Global Nurse Shortages Discussion Paper
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).
The selected national healthcare issue is nursing shortage, described as a situation in which the demand for nurse personnel exceeds the supply/availability. Nurses are a critical resource within the health care environment. In fact, they make up the single largest 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), and yet the country is projected to have 175,900 nurse job openings annually during that ten year period (Rosseter, 2020). This state of affairs has been blamed on lack of nurse educators, early retirement, growing population of older adults, frequent patient influx, overwhelming burnout, and excessive turnover rates. Nursing shortage is of concern because of its impact on nurse-patient ratios. Unfavorable nurse staffing ratios present a clinical concern as they lead to higher desire to leave the profession, lower retention rates, and low job satisfaction. In addition, nursing shortage increase errors, decrease patient satisfaction, and lead to higher morbidity and mortality rates (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2020) Global Nurse Shortages Discussion Paper. As a result, there is a need to address nursing shortage as an issue of clinical concern.
ORDER YOUR PAPER HERE
Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor.
Shah et al. (2021) presents the results of a study into the prevalence and factors linked to nurse 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 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 thereby reducing the nurses’ intention to leave.
Drennan and Ross (2019) presents the results of a study that explores the factors associated with nursing shortage, the impact and 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, the use of task-shifting changes, over time and raising the profile of nurses can be explored Global Nurse Shortages Discussion Paper.
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.
A significant contributing factor to nursing shortage is job burnout as nurses are overworked. Nurses are overworked and this increases their intention to leave the profession. Addressing this issue requires that burnout be alleviated through adequate nurse staffing and limiting the number of hours worked per shift and week. In addition, system level solutions can be applied to include reimagining and innovating the nurses 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, engaging supporting employees (auxiliaries/assistants for nurses), supporting nurses for continuous education and development, and offering attractive salary scales and other benefits. These mentioned strategies are expected to reduce nurses intention to leave the profession thereby allowing the organization to retain its nurses (Drennan & Ross, 2019) Global Nurse Shortages Discussion Paper.
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 Discussion Paper