Global Nurse Shortages Essay

Global Nurse Shortages Essay

Title of Paper

The selected national healthcare issue is a nursing shortage, described as a situation where the demand for nurse personnel exceeds the supply/availability. Nurses are a critical resource within the health care environment. They comprise the most significant health profession (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2020). A review of US nursing staff statistics reveals that the nursing workforce stood at 3 million in 2019 and is expected to increase to 3.3 million in 2029 (an increase by about 221,900). Yet, the country is projected to have 175,900 nurse job openings annually during those ten years (Rosseter, 2020).  In Post-Acute Medical, where I currently work, 95% of nursing employees are agency/travel nurses, which means that only 5% of nurses are full-term employees. From this data, it is clear that nursing shortage is an issue in this facility. This state of affairs has been blamed on a lack of nurse educators, early retirement, a growing population of older adults, frequent patient influx, overwhelming burnout, and excessive turnover rates. The nursing shortage is of concern because of its impact on nurse-patient ratios. Unfavorable nurse staffing ratios present a clinical problem, leading to a higher desire to leave the profession, lower retention rates, and low job satisfaction. In addition, nursing shortages increase errors, decrease patient satisfaction, and lead to higher morbidity and mortality rates (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2020). As a result, there is a need to address the nursing shortage as an issue of clinical concern.  Omitted purpose statement.  The requirements for this paper include:  Global Nurse Shortages Essay

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Summary of week 2 paper then

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages:

• Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
• Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
• Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
• Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback.

Shah et al. (2021) present the results of a study into the prevalence and factors linked to nursing burnout in the USA. The study reveals that approximately 31.5% of the nurses who leave the profession do so because of burnout as they are overworked, having to work for more than 40 hours every week (OR 3.28; 95% CI, 1.61-6.67). In addition, the study revealed that nurses who leave the profession because of job burnout do so because they face a stressful work environment (68.6%) and inadequate staffing (63.0%). Those who consider leaving the profession because of job burnout do so because they face a stressful work environment (59.5%) and inadequate staffing (60.9%). In identifying the causes of job burnout among nurses, the article identifies strategies for addressing burnout and reducing nurses’ intention to leave. Global Nurse Shortages Essay

Drennan and Ross (2019) present the results of a study that explores the factors associated with the nursing shortage, the impact, and the action that can be undertaken to address the issue. The article reports that although nurses comprise about half of the global workforce, they face a staffing shortage. In addition, it denotes that addressing the issue requires data-informed, evidence-based strategies at the national, subnational, and organizational levels. Towards this end, there is a need to have well-defined nursing staffing laws, education levels, and scope of practice that reduce variations between countries. Besides that, task-shifting changes over time and raising the profile of nurses can be explored.

A significant contributing factor to the nursing shortage is job burnout, as nurses are overworked, which increases their intention to leave the profession. Addressing this issue requires alleviating burnout through adequate nurse staffing and limiting the hours worked per shift and week. In addition, system-level solutions can be applied to include reimagining and innovating the nurse’s workflow so that they are not overworked and implementing workplace wellness programs (Shah et al., 2021). Besides that, there is a need to have a favorable nurse-to-patient ratio, engage supporting employees (auxiliaries/assistants for nurses), support nurses for continuous education and development, and offer attractive salary scales and other benefits. These mentioned strategies are expected to reduce nurses’ intention to leave the profession, allowing the organization to retain its nurses (Drennan & Ross, 2019). Global Nurse Shortages Essay

You have omitted the majority of the requirements for week 3.  I would recommend using the requirements and writing a 2-3 page paper.  If you wish to resubmit let me know.

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices: Nursing Shortage

Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.

The issue of concern is nursing shortage. Three competing needs are identified as impacting nursing shortage. First, cost is a competing need as the most direct solution to nursing shortage is hiring more nurses, and yet this presents a cost concern through increased salaries and wages. Efforts to control costs limits the number of nurses who can be hired at any given time. Second, overwork is a competing need as a nursing shortage forces the available nurses to work overtime to pick the slack. This increases their intention to leave the nursing job (Tamata, Mohammadnezhad & Tamani, 2021). Third, work-life balance as nursing shortage forces nurses to spend more time at work and less time away from work (Matsuo et al., 2021). Global Nurse Shortages Essay

Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.

The organization has a mandatory overtime policy. The organization is experiencing a nursing shortage. To address this shortage and ensure that nursing care is delivered as needed, the organization has implemented a forced overtime policy in which the nurses are required to work more than the regularly scheduled 40-hour work week. The extra working hours are mandatory, paid at a special overtime rate, and the nurses approval is not required when placed on overtime. This policy is leveraged on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), noting that while employees have a 40-hour work week, there is no maximum limit on the number of hours they can work in a week (Pardew, 2022). Global Nurse Shortages Essay

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Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.

While the FLSA supports the mandatory overtime policy, it presents ethical concerns. The issue is that although the overtime is paid at a higher rate than normal working hours, the additional work hours have a negative impact on the nurses’ wellbeing. It requires them to spend more time at work and less time away from work so that they may not have time to relax after stressful time at work. In addition, it does not allow them to have a good balance between family and career. Besides that, overtime is associated with negative psychological impacts as it is linked to a depressive state, sleep conditions and anxiety. These conditions can result in lifestyle behavior changes causing weight gain, smoking and alcohol consumption. Additionally, working overtime causes nurses to be fatigue and make errors as they work in demanding schedules that negatively affect safety (Pardew, 2022). Global Nurse Shortages Essay

Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies.

The recommended policy change is a shift from relying on overtime to flexible work schedule comprising of flexible hours every week and flexible time bands. This would require nurses to work a specified number of core hours every week. Once a nurse has completed the core hours, the nurse can be assigned additional credit hours when nursing care requirements increase within the facility. Unlike the mandatory overtime policy, this policy has the advantage of being cost-effective, increasing productivity and continuity, improving nurse retention, heightens morale, and improves work-life balance (Ray & Pana-Cryan, 2021).

Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs. The Assignment (1-2 pages): Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages: Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics. Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples. Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations. Global Nurse Shortages Essay

References

Matsuo, M., Suzuki, E., Takayama, Y., Shibata, S., & Sato, K. (2021). Influence of Striving for Work–Life Balance and Sense of Coherence on Intention to Leave Among Nurses: A 6-Month Prospective Survey. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 58. https://doi.org/10.1177/00469580211005192

Pardew, W. M. (2022). Applied Law and Ethics in Health Care. Cengage Learning.

Ray, T. K., & Pana-Cryan, R. (2021). Work Flexibility and Work-Related Well-Being. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6), 3254. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063254

Tamata, A. T., Mohammadnezhad, M., & Tamani, L. (2021). Registered nurses’ perceptions on the factors affecting nursing shortage in the Republic of Vanuatu Hospitals: A qualitative study. PLoS ONE, 16(5), e0251890. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251890

References

Drennan, V. M., & Ross, F. (2019). Global nurse shortages—the facts, the impact, and action for change. British Medical Bulletin, 130(1), 25-37. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldz014

Rosseter, R. (2020, September). Nursing Shortage. https://www.aacnnursing.org/news-information/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage

Shah, M. K., Gandrakota, N., Cimiotti, J. P., Ghose, N., Moore, M., & Ali, M. K. (2021). Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Nurse Burnout in the US. JAMA Network Open, 4(2), e2036469. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.36469

Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2020). Public Health Nursing: Population-Centered Health Care in the Community. Elsevier, Inc. Global Nurse Shortages Essay