NURS 6053 Assignment 1: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Essay
NURS 6053 Assignment 1: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Essay
NURS 6053 Assignment 1: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Healthcare organizations grapple with various challenges brought about by dynamics in the health sector. According to Marshall & Broome (2021), legislation, public policy, and consumer mandates are among the multi-dimensional factors affecting and challenging healthcare in the United States. Besides these challenges, the shortage of care providers remains a profound healthcare stressor, considering the detrimental consequences associated with understaffed healthcare organizations and departments. Haddad et al. (2022) contend that nursing staff shortages contribute to medication errors, higher morbidity, and mortality rates, as well as exacerbating burnout, dissatisfaction, and higher failure-to-rescue rates. Amidst these concerns, health stakeholders should implement evidence-based and practical interventions to address shortages of care providers and the associated risk factors. Consequently, this paper describes nursing staff shortages as a national healthcare stressor, summarizes two scholarly articles on the selected issue, and identifies strategies used to address the organizational impacts of nursing staff shortages.
Description of the Healthcare Issue/Stressor
The nursing staff shortage is a multifactorial healthcare issue that jeopardizes patient care, workflows, and patient safety. According to Haddad et al. (2022), nurses account for about 3.9 million professionals in the United States. Although nurses make up the largest section of the health profession in the country, factors like an aging population, a lack of potential educators, high turnover, and disparate workforce distribution contribute to shortages. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the US healthcare system will require more than 275,000 additional nurses between 2020 to 2030 (Haddad et al., 2022). The projected need will lead to a faster growth rate of the nursing profession compared to other occupations.
The prevailing shortages of nurses significantly affect care delivery amidst the growing demand for quality, convenient, and timely care. The primary effects of understaffed healthcare organizations include a high prevalence of errors, higher mortality, and mortality rates associated with delays in care delivery (Haddad et al., 2022). The secondary consequences of high patient-to-nurse ratios are emotional distress among nurses, burnout, dissatisfaction, intentions to quit, and high failure-to-rescue rates. These ramifications massively compromise patient safety, nurses’ well-being, and organizational culture.
Statistics regarding nursing staff shortages in my organization indicate a need for improvement. For instance, various hospital departments have higher nurse-patient ratios that are outside the recommended ratios. For example, the hospital’s emergency department has a nurse-patient ratio of 1:7 compared to the recommended 1:4 RN-to-patient ratio. The organization is currently implementing an institutional-wide plan for addressing nursing staff shortages and the associated variables. This plan includes partnerships with nursing schools to provide internship opportunities, the incorporation of advanced technologies, and a comprehensive rewarding system.
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Summary of Two Articles
The current scholarly literature identifies nursing staff shortages as a sensitive healthcare quality issue that prompt collective and interdisciplinary interventions. According to Drennan & Ross (2019), factors that contribute to an increased demand for nurses are population growth, increased prevalence of chronic diseases, high rates of nurse turnover, and the emergence of new types of medical, surgical, and nursing services. Other factors contributing to nursing staff shortages are poor working conditions, limited opportunities for professional development, economic instability, and ineffective talent retention policies.
Similarly, Haddad et al. (2022) identify the aging patient population and an aging workforce are risk factors that perpetuate nurse shortage. For instance, the number of Americans aged 65 years and older is ever-increasing, contributing to an increased demand for quality care due to the prevalence of age-related comorbidities, such as cardiovascular conditions. Similarly, an aging workforce is a concern for healthcare organizations in the United States. Haddad et al. (2022) argue that approximately one-third of the nursing workforce could be at retirement age in the next 1 to 2 decades. Consequently, health organizations should implement anticipatory mechanisms, including employee transition planning to prevent future nursing staff shortages.
Strategies for Addressing the Organizational Impacts of the National Healthcare Issue
The nursing staff shortage is a multi-actor concern that requires interprofessional team interventions. The recommended strategies for addressing staff shortages include developing nursing education infrastructure, attracting and retaining registered nurses, embracing evidence-based human resource management interventions, addressing workplace incivility, implementing advanced technologies to improve workflows, and transition planning (Drennan & Ross, 2019). These approaches require institutional-level mechanisms, including establishing training and career development opportunities for nurses, installing advanced healthcare systems, rewarding employee performance, and promoting a civil workplace culture by training employees on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
These strategies can positively or negatively affect the organization. From a positive perspective, addressing nursing staff shortages by training employees, providing opportunities for career progression, and incorporating new technologies can improve care quality, enhance employee satisfaction, promote productivity, and curtail the cost incurred when addressing nurse turnover. From a negative dimension, these recommended interventions for tackling nursing staff shortages are cost-intensive and demanding. For example, installing new systems, training nurses, and rewarding performance inflicts an additional financial burden on healthcare organizations. However, the perceived return on investment (ROI) of these interventions extends beyond the cost of implementing them.
Conclusion
The nursing staff shortage is a national healthcare issue that poses a significant threat to care quality, patient safety, and well-being. As a multifaceted healthcare issue, shortages of registered nurses (RNs) result in errors, higher morbidity, and mortality rates, burnout, dissatisfaction, and high failure-to-rescue rates. Healthcare organizations should incur the costs of implementing interprofessional, collaborative interventions for addressing nursing staff shortages. These interventions include employee empowerment through training and career development opportunities, the collaboration between nursing educators and healthcare organizations, the incorporation of advanced technology into nursing practices, employee transition planning, and rewarding performance. Also, addressing uncivil behaviors like bullying and all elements of workplace violence is central to the prevention of nurse turnover.
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
Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2022). Nursing shortage. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/#
Marshall, E. S., & Broome, M. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
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The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system. NURS 6053 Wk 1 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.
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Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.
In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected. NURS 6053 Wk 1 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.
To Prepare:
- Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
- Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected. NURS 6053 Wk 1 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.
- Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (3-4 Pages):
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Develop a 3- to 4-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
- Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization). NURS 6053 Wk 1 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.
- Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
- Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples. NURS 6053 Wk 1 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.
