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Efforts in eradicating nursing shortages
Importance of advocacy in nursing
Efforts in eradicating nursing shortages
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Advocacy in Action Advocacy in action paper is to examine various issues in nursing staffing in the hospital and the impact of this issue on the patient’s care and patient satisfaction. Every nurse role and mission is to take care of a patient and advocate for a safe and healthy work environment. It is very important for all nurses to work together, successfully advocate for nurses and the profession to achieve a safer work environment. My role in this paper is to advocate for improvement, practicing safe in the hospital to improve patient satisfaction and reduction in nurse burnout. The nursing profession is becoming very challenging to nurses nationwide, when the health care system is constantly changing. The nursing staffing issue is becoming an increasing global issue in hospitals and long term care facilities. Patient acuity in the hospital is growing rapidly, the patient acuity determines the level of care a patient needs, the higher the acuity, the more care is needed or required. The higher acuity results in high demand for nursing care which then resulted in increased workload, burnout and job dissatisfaction. There is an alarming concern of nurse shortage and retention in our hospitals nationwide which could seriously affect overall patient outcome. The hospital skill mix required nurses aides to care for patients, which puts the registered nurses in the supervisory role. The nurses aide provides more for the bedside care of patient’s that registered nurse should be responsible for when patients now required the attention of a registered nurse at the bedside. The skill mix created more supervisory role for registered nurse by taken them away from the bedside nursing care that patients needed. Nurses will character... ... middle of paper ... ...urses in the state of Maryland hospitals, focusing in on education of nurses through the nursing education program to expand the pool of nurses in the state of Maryland. This initiative will also increase the capacity of nursing programs in the state of Maryland. Becoming an active member of the American Nurse Association and a member of the HSCRC to support in advocating for nurse needs will be the first initiation. My mission will be to address the difficulties that nurses are facing in my facility about staffing issues on each unit. The importance of improving patient safety and outcome, nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction. Joining this organization to support nurses and to be the voice is an essential role in advocacy. There must be a stop to this vicious cycle or decades that is becoming a serious problem in the healthcare industry throughout the nation.
Nurses have a considerable amount of responsibility in any facility. They are responsible for administering medicines and treatments to there patient’s. While caring for there patients, nurses will make observations on patient’s health and then record there findings. As well as consulting with doctors and other healthcare professionals to plan proper individual patient care. They teach their patients how to manage their illnesses and explain to both the patient and the patients family how to continue treatment when returning home (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014-15). They also record p...
Identifying and maintaining the appropriate number of mixed nursing staff, RN/LPN/CNA, is critical to the delivery of quality patient care. Many studies reveal an association between a higher level of experienced RN staffing and lower rates of adverse patient outcomes (“Nurse staffing plans,” 2013). The nurse-patient ratios will in turn improve the nurses working conditions, decreasing the risk of errors to patients.
The shortage that the nursing division faces can be because of the lack of people working in the field (Hassmiller & Cozine, 2006). In likeness of the nursing shortage, sufficient care of patients have been on the decline, and the staff that is present incurs abysmal work environments (Hassmiller & Cozine, 2006). Because of the substandard working conditions, nurse leave the work force thus creating shoddier work environments (Hassmiller & Cozine, 2006). Encouraging new nurses to join the task force in such array proves to be difficult as the effort to comply with the job’s demand is challenging with an insufficient number in staffing (Hassmiller & Cozine, 2006). The sequence will continue in this manner until the issues
Health care organizations are focused on providing high quality and safe patient care. There are numerous organizational factors that may directly affect patient care and outcomes, but one of great importance is nurse staffing. Low nurse staffing levels are a major problem that I have encountered during both my clinical and management experiences. There is a significant relationship between inadequate staffing levels and adverse patient outcomes; however, as I observed during my experiences, there may be increased awareness about this issue, but it has not been sufficiently addressed. In order to ensure patients’ safety and positive outcomes, as well as to improve nurse satisfaction, it is imperative to effectively address low staffing levels.
The prolonged shortage of skilled nursing personnel has been a serious concern to the healthcare industry, and this shortage has impacted the quality of care delivery. In addition, nursing turnover has also exacerbated the problem of nursing shortage. Nursing shortage has been blamed on many nurses retiring and less younger nurses joining the occupation. There is also an increase in life expectancy (baby boomers) leading an increase in both physical and mental ailment with subsequent demand in nursing care. Nurses are also leaving nursing profession because of inadequate staffing, tense work environment, negative press about the profession, and inflexible work schedules. Even though nursing is a promising career and offers job security, the
I am glad that you mentioned safe staffing in your post this week as one way that nurses can help facilitate positive change throughout the community. Not only does safe staffing help to save patient lives it also helps to prevent burnout at the nursing level. According to Peate (2015), nurses face major challenges in order to deliver the best possible care with fewer resources that is not only financial but human as well. This creates an environment of overworked nurses who are more than likely letting their health take a backseat. “Individual nurses are going the extra mile to get the job done, yet the damage to their health is real and is happening nationwide” (Peate, 2015, p. 133). There is one particular vivid memory of an example of short staffing that I personally experienced on my floor and although one of my
As recent as January 2016, Massachusetts Nurses Association and the nurses held press conferences to raise awareness and lobby for legislative changes affecting patient safety. The nurses were protesting against mandatory overtime hours imposed and stated that “they had filed 520 reports of incidents that jeopardized patient care and has caused nurses to call upon the Legislature to regulate RN staffing levels” (Schildmeier 2011). It is worth noting that simple acts such as writing letter addressing issues to the respective representatives as did the “4000 individuals through RNaction.org” (Brenner 2014).
