Since the 1990’s, the interest in nursing and the profession as a whole has decreased dramatically and is still expected to do so over the next 10-15 years according to some researchers. With this nursing shortage, many factors are affected. Organizations have to face challenges of low staffing, higher costs for resources, recruiting and reserving of registered nurses, among liability issues as well. Some of the main issues arising from this nurse shortage are the impact of quality and continuity of care, organizational costs, the effect it has on nursing staff, and etc. However, this not only affects an organization and community, but affects the nurses the same. Nurses are becoming overwhelmed and are questioning the quality of care that each patient deserves. This shortage is not an issue that is to be taken lightly. The repercussions that are faced by both nurses and the organization are critical. Therefore, state funding should be implemented to private hospitals in order to resolve the shortage of nurses. State funds will therefore, relieve the overwhelming burdens on the staff, provide a safe and stress free environment for the patient, and allow appropriate funds needed to keep the facility and organization operational. In spite of the shortage among nurses, there are number of options and recommendations that can better help to maintain an adequate staff level and provide greater strategies needed to increase nursing. The choices open to cover for insufficient staff range from reallocating and postponing work, relocating staff within unit or from other units, to employing temporary additional nurses according to Buchan and Seccombe (1995). In health care, some of these options may not be available because ... ... middle of paper ... ...staff would not be required to put in the overtime to compensate for the lack of workers. Patients would no longer have to suffer the neglect of the staff because he or she was too busy. Making sure the patient gets the best quality care reduces the time spent for recovery. Reducing the time spent for recovery increases the organization’s finances. Providing a safe facility also reduces the expenses on the private hospital’s budget. Ensuring a patient is safe can reduce potential use of ongoing treatment and services. Hiring the appropriate nursing staff needed can save the organization money. Instead of cutting back on staff, more staff needs to be hired to fulfil the needs of the patient. In the economy today, private hospitals need to focus on the overall long term effects of each action opposed to quick reactions resulting in financial strain for the facility.
It can not be resolved by just hiring more staff, they need to be qualified as well. This article states the shortage is based on the age of the RN workforce, the declining enrolment, the change in work climate, and the poor treatment towards the nurses. Nurses need to educate and help future nursing staff secure jobs. The Journal of Advanced Nursing stated the the future needs to be secured by educating and bringing more students into this field.
In most aspects of life the saying “less is always more” may ring true; however when it comes to providing quality care to patients, less only creates problems which can lead to a decrease in patient’s quality of life as well as nurse’s satisfaction with their jobs. The massive shortage of nurses throughout the United States has gotten attention from some of the most prestigious schools, news media and political leaders. Nurses are being burnt out from their jobs, they are being overworked and overlooked. New nurses are not being properly trained, and old nurses are on their way to retirement. All the while the rate of patient admissions is on the rise. Nurses are reporting lower satisfaction in their job positions and hospital retention rates are at an all-time low, conversely this is affecting all patients’ quality of care. As stated in the article Addressing The Nurse Shortage To Improve The Quality Of Patient Care “According to an Institute of Medicine report, Nurses are the largest group of health care professionals providing direct patient care in hospitals, and the quality of care for hospital patients is strongly linked to the performance of nursing staff”.
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
The nursing staffing ratio is a policy that is very important yet is has been neglected for years. It is a policy that is not often considered as vital to patient survival but the policy is a straight contributor to the success of a hospital. Nurses are the backbone of a health care facility, yet they are overworked constantly. Some states do regulate how many patients a nurse is able to care for at one time; however, other states, such as Arizona, do not have any formal manner of regulating the nurse/patient staffing ratios. Their nurses could get a large number of patients assigned to them all at once and there is no policy protecting them from an overload of patients. This lack of structure is putting the lives of patients at
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Registered Nursing is listed among the top occupations in terms of job growth through 2022, with the demand increasing at least 19% by the year 2022 (2012). Particularly in the past decade, there is a serious shortage in the number of nurses to fill the vast amount of open positions available. Why is there such a shortage in the nursing profession, and is the nursing shortage real in this type of economy? Unexpectedly, there are many unemployed nurses today, struggling to find employment. An MPR news article by Annie Baxter stated that she had interviewed many unemployed nurses that claim the shortage is just a myth. She goes on to say “as the recession hit, people used health care less, promoting hospitals to hire fewer nurses” (2012). This information couldn’t be further from the truth. The health care industry is at an all-time high right now and there are a plethora of nursing opportunities out there. The nursing shortage is very real, and the misconception lies in the fact that hospitals are requiring a higher level of education than previously. You might ask, if there is such a shortage, why would they be more selective in their criteria? Due to the shortage, nurses are being forced to be more responsible in their work, more independent, work longer hours, and manage an unfavorable amount of patients at a time. This demanding work is requiring hospitals to become more selective in the types of nurses they hire (Aiken L.H., 2011). In this presentation, I will thoroughly explain these growing issues, how the unavailability of a nursing education is the main reason there is a global nursing shortage today, and voice m...
