Strategies for Reducing Rationed Nursing Care: Qualitative Secondary Analysis

Introduction: Nursing students spend a meaningful part of their professional training in clinical practice. However, to a significant extent, they actively or passively contribute to the occurrence of rationed nursing care in clinical practice. Therefore, it is crucial that they actively participate in implementing targeted strategies to reduce rationed nursing care.

Aim: To explore nursing students′ experience with strategies focusing on the reduction of rationed nursing care.

Methods: We chose a qualitative secondary analysis to address unpublished data related to nursing students′ experience with strategies focusing on reducing rationed nursing care. The data included a set comprising of 148 pages with transcribed verbatim of 18 semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed by a deductive content analysis.

Results: Based on the outcome of the secondary analysis, we identified two meaningful categories: Preventive strategies in clinical practice and Importance and meaning of preventive strategies. These two categories reflected nursing students′ experience with targeted strategies to reduce rationed nursing care in clinical practice.

Conclusion: Proposal and subsequent implementation of preventive strategies are essential for reducing rationed nursing care phenomenon from the clinical practice environment. The perspective of nursing students is vital due to their intensive perception of rationed nursing care in clinical practice. Students may identify areas that work-place staff may not explicitly focus on and consider important but jeopardize the quality of care or patient safety.