective health care services. In most cases, this often has a negative effect on the quality of care rendered to health care consumers, which could be frustrating to Nurses operating under such uncomfortable condition and can eventually decrease the life expectancy of clients and patients.

 Shortage of staff: The ratio of employed nursing staff to the patient has decreased to an alarming rate (Kensa, 2011). The increasing rate of patients In most hospital center with respect to the shortage of nursing staff has a deteriorating effect on the expected outcome of nursing care services rendered to patients, for the fact that the workload would be heavy on the nurses, which is likely to increase the tendency of nurses being fatigued and overstressed at work.

 Limited participation in decision making:
inadequacies in the political involvement of nurses decision making is a factor that could affect the quality of nursing care rendered. This, in that most decisions on the health care structuring are spareheaded by other health professionals which often sideline effective nursing advocacy.

                       POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF POOR NURSE WORK ENVIRONMENT ON QUALITY OF CARE

1. Poor job satisfaction
2. Decreased self efficacy
3. Poor patients’ outcome
4. Deterioration of nation’s health
5. Increase morbidity and mortality rate
6. Decrease life expectancy of clients/ patients