Research question
Does chronic under staffing issue effects nurses’ overall health and leads to quit profession earlier? What steps can be taken to reduce under staffing issue?
Introduction
Nursing is a collaborative profession, which requires participatory approach towards achieving the goals and objectives of the institution. However, the shortage of nurses has become a critical challenge across the globe as a result of lack of staff motivation and retention within the profession (Asiret, Kapucu, Kose, Kurt, & Ersoy, 2017). Moreover, reducing staff makes existing nurses responsible for more work, and increase workloads add stress to complete work and patients’ care. Furthermore, increased stress lowers nurses’ morale and job satisfaction
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This shortage is not solely nursing's issue and requires a collaborative effort among nursing leaders in practice and education, healthcare executives, government, and the media. (p. 1)
Moreover, organizations and nursing leaders can create a healthy work environment in which priority is given to nurses' psychosocial and physiological well-being and to fostering supportive relationships leads to better care and safety of patients (Wais, 2017).
In the beginning of this paper, I will be discussing on contributing factors resulting in understaffing issue. Furthermore, I will be explaining how chronic understaffing issue affects overall health of the nurses and leads nurses to quit profession earlier. I will be expanding on steps can be taken to reduce or improve understaffing issues and help nurses’ to cope with situation. Lastly, I will conclude that what I learned from this research and how I will be able to apply knowledge gained from this essay during my nursing
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There is enough evidence in healthcare professions, suggesting nursing is a stressful job. Some of the major stressors which have been identified in the nursing include tension factors such as high work pressure and a high demand in the workplace, having to work on the night shift, facing threats and violence at workplace, having to adapt to new therapies and high expectations from patients and their relatives, having to work on holidays, facing life-threatening and acute emergencies and patients with unstable situation, having to work with the opposite sex and low equipment and facilities, having occasional conflicts with doctors beside inadequate teamwork, little support of managers for the nurses and lack of reward and incentives, the ambiguity of nursing responsibilities, unacceptability of jobs in the community, etc (Benton & Ferguson, 2017). The variety of issues mentioned above is just some of the job related stressors in the nursing
Many health care professionals are wondering why shortage transpired when managed care cost initiatives, implemented throughout the country, are dramatically decreasing the length of patient stays (Upenieks, 2003). In fact, such a situation should be resulting in a nursing oversupply. As the nursing shortage ensues, the need for recruiting and retaining highly skilled nurses committed to the organization will become necessary to maintain high-quality patient care. The recent national nurse shortage has resulted in higher nurse workloads; fewer support resources, greater nursing dissatisfaction, and burnout, making it more difficult to provide optimal patient care (Upenieks, 2003). The primary role of nursing is to provide the best possible care to patients.
Nurses. They are such a vital part of any hospital and in any medical offices. Their main focus is on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they can recover to perfect health. But with the constant demand, shortage staff and need for nursing, help or hurting them. During my research, I found that some people agree that overworking nurses is okay because the hospital still thrives and that an overworked is just collateral damage. Other think that overworking nurses is wrong and something should be done to change the problem. In this paper, I will discuss effects of nurses being overworked back by research.
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
One of the most serious issues in nursing, that can affect a nurses career is nursing burn- out. According to the article “Where have all the nurses gone”, current nurses that are practicing, report high rates of job dissatisfaction (which is part of burn out) and 1 of 5 nurses may quit nursing in the next 5 years (Dworkin, 2002). Burnout is associated with nurses not coming in to work, not feeling satisfied when doing their job, high turnover rates and a lack of commitment to the work (Katisfaraki, 2013). If a nurse becomes burned- out, they may not take care of their patients as well and could make mistakes with medication administration. A study performed in the United States by Dr. Jeannie Cimiottti, shows that hospitals with high burn-out rates among nurses have higher levels UTI’s, and surgical infections (World, 2012). Nursing burnout not only affects the nurse, but it also affects the patient, the nurses’ colleagues, and the nurses’ family; nursing burn out often leads to emotional exhaustion and depression, that can effect relations and communication between the nurse effected and the person they are communicating with. This paper will cover what burn-out is, who is susceptible to burn out, and treatment and prevent nursing burn out.
In most aspects of life the saying “less is always more” may ring true; however when it comes to providing quality care to patients, less only creates problems which can lead to a decrease in patient’s quality of life as well as nurse’s satisfaction with their jobs. The massive shortage of nurses throughout the United States has gotten attention from some of the most prestigious schools, news media and political leaders. Nurses are being burnt out from their jobs, they are being overworked and overlooked. New nurses are not being properly trained, and old nurses are on their way to retirement. All the while the rate of patient admissions is on the rise. Nurses are reporting lower satisfaction in their job positions and hospital retention rates are at an all-time low, conversely this is affecting all patients’ quality of care. As stated in the article Addressing The Nurse Shortage To Improve The Quality Of Patient Care “According to an Institute of Medicine report, Nurses are the largest group of health care professionals providing direct patient care in hospitals, and the quality of care for hospital patients is strongly linked to the performance of nursing staff”.
These articles have many similarities when discussing the issue of staffing shortages. For patients, their loved ones and the general population, they don’t understand the ramifications and strain that staffing shortages have on nurses. People expect and deserve complete, competent and safe care when they are patients. These articles bring to light all the struggles that nurses have to deal with. Nurses are fearful that they will make mistakes, will harm patients, and will harm themselves. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001; Martin, 2015) Overtime can be overwhelming and exhausting, which can lead to errors being made. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001) These articles perceive that it may be beneficial for nurses, patients, and healthcare facilities to decrease the nurse-to-patient ratio, however, this option is not always
How come my nurse doesn't spend more time with me? Why is she/he always rushing to get out of my room? Staffing in nursing is probably one of the biggest issues in health care nowadays. For one, there are just too many patients and not enough nurses, which makes it unsafe for the clients and the licensed professional.
Several other causes have been attributed to the nursing shortage. An increase in the number of nurses is needed. Sadly, there is little increase in compensation for nurses. In addition to no growth in pay, the level of stress, responsibility, and demand nurses is increasing. Unfortunately, patients are the ones who suffer. When a hospital does not have the proper nursing staff to care for patients, it results in poor patient safety and patient outcomes (Buerhaus, Donelan, Ulrich, Norman, DesRoches, & Dittus, 2007). Nursing salaries compared to other professions has remained stagnant. For example, a registered
In spite of the shortage among nurses, there are number of options and recommendations that can better help to maintain an adequate staff level and provide greater strategies needed to increase nursing. The choices open to cover for insufficient staff range from reallocating and postponing work, relocating staff within unit or from other units, to employing temporary additional nurses according to Buchan and Seccombe (1995). In health care, some of these options may not be available because ...
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
Solutions for the nursing shortage beyond implementing safe nurse staffing ratios include: ongoing long-term workforce planning; institution of an education and practice system to promote more equitable compensation in the health care community based on a better understanding of the educational preparation required for different health care roles; implementation of specific strategies to retain experienced nurses in the provision of direct patient care, investigating the potential for using technological advances to enhance the capacity of a reduced nursing workforce; and advocate for increased nursing education funding under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act and other publicly funded initiatives to improve
Understaffing is one of the prominent problems that hospitals and healthcare facilities are facing. Hospitals and healthcare facilities argue that they do not have enough budget to hire nurses to care for patients. While some say that there are not enough nurses here in the United States to hire. Also, hospital administrators think that hiring extra workers is not economically right. However, nurses and staffs disagree. When facilities do not have enough staff, it is the workers, especially the nurses that are having a hard time. They are the one that are suffering from overworking and pressure which leads to mistakes that will affect the hospital’s reputation and patient’s health. Nurses are here to care and nurture a patient and therefore
Nurse staffing ratio's in healthcare is an ongoing issue throughout the country. With healthcare being run like a business, the bottom line is sometimes thought to be more important than the safety of the patients. One will see through this paper by reviewing patient outcomes and mortality, nurse staffing ratios can affect the quality and safety of patient care.
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It is essential for a healthcare institute to maintain skilled, experienced, and engaged nursing staff to deliver effective patient care. However, there is an ongoing problem of nurse turnover. Nursing turnover is a critical issue in many countries. Nurse turnover is costly for the healthcare institutes, and it can disrupt and threaten patient care and outcomes. Many of the researches studies done in the past provide extensive list consists of several determinants associated with nurse turnover such as work distress and environment, lack of leadership support, poor interprofessional working relationships, higher patient acuity, burnout, increased workloads, and insufficient staffing (Duffield et al.2011, Lu et al.