Identification of managerial, financial, legal and ethical implications - Essay Example

Implications of Nurses’ Shortage of Affiliation: Identification of Managerial, Financial, Legal and Ethical Implications The healthcare industry indeed remains under great threat considering the trends that the situation of operations that the industry currently faces. Healthcare is indeed a crucial industry based on the role it plays in societies, however, in the current situations, things have ideally, changed and its progress is grossly affected (Huston, 2009). Among the challenges in the industry, one with greatest implications by the industry at large is that of the shortage of clinical nurses, who are indeed play a significant role in the industry towards the provision of quality healthcare services to the patients who are the directly linked stakeholders in the industry.

Based on such a perspective, this paper analyses the managerial, financial, legal and ethical implications associated the shortage of nurses in the industry. As already mentioned above, nurses indeed play a crucial role in the provision of healthcare services in the industry. Such an aspect is evident based on the fact that nurses usually have a direct link to patients, who are ideally the greatest stakeholders in the sector (Huber, 2006). Considering the significance of the nurses in the sector, any shortage would indeed substantively pose great challenges towards service delivery in the industry.

On the managerial perspective, it is clear that the success of any organization is usually linked to the managerial capabilities. With increased shortage of nurses, the quality of service in the sector is obviously expected to deteriorate, which would then negatively affect the managerial performance of the industry (Huston, 2009). Financially, there is indeed another great challenge that the industry faces as a result of the shortage of nurses. Like in many other sectors, better finances are usually attributed to better performance as customers are in most instances attracted by quality service provisions.

Based on such a perspective, it is substantively clear that with the shortage of service providers, the quality of service is likely to reduce marginally. Shortage of nurses means that the few available nurses are overwhelmed with