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Recommended: Conclusion of nurse burnout
Due to this health care shortage, many nurses are putting patients’ lives at risk every day because of fatigue and being over worked in hospitals all over the United States. The JCAHO has reported deaths and accidents due to low staffing of nurse in the hospital and the numbers has increased since 1996 initially. The nursing shortage has also lead to many medical errors through this time from both physicians and nurses due to being over worked and heavy patient loads. (Rosenkoetter & Nardi, 2011) “The global nursing shortage has affected nearly every country and spawned both competition and cooperation among countries desperate for nursing care provided at the level of registered nurses. The recruitment reaction by the international community
This brings on a great deal of problems and still shows our shortage of nurses is not going to get better anytime soon. With this shortage of nurses, it brings on the issues of fatigue and injury. Fatigue and injury can make nurses more prone to making errors during the work day, which in the long run is not a good environment for patients to be in. Increasing the nurse-to-patient ratios can help with increasing a nurse’s job satisfaction. In my opinion, if nurses are happy, their patients will be happy too. With their greater job satisfaction, it brings along the increase in call bell efficiency, which then brings along greater patient satisfaction.
The problem is caused by finances. Hospitals claim they face declining reimbursements, and have chosen to cut nursing staff to lower their expenses.
Needleman, J., Buerhaus, P., Pankratz, S., Leibson, C. L., Stevens, S. R., & Harris, M. (2011). Nurse staffing and inpatient hospital mortality. England Journal of Medicine, Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsa1001025
The nurses that are left to care for the patients are affected by the nursing shortage. They are made
In the article “Addressing staffing shortages in an era of reform,” Stanford point out that in a time when change is necessary because of mandated healthcare requirements, there is a shortage of nurses in the field of direct patient care, because they are offered jobs with better pay to oversee office positions. “Health system leaders recognize that these shortages threaten the quality of care they can provide to patients. As a result, competition for talent is becoming more heated in several parts of the country,” (Stanford, 2013). By nurses taking on jobs in other areas of the field, we are left to find people to replace them and when that happens, it creates a shortage on the front line of patient care.
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
Thousands of nurses throughout the nation are exhausted and overwhelmed due to their heavy workload. The administrators do not staff the units properly; therefore, they give each nurse more patients to care for to compensate for the lack of staff. There are several reasons to why
The nursing shortage is not only about a low number of workers, but about how the health system lacks qualified nurses to use their skills successfully. There are numerous stories of unqualified nurses providing care for patients that lead to terrible outcomes.
Turnover rate involving nurses is at an all-time high. Hood (2014) states, “According to a poll conducted by the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2013) with 16,295 nurse participants, 118,130 nurses believed that inadequate staffing compromised the quality of nursing care services. When the question was asked if they were currently considering leaving their position, 8,734 responded affirmatively, and 3,773 reported that inadequate staffing was the reason for leaving” (p. 490). These statistics are caused by nurses feeling the wrath of working shorthanded, and stressed out from pulling extra shifts.
Hospitals fail to meet the expectations of their employees far more frequently than the employers in other industries.
Factors such as, heavy workloads, stress, job dissatisfaction, frequent medical errors, and intention of leaving the job are all common for nurses to experience, especially during the nursing shortage crisis. Not only do the nurses suffer during a shortage, but the patients ' health outcomes suffer even more. For instance, there are higher rates of infectious diseases and adverse patient outcomes, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), upper gastrointestinal bleeding, shock, pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays, failure to rescue, and mortality. As a result, this leads to higher re-admission rates for patients. Furthermore, high patient-to-nurse ratios cause heavy workloads due to an inadequate supply of nurses, an increased demand for nurses, a reduction in staffing and an increase in overtime, and a shortened length of stay for patients. Without the heavy workloads that nurses have to endure on a daily basis, there would more time for nurses to communicate more effectively with physicians, insurance companies, and patients and their families. Those heavy workloads are the result of hospitals reducing the nursing staff and implementing mandatory overtime policies just to meet unexpectedly high demands. Unfortunately, the nursing shortage has affected nurses ' mental and physical health. For example, the most common health concerns for nurses include cardiovascular health, occupational injuries and illnesses, and emotional and physical exhaustion. Therefore, safe-staffing ratios/levels have to become the main
Employee neglect can lead to bedsores, dehydration, starvation, and pneumonia. Immobile or physically struggling patients need constant care to prevent such issues making employee overtime is necessary although often financially uncompensated. Emotional abuse towards patients is another
Have you ever thought about where we put the elderly? Where do we put the old people? The question is we put them in nursing homes or hospitals, and who are the people that take care of them? Over the years the supply of nurses have decreased and we now don’t have enough nurses. This problem is called Nurse Shortage, when we have a nurse shortage more nurses work way more hours and not enough time relaxing and trying to be healthy.
Mrs. K identified the problem as being a dangerously low nurse to patient ratio and the inability to care for all of the patients the way they should be cared for. Mrs. K states “if you do not get another RN for this unit, I am going to quit this job”. In this statement she has clarified her perspective of the way the unit and hospital is managed. Her personal opinion and verbal expression clearly identifies the need for change. Mrs. K suffers stress and angst from workin...