Nursing Shortage Essay Example Paper
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) Nursing Shortage Essay Example Paper.
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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) Nursing Shortage Essay Example Paper.
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).
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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) Nursing Shortage Essay Example Paper.
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 Nursing Shortage Essay Example Paper
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. 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 (2-3 Pages): Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Develop a 2 to 3 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). 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.