What Bed Size Does a Patient Need? The Relationship between Body Mass Index and Space Required to Turn in Bed.

1. .Provide a few summary statements about what was found in the literature and how it applies to this proposed project (include in text citations in APA format and a list of references)

The literature available contains less information about patient space requirement Vangilder (2010) notes that many hospitals have been adhering to the bariatric protocols such as using bigger beds for patients with more than 150kgs. Grouch and Rogula (2007) highlight the need to assign bariatric beds to patients weighing more than 130kg, although the basis of the threshold is not determined. Helping the patients to turn from spine to side-lying is one of the activities that is performed by the caregivers. The inability of the patients to turn on the bed may severely increase the risk of musculoskeletal injury and hinders patient comfort.

The literature review indicated that a third of the United States population was obese with body mass indices ranging between 25kg/ to m² 30 kg/m². Consequently the number of patients visiting the hospitals has also increased. The resultant challenge to the caregivers is that the mean body weight has also been growing significantly, and more so, the number of heavy patients visiting the hospitals has been increasing at a fast rate. In a period of 10 years only, there has been a 4.0% percent increase of patients visiting the hospital

To be able to adequately provide care to patients, a need to equip hospitals with exceptional facilities that can accommodate patients with variant body masses has become imminent. Providing this facility helps the patients and the caregiver’s altogether. The hospital bed is central to the interaction between patients and caregivers. The Availability   of standard beds helps the patients to recover quickly and, at the same time, guarantees the safety of the caregiving nurses. The majority of the beds available in the range between 91 cm length and 36cm width and bigger ones range between 10scm measures to 127 cm length. The current literature available, however, does not specify on what type of size is suitable for given students.

Nurses can be subjected to many problems if the there is insufficient space for the patient to turn. If the space available is limited, the caregivers will have limited options when helping the patients to turn. The only way that will be available for them will be through lateral repositioning, and quite often, this method of setting the patients has severally caused injuries to caregivers at different capacities. Despite the disadvantage of the smaller beds, the bigger beds have their disadvantages too. Bigger beds are costly, and the health facility may incur many expenses before it might get in a position to maintain those beds.

The literature review highlighted an experimental study where the participants were picked depending on their physical attributes; a total of 47 participants were locally recruited to partake in the study. Patients with rare physical conditions such as pregnancy or physical injuries that affected their ability to turn on the bed were considered ineligible to participate in the study. The study’s purpose was to establish a space that might be occupied by an individual patient when turning in bed based on their anthropometric attributes. The relationship between the body dimensions (anthropometric attribute) was used to develop guidance on the selection of a hospital bed that can suit a particular patient. The study revealed that those patients who can self-reposition be placed on any bed, while patients who are not able to self-reposition can be placed on different beds with different lengths depending on their body mass index.

1. Briefly state the purpose/rationale for this proposed project. What is your question?

The purpose of the study is to establish the size of the bed required by the patient by establishing the relationship that exists   between the body mass index   and the space needed by the patients to turn

• Who is the population (nurses, patients, students etc.)? How is your population/sample to be recruited for the project?

The participants who partake in this study will consist of adults aged 30 to 40 years who will be picked in the neighbourhood.Participation in this study will be voluntary, and the participants will be reached out through phone and word of mouth. The participants will be required to be physically fit without underlying physical conditions such as pregnancy or body injury that may contribute to the inability to turn in bed. The final population sample will consist of individuals with varied body mass indexes. This will be necessary because    it will help in determining how individual   with different body dimensions   on different bed sizes

1. What are the ethical implications for the study? How could any ethical implications be addressed/prevented/avoided?

The obvious ethical concerns for this case study will involve getting consent from the participants. As previously mentioned, the study will include participants voluntarily, and thus, they will require to give their approval from the first place before the research goes on. The unfortunate thing about the type of research that will be carried out Is that it will involve some elements of body shaming, especially those individuals with more extensive body mass indexes.

The other ethical concern in this will include the consent given by the respective health facility where the research will be carried. In this context, the researchers will have to notify the management of a   given health facility so that that the facilities and pieces of equipment needed in the research will be carried out effectively. The importance of obtaining consent from the participant’s hedges all the risks that might come about during the experiment. In this context, the risks may involve the injuries that might occur during the research. Before the participant’s consent, he or all she will be made aware of the intentions of the investigation. Transparency is one of the critical things that can make the participant’s consent easily.

1. What type of research/project? (Qualitative, quantitative, mixed method?) 

The study adopted an experimental research design. In this context, the voluntary participants will be taken to a lab where they will be tested on a bariatric hospital bed. The beds will consist of hard and therapeutic air mattresses. The selection of soft and hard mattress was necessary for determining the effect of the surface in the body turning of the patient. The body measurements of the participants will be measured using a digital scale; this could be either the scale tonic or the Skaneateles

1. What are the nursing implications for the proposed study?

The body mass index of the patients is very crucial in the treatment. The size of the body affects the turning and the recovery process of the patient. The findings of this study will establish the relevance of using larger beds in hospitals while treating patients. The research is very crucial to the nurses because the bed is the ultimate interaction point between the nurses and the patients, and addressing the issue at the contact point between the patients and the nurses enhances the safety of the nurse and speeds up the recovery of the patient.

• Who will be informed of the project/findings? How would you go about informing others of the project results

After the completion of the study, the findings will be availed to relevant health stakeholders, leaders and organisation.The information will also be published on peer reviewed  journals, websites and other  information networks

References

Gordon C. C., Churchill T., Clauser C. E., Bradtmiller B., McConville J. T., Tebbetts I., & Walker R. A. (1989). 1988 Anthropometric Survey of US Army Personnel: Methods and Summary Statistics. Tech Report Natick/TR-89/044 Natick, MA: U.S. Army Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center.

Oertwich P. A., Kindschuh A. M., & Bergstrom N. (1995). The effects of small shifts in body weight on blood flow and interface pressure. Research in Nursing & Health, 18, 481–488.

VanGilder C., Lachenbruch C., Algrim-Boyle C., & Meyer S. (2017). The International Pressure Ulcer Prevalence™ Survey: 2006–2015: A 10-year pressure injury prevalence and demographic trend analysis by care setting. Journal of Wound Ostomy & Continence Nursing, 44, 20–28. doi:10.1097/WON.0000000000000292