Nurses are being treated poorly due to the amount of work they are being forced to do this “leads to frustration and job burnouts.” (Minority, Nursing Shortage). This unhealthy work environment needs to be regulated to give nurses the proper work space so that they can do their job to its full potential which is something all nurses want not only for themselves but to
The major concern for registered nurses regard’s the nurse’s health and well being. Safe staffing levels are continuing to become more of a problem. The U.S is expected to experience a shortage of nurses as the “Baby Boomers” age and the need for health care grows (Rossester, 2014). This shortage is causing some health organizations to work with minimal amounts of nurses. This is affecting the nurse’s ability to provide safe care due to fatigue and injury. This shortage is also resulting in a dramatic increase in the amount of mandatory overtime, which often means that nurses stray from face-to-face patient care and can produce an increase in the amount of medical errors (American Nurses Association,
Nurse staffing is a complex issue. There are many factors which need to be considered when staffing a nursing unit. Evidence shows an association between Registered Nurses (RNs) having decreased workloads and better patient outcomes, including a decrease in patient mortality (Aiken et al., 2011; Needleman et al, 2011; How Lin, 2013; Patrician et al., 2011; Wiltse-Nicely, Sloane, Aiken, 2013). A small percentage of patients expire during their hospitalization as evidence suggests that a portion of these deaths can be attributed to RN staffing levels (Shekelle, 2013). As the reimbursement system for hospitals today emphasizes quality outcomes, this has an increase in the importance of the nurse’s role in patient care (Frith, Anderson, Tseng, & Fong, 2012). The quality of care is effected when there are higher RN-to-patient ratios. Mortality rates can be decreased by 50% or more when there is a lower RN-to-patient ratio. The morale of nursing staff and the hospital’s reputation are effected when there is a large nurse turnover and poor patient outcomes (Martin, 2015; Knudson, 2013). Having adequate nurse staffing levels saves lives (Martin, 2015). The purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of nursing staffing ratios in the healthcare industry. This has always been a primary issue, and it continues to grow as the population rate increases throughout the years. According to Shakelle (2013), in an early study of 232,432 surgical discharges from several Pennsylvania hospitals, 4,535 patients (2%) died within 30 days of hospitalization. Shakelle (2014) also noted that during the study, there was a difference between 4:1 and 8:1 patient to nurse ratios which translates to approximately 1000 deaths for a group of that size. This issue can be significantly affected in a positive manner by increasing the nurse to patient ratio, which would result in more nurses to spread the work load of the nurses more evenly to provide better coverage and in turn result in better care of patients and a decrease in the mortality rates.
Intuitively, one would expect that relatively high nurse staffing ratios are associated with improved patient outcomes. If this intuition is correct, these patient benefits should be a key consideration in the determination of nurse staffing levels. There has been a growing need for higher ratios of nurses to patients in the hospital due to the rising acuity of patients. The safety and quality of patient care is directly related to the size and experience of the nursing workforce (Cho, Ketefian, Barkausks & Smith, 2015). Decisions about nurse staffing should be guided by clear empirical evidence on this matter, and indeed a number of recent studies have examined this issue (Cho et al., 2016).
“Because nursing salaries constitute some of the major drivers of labor costs in a healthcare organization, nurse leaders are increasingly challenged to tightly manage both staffing and scheduling within their designed cost centers (Yoder-Wise,p.256). It is understood that increased nursing staff will increase cost, but it is our job to provide quality of care and it makes it difficult to provide quality of care with a large patient load. Nurse staffing is measured by nursing hours per patient per day or the nurse to patient ratio. Understaffing is an issue that many nurses face. Those issues usually lead to nurses being burnt out, nurse shortages, medical errors, and patients being neglected or not receiving the best quality of care. The nurse
Middle school and high school was a good to me for the most part. I was very popular; I always had the latest gear and the girls loved me. At a young age my mom instilled me with great character, how to be myself, manners, and much more. I was only that in school. When I was out with friends I tended to
As stated before they are the backbone of the healthcare team. Healthcare facilities must learn the value of nurses and what they bring to the table. They are the patient's advocate. Nurses have the ability to express the patients’ needs or desires to the interdisciplinary team. With the critical thinking and exquisite communication skills, a nurse is a vital component when it comes to patient care. Hospitals must understand recognize that without a sufficient number of nurses the quality of care declines substantially. By adopting this legislation, the states there will be more hospitals with a higher quality of care performance. The job of a nurse goes beyond just performing a medial task. A nurse must be able to connect with the patient based on their needs. A nurse has the to the ability to strategize and design a care plan that fit the patients and will reach every one of their needs. A nurse’s role is a lot more that than just administering medication, it goes beyond that and hospitals need to consider the effect it will have if they cut back on their nursing