Audience Selection
Dr. Johnson serves as the main audience and gatekeeper for this report. He is the doctor at the nearby hospital. Decisions made in the facility would fall to him. David McCandlish, who works for Dr. Johnson as his assistant, is the secondary audience. His job is to help out with the doing of tests.
Student’s Name
P O Box
Date
Cover Letter
Dear Dr. Johnson,
I am a first-year nursing student who interned at a local health institution last year. I observed a lack of nurses while working there. The health facility was inconvenienced by this. Both the administrative personnel and the patients were impacted in some manner. Based on a thorough study, I have compiled a list of possible solutions to the nursing shortage. This study discusses the nurse shortage issue, then investigates the many causes of this problem, and proposes remedies meant to decrease or eliminate the negative effect this shortage has on the general population. This plan will allow you, the doctor, and your assistant to assist with the shortage of nurses in the facility. Thank you for reviewing my suggestions.
Sincerely,
Student’s Name
Student’s Name:
Institution Affiliated:
Course and Code Number:
Date:
Proposal for Management of Nurse Shortage
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Literature Review 2
Growing Number of Elderly Nurses i
Workforce Ageing ii
Analysis and Synthesis 3
Stressed out Life
Juggling Professional and Personal life
Region
Violent Behavior in the Medical Environment
Proposed Solutions
Ageing Workforce
Violent Behavior in Work Environment
Conclusion
Introduction and Context
For the better part of the last decade, the healthcare sector has struggled with a critical lack of nurses. Health care has suffered greatly due to the absence of qualified nurses to care for patients and the general community. Nurses with terminal degrees are critical to the future of nursing because they may build an innovative framework that can support the increasing complexity of providing affordable and convenient care with outstanding results while conserving organizational resources. Currently, there is a growing preference for nursing, which may be ascribed to fast population growth and an increase in the elderly population. Health care institutions throughout the globe are seeing an increase in demand for nurses due to a rise in the incidence of chronic lifestyle disorders. Several factors contribute to a lack of nurses. Even in the most advanced healthcare systems, there remains a chronic lack of nurses. This problem has been with us for many decades. It seems that no matter how hard the nursing leaders try, this issue will not go away. To prevent the nurse shortage from becoming a significant problem, several experts are now working on anticipating how the shortage will develop to solve it before it gets out of hand. Many reasons contribute to the turnover of nurses, but they are not nearly as many as the causes that contribute to the nursing shortage. Skills and human resources are not the only things that are subject to turnover.
Literature Review
A lack of qualified instructors, frequent staff turnover, and unequal distribution of the workforce are all contributing to the nurse shortage (Marc et. al, 13). There is a slew of factors contributing to the nurse shortage, all of which should be taken into consideration. Following are a few hypotheses as to why this may be.
By 2030, 2.5 million people in member nations of the same organization are anticipated to have a lack of nursing. As previously stated, the scarcity of nurses has a direct impact on both the healthcare industry and the education of future nurses. There is a lack of nurse educators because there are not enough nurses. Enrolment in nursing schools is constrained due to a scarcity of qualified professors. There are not enough professors and/or clinical mentors, according to a study by the American Association of Nursing Universities (AACN), at almost two-thirds of the colleges polled. The shortage of human resources and the credentials of the nurses are also an issue.
Growing Number of Elderly Nurses
Nurses are becoming older as the baby boom generation reaches middle age and becomes more dependent on health care. The number of Americans over 65 is more than it has ever been in the history of the United States. As the population becomes older, so does the need for medical care. Many older adults have many diseases and co-morbidities that necessitate the need for medical attention, rather than just one. As a general, the population is living longer, which has resulted in a rise in the usage of health care (Jarrar, et al., e470). Many diseases that were formerly considered terminal are now able be fought off for the long haul. Long-term diseases put a burden on an organization’s employees.
Some of the likely reasons for Poland’s nursing shortage and the most relevant strategies to alleviate the issue are discussed in a source authored by Marc et al. One of the primary causes of a nurse shortage, according to the authors, is the aging population and the shifting demographics that have occurred over time. A holistic approach is needed to find solutions to the shortage of nurses because of the many factors contributing to the problem. There are several reasons why nurses are in low supply across the globe, and this site gives some basic information about them. Because Poland is a typical nation with a big number of elderly as well as a low birthrate, the source will be crucial in comprehending the issue. Nursing shortages in nations with low birth rates, low mortality rates, and large populations of the elderly will be addressed using this source.
Workforce Aging
Nurses, like the patients they care for, are becoming older. As a result of the lack of nursing staff, nursing schools are forced to place enrollment restrictions on their students. The quality of the program and courses might suffer if there are fewer students and fewer faculty members. As a result, there is a scarcity of nurses since there is no successor for the aging workforce. The scarcity of nurses is also causing nurses to suffer from burnout, according to the authors. Burnout is a crucial factor in the delivery of subpar healthcare, and as a result, the quality of treatment provided to patients suffers (Haryanto, Mickey., 1). Another issue influencing the quality of patient treatment is an aging staff.
Analysis and Synthesis
In 1900, in the United States, there were only approximately 12,000 registered nurses in the country; now, there are over 3 million. It seems to be possible to conclude that the scarcity isn’t due to a lack of human resources. The demand, on the other hand, is increasing. While salary increases were formerly the key tool used to entice more individuals into this industry, today’s solution to the shortfall is a focus on expanding the pool of available job possibilities. However, it takes a couple of years to become a trained nurse. A lot of simple education programs have been put on in the United States because modern healthcare does not have a lot of time to waste. Short courses logically produce professionals of a lesser level, resulting in inferior quality services and results for patients.
In general, money and education are two of the most popular means of recruiting field human resources without sacrificing quality. Some nurses who stay in the field and need to be retained to avoid turnover value additional motivators, such as professional progress and the chance to influence their organizations’ policy-making processes. In McClelland’s view of motivation, the desire for accomplishment and power are closely linked to these demands. Nursing shortages and turnover may be solved with the use of power and influence theories since these difficulties are an indication of the de-empowerment of the staff owing to their forced acceptance of a variety of different jobs. This group’s requirements should be identified and then delegated to managers to address issues with high staff turnover. It is in this context that a transformational style would be used by the leader while the transactional style would be used by the managers to deal with this problem.
The role of a leader is to devise a strategy and a plan for dealing with turnover and shortfalls, whereas the role of managers is primarily to facilitate and sustain change. Lewin’s theory of change might be a good model for unfreezing (creating a new staffing plan), moving (hiring extra people), and refreezing (resolving the issue) (putting into practice retention strategies and theories of motivation). Both the manager and leader would be equally involved in the transformation process, with the leader focusing on motivating and inspiring others while the manager is in charge of ensuring consistency.
Stressed-out Nurse
Some newly minted nurses discover that their new career path is not quite what they expected. Others may work for a time before becoming burned out and quitting their jobs. After years of steadily increasing rates, it seems that nursing staff turnover is now coming to a halt. Turnover in the nursing profession ranges from 8.8% to 37.0% on a national level, depending on geography and specialty.
Juggling a professional and personal life
Nursing’s scarcity is exacerbated by the fact that the field is still dominated by women, and many nurses choose to scale down or abandon their careers to have families. There is a chance that some may return, while others will find a new position.
Regions
Several factors might confuse when it comes to looking at several regions and locations of the United States at the same time. As a result, some places have a nursing shortage while others are struggling to meet the fundamental demands of their local community as a whole.
There is a wide variation in the level of nursing shortages around the nation. Nursing shortages vary from region to region based on the kind of specialty. When it comes to critical care nurses, labor and delivery, and other specializations, certain places have serious deficiencies.
Violent Behavior in the Medical Environment
The constant fear of emotional or physical abuse in the hospital context exacerbates an already stressful atmosphere, which contributes to a nurse shortage. The physical and mental insults to the healthcare professional’s physical and emotional well-being harm their job satisfaction and work effort. Patients in emergency rooms and mental wards put emergency room and psychiatric nurses in greater danger.
According to research done in Poland between 2008 and 2009, nurses are the profession most susceptible to workplace aggressiveness in a healthcare context. In the most prevalent kind of violence that nurses were exposed to, nurses were subjected to verbal abuse (Seyda, et al., 383). More abuse was directed towards inpatient nurses than at those working in an outpatient environment. Between 8 percent and 38 percent of health care employees have experienced some type of violence throughout their careers.
Proposed Solutions
Aging Staff
Proactive steps are necessary to establish a future workforce, but it is also necessary to keep nurses in the profession longer so that their skills and knowledge may be passed on. Some organizations have already begun the process of implementing adjustments that might encourage elder nurses to continue on the job. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) (N.D.) honors the top 50 best employers for workers over the age of 50 each year. It was a pleasure to include organizations like AtlanticHealth System and Mercy Health Systems as well as hospitals like Massachusetts General Hospital and Kaiser Permanente when determining the winners of this award in 2011. Employees over 50 are actively recruited, their work is recognized and their opinions are encouraged, which are all common threads in the selection of these organizations (Chan, Engle Angela, et al., e0199183). They are also provided with relevant feedback and their opinions are encouraged. There are a variety of planning aids available. Assessments of priorities and employee requirements are possible using the Older Worker Lure Scale (OWL). As part of the OWL survey, workers are asked to rate their level of interest in a variety of topics, including ongoing professional development, formal career ladders, succession planning, and tuition reimbursement as well as in-service education assistance. Employees can assess their company’s efforts to implement best practices to accommodate an aging workforce using this system as well (Shamsi et al., 8). When it comes to long-term strategic planning, the scale is helpful, but many of the elements it considers, such as shift and work-hour flexibility, remain troublesome in today’s healthcare system and have an effect on employee retention. Shift schedule rigidity is a common gripe among nurses as they become older. Nurses in the United States are often forced to perform 12-hour shifts. In each debate over their eradication or decrease, both sides are engaged.
Also, fostering healthy working conditions for nursing staff in their later years can help solve the problem of staff in their late years retiring. Healthy work environments have been linked to higher levels of employee satisfaction, better patient outcomes, and higher levels of organizational performance, according to a growing body of research in the nursing literature. Many organizations have initiated initiatives to enhance their work conditions in an attempt to retain personnel, building on work began by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (2005). There are currently more than 390 hospitals in the world that have received Magnet certification, which is an essential endeavor for organizations that want to create healthy and supportive workplaces for nurses. In a review of studies looking at the shortage and purpose to quit nursing (Lama, et al., 4). Working conditions, culture, engagement, workload, and social support were all significant predictors of future performance in the organization.
Violent Behavior in the Medical Environment
Zero-tolerance policies should be developed by organizations to establish a workplace code of behavior and penalties for individuals who breach that code. Asserting that such behavior will not be accepted is one of the goals of drafting a written policy like this. With open communication, workers can identify and report instances of violence before they escalate. A company may develop an atmosphere where workers feel free to share their experiences by keeping lines of communication open between themselves and their superiors.
Employees may also be made more aware of the dangers of violence in the workplace so that they can take preventative measures. Many healthcare personnel accepts violence as part of the job because they believe it is inevitable. Employers that educate their workforce on the dangers of workplace violence will increase the number of incidents reported and keep their workers safe.
Many healthcare facilities either lack a formal protocol for reporting incidents of workplace violence or have one that is highly cumbersome. In both cases, victims are discouraged from coming forward and abusers can go on as they have in the past (Kronsberg, et al., 49). A transparent reporting method is advocated for healthcare managers so that personnel may tell supervisors when violence happens. Having more information about workplace abuse helps leaders monitor, react, and fight it more effectively.
Workplace violence incidents should be documented, evaluated, and acted upon by healthcare managers to detect patterns of abuse, such as which departments it happens more often in, repeat offenders, and so on. Workers who are educated about workplace violence are better able to prevent abuse from occurring. Leaders and front-line personnel benefit greatly from comprehensive training programs that teach them how to recognize and report violent crimes as well as create safety measures for their teams.
Conclusion
Several variables impact nurses’ desire to quit their jobs, including organizational and personal ones. Research is needed to determine how variables such as employment prospects influence nurses’ intentions to quit the profession. The expenses associated with employee turnover may be reduced if the nursing workforce is more stable (Ackerson, et l., 282). When compared to hospitals with greater nurse staffing levels, worse outcomes for hospital patients have been related to lower nurse staffing levels. There is a rise in the death rate as well as in infection rates and duration of hospital stay, as well as in the number of medication errors and accidents. Nurse retention rates will raise staffing levels, minimize bad health outcomes for customers, and lower expenses associated with employee turnover as a result. Many nations are looking to immigration as a possible solution to the scarcity of qualified nurses. Humans experience the world through the lens of who they are, not what it is (Haddad et. al,). As a result, hospitals need to be more accommodating when it comes to dealing with employees.
Works Cited
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Chan, Engle Angela, et al. "Patients' perceptions of their experiences with nurse-patient communication in oncology settings: A focused ethnographic study." PloS one 13.6 (2018): e0199183.
Haddad, Lisa M., Pavan Annamaraju, and Tammy J. Toney-Butler. "Nursing shortage." StatPearls [Internet] (2020).
Haryanto, Mickey. "Nursing shortage: Myth or fact?" Orthopaedic Nursing 38.1 (2019): 1-2.
Jarrar, Mu'taman, et al. "The function of patient‐centered care in mitigating the effect of nursing shortage on the outcomes of care." The International journal of health planning and managementn33.2 (2018): e464-e473.
Kronsberg, Suzanne, Josephine Rachel Bouret, and Anne Liners Brett. "Lived experiences of male nurses: Dire consequences for the nursing profession." Journal of Nursing Education and Practice 8.1 (2018): 46-53.
Marć, M., et al. "A nursing shortage–a prospect of global and local policies." International nursing review 66.1 (2019): 9-16.
Shamsi, Aziz, and Hamid Peyravi. "Nursing shortage, a different challenge in Iran: A systematic review." Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran 34 (2020): 8.
Seren Intepeler, Seyda, et al. "Role of job satisfaction and work environment on the organizational commitment of nurses: a cross-sectional study." Contemporary nurse 55.4-5 (2019): 380-390.