Over the past years, there has been a nursing shortage which has led to the need of more registered nurses in the hospital setting. This is the result of higher acuity of patient care and a decrease in their length of hospital stay. In order for the patients to get safe and quality care, the staffing, education and experience of the nursing staff needs to be made a priority. Because of the lack of nurses, patient quality of care has suffered.
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
Hassmiller, S. B., & Cozine, M. (2006, January/ February). Addressing the nurse shortage to improve the quality of patient care [Essay]. Health Affairs, 25(1), 268-274. doi: DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.25.1.268 ©2006 Project HOPE–The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
If the funds now spent fighting or losing battle to replace disheartened nurses were instead devoted to improving job conditions, it is possible that the nursing shortage could be largely solved and the nations' hospitals might still end up with significant savings.
Mandatory staffing is an issue that needs to be addressed on the business side, patient side and the nursing side. According to Rajcki a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in October 2002 linked higher patient-to-nurse ratios in hospitals with increased patient mortality and increased nurse dissatisfaction with their jobs. The study, which looked at outcome data from more than 230,000 surgical patients discharged from 168 hospitals, found that each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 7% increase in the likelihood of patient mortality, and a 15% increase in job dissatisfaction for the nurses. (Rajcki, 2009)
“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
So there is a higher demand for nurses due to more demand for health care services (Hessler, 2005). Working overtime is very common in hospitals from my own experience due to shortage in staff. With not having any time to recover after shifts fatigue and stress could potentially cause human errors which is very hazardous for nurses especially with medical and decision making issues. This affects patient safety and the reputation of nurses Andrews (2005). Due to working overtime a lot of nurses become unwell therefore shortage of staff increases even further. Temporary staffing is commonly used in hospital as a quick fix, however the temporary staff may not be familiar to the patients on the ward or they may not have the same level of skills as the organization staff. Nurses should work together in order to support each other in finding approaches to resolve problems which can drive nurses away from the nursing field and discourage people from entering it (Cohen et al.,
Mrs. K identified the problem as being a dangerously low nurse to patient ratio and the inability to care for all of the patients the way they should be cared for. Mrs. K states “if you do not get another RN for this unit, I am going to quit this job”. In this statement she has clarified her perspective of the way the unit and hospital is managed. Her personal opinion and verbal expression clearly identifies the need for change. Mrs. K suffers stress and angst from workin...
The shortages in healthcare continue to increase as the baby boomer generation ages throughout the United States. Not only does this affect the public but also the health care worker as they will be reaching the retirement age as well. With this demand increasing, the human resource management departments are seeking a new way to attract and retain new employees. One area that is experiencing a shortage is the profession of the nurse. Many times as is often seen in a hospital, when the economy takes a turn for the worse and people are often struggling to survive, many hospitals will employ temporary nurses, according to the Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2016).
Understaffing is one of the prominent problems that hospitals and healthcare facilities are facing. Hospitals and healthcare facilities argue that they do not have enough budget to hire nurses to care for patients. While some say that there are not enough nurses here in the United States to hire. Also, hospital administrators think that hiring extra workers is not economically right. However, nurses and staffs disagree. When facilities do not have enough staff, it is the workers, especially the nurses that are having a hard time. They are the one that are suffering from overworking and pressure which leads to mistakes that will affect the hospital’s reputation and patient’s health. Nurses are here to care and nurture a patient and therefore