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Nursing profession and leadership
Nursing profession and leadership
Leadership and management in nursing studies
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System Over the years, the nursing profession has become a vital focus to the US health care system with emphasis on nurses’ crisis as being a future challenge with the new ACA reform. The nursing shortage have baffled the experts to recognize the gaps within the Health Care system by addressing the need of more training programs, educational leaders, increase of financial resources, work load of staff-patient ratio distribution and quality of care satisfaction (Sultz & Young,2014). A vision of amplified foundations such as “the Raise Your Voice Campaign”, AARP , RWJF, Macy’s, and Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation have contributed towards the educational research programs by amplifying the nurses role as the educators leaders and co-existence roots of the Health Care System. (Buerhaus, 2008). An additional partner initiator was the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future (J&J Campaign) that “ focused on promoting the nursing profession, averting future projected shortages of RNs, raising funds for educating students and supporting faculty, and raising public awareness of the value and importance of nurses”(Buerhaus, 2008). Nursing is expected to have a total US shortage of 923,629 nurses by 2030 with 207 nurses per 100,000 populations; in 2012, nursing school programs rejected an estimated 79,000 eligible applicants due to shortage of professional educators, faculty sites, low capacity of admission spaces and budget restriction (Anderson, 2014). Health Care professionals are gradually considering other career change as they are becoming more overwhelmed by the intricacy of colossal laws that are implemented under new ACA reform. With the new ACA legal requirements in effect statewide, the nurses ar... ... middle of paper ... ... Care Workforce By Amy Anderson, DNP, RN, CNE March 18, 2014, http://www.heritage.org/amy-anderson Are Nurses Ready for Health Care Reform? A Decade of Survey Research 2012 Nov-Dec;30(6):318-29, Peter I. Buerhaus, PhD, RN, FAAN, Catherine DesRoches, DrPH, Sandra Applebaum, MS, Robert Hess, PhD, RN, FAAN, Linda D. Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, KAREN Donelan, ScD, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23346730 Sultz, H., & Young, K. (2014). Health Care USA: Understanding Its Organization and Delivery (8th Ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Nursing shortage fact sheet. Washington, DC; 2012 Aug 6. http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/NrsgShortageFS.pdf Hassmiller, S. B., & Cozine, M. (2006). Addressing the nurse shortage to improve the quality of patient care. Health Affairs, 25(1), 268-274, www.healthaffairs.org
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010 with the goal of expanding healthcare coverage to all Americans by reforming insurance policies and practices (Tillett, 2011). The ACA upsurges the demand for an increase in primary care providers in order to supply quality care to the much larger population that will have coverage and therefore acquiring healthcare. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) through its report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health has generated a solution to the shortage of primary care providers by promoting a transformation of the nursing profession to fill the gap.
There is a shortage of all health care professions throughout the United States. One shortage in particular that society should be very concerned about is the shortage of Registered Nurses. Registered Nurses make up the single largest healthcare profession in the United States. A registered nurse is a vital healthcare professional that has earned a two or four year degree and has the upper-most responsibility in providing direct patient care and staff management in a hospital or other treatment facilities (Registered Nurse (RN) Degree and Career Overview., 2009). This shortage issue is imperative because RN's affect everyone sometime in their lifetime. Nurses serve groups, families and individuals to foster health and prevent disease.
The shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States has been a cyclical topic dating back to the 1960s. Only recently have employers in certain regions of the nation stated a decline in the demand for RNs. Consequently, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2014) report on 2012-2013 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, American nursing schools denied admission to 79,659 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2012. The reported decrease in job availability and rejected admissions has left many individuals to question if the nursing shortage still exists. On the other hand, some experts project that the United States will be short more than one million RNs by 2020 (Dolan, 2011). Although some parts of the country are in less of a demand than others, it is undeniable that there is a national shortage of RNs.
Recent literature reports that there is a nursing shortage and it is continually increasing. Data released by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011) projects that the shortage, would increase to 260,000 by the year 2025. AACN (2011) also reported that 13% of newly registered nurses changed jobs and 37% were ready to change within a year. A study conducted reports that there is a correlation between higher nursing workloads and nurse burnout, retention rates, job dissatisfaction and adverse patient outcomes (Vahey & Aiken, 2004). Among the nurses surveyed in the study, over 40% stated that they were suffering from burnout while 1 in 5 nurses intended
Current literature continues to reiterate the indicators of a major shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States. The total RN population has been increasing since 1980, which means that we have more RNs in this country than ever before (Nursing Shortage). Even though the RN population is increasing, it is growing at a much slower rate then when compared to the rate of growth of the U.S. population (Nursing Shortage). We are seeing less skilled nurses “at a time of an increasingly aging population with complex care needs and an increasingly complex technological care environment” (Mion). According to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Health and Human Services, it is estimated that “more than a million new and replacement nurses will be needed over the next decade” (Diagnosis: Critical).
Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2012). Delivering health care in America: a system approach. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Niles, N. J. (2011). Basics of the U.S. health care system. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Health care reform has been a major issue over the past decade. The Nursing industry has in particular experienced a period of unpredictable change. On Dec 24, 2009, a landmark measure was passed in the senate by a vote of 60 to 39. This decision to pass the health care reform will change America forever. Nurses will constitute the largest single group of health care professionals. They will have a huge impact on quality and effectiveness in health care. The nursing industry will help hold this new program together by acting as the glue (The nursing industry will be the glue holding the new health care in tact.) It is estimated that by 2015 the number of nurses will need to increase to over 4 million. Nurses are the backbone of the health care industry thus creating better polices for this profession will help ease the workload and high demand. A nurse’s main concern is always to insure quality care and the safety of their patients. Under the new health care reform several new measures have been set into place to ease the transition and improve the quality of care for all patients. One program is designed to fund scholarships and loan programs to offset the high costs of education. Nursing shortages and the high turnover has become a serious epidemic. Health care reform is supposed going to solve many of these problems.
Stokowski, L RN, MS (2010) Healthcare Reform and Nurses: Challenges and Opportunities; Medscape News; Nursing Perspective. Retrieved September 16, 2011 from: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/721049
Since the 1990’s, the interest in nursing and the profession as a whole has decreased dramatically and is still expected to do so over the next 10-15 years according to some researchers. With this nursing shortage, many factors are affected. Organizations have to face challenges of low staffing, higher costs for resources, recruiting and reserving of registered nurses, among liability issues as well. Some of the main issues arising from this nurse shortage are the impact of quality and continuity of care, organizational costs, the effect it has on nursing staff, and etc. However, this not only affects an organization and community, but affects the nurses the same. Nurses are becoming overwhelmed and are questioning the quality of care that each patient deserves. This shortage is not an issue that is to be taken lightly. The repercussions that are faced by both nurses and the organization are critical. Therefore, state funding should be implemented to private hospitals in order to resolve the shortage of nurses. State funds will therefore, relieve the overwhelming burdens on the staff, provide a safe and stress free environment for the patient, and allow appropriate funds needed to keep the facility and organization operational.
The prolonged shortage of skilled nursing personnel has been a serious concern to the healthcare industry, and this shortage has impacted the quality of care delivery. In addition, nursing turnover has also exacerbated the problem of nursing shortage. Nursing shortage has been blamed on many nurses retiring and less younger nurses joining the occupation. There is also an increase in life expectancy (baby boomers) leading an increase in both physical and mental ailment with subsequent demand in nursing care. Nurses are also leaving nursing profession because of inadequate staffing, tense work environment, negative press about the profession, and inflexible work schedules. Even though nursing is a promising career and offers job security, the
Shi, L. & Singh, D. A. (2010). Delivering Health Care in America: A System Approach 5th ed. Baltimore, Maryland: Jones & Bartlet
With the passage of the ACA, the Federal government in collaboration with the states, reformed the “healthcare system by giving more Americans access to quality, affordable health insurance” (Obama Care Facts, Summary, n.d.). Thus, the ANA Agenda for Reform had been partly achieved. In addition, the Agenda also served as a wake-up call that brought key nursing and patients’ issues to the fore, e.g., Safe Staffing, Safe Patient Handling, and Title VIII (Nursing Workforce Development) Funding (ANA, 2016), just to mention a
“In 2010, the US Department of Labor Statistics (DLS) projected a 22 percent increase in the demand for RNs or 581,500 new jobs by 2018, to total a projected 1,039,000 jobs needed to be filled by 2018” (Cottingham, DiBartolo, Battistoni, and Brown, 2011, p. 250). It is imperative that strategies be implemented to improve the recruitment of nurses to meet the needs. Without improvements in the recruiting of new grads or seasoned nurses, organizations will need to rely on expensive agencies and traveling nurses; therefore, causing a financial burden on organizations (Cottingham et al., 2011).
The Future of Nursing Being a registered nurse affords one the option of working in many diverse healthcare settings. In any practice setting, the climate of health care change is evident. There are diverse entities involved in the implementation and recommendation of these practice changes. These are led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), nursing campaign for action initiatives, as well as individual state-based action coalitions. Nurses need to be prepared and cognizant of the transformations occurring in health care settings, as well as the plans that put them at the forefront of the future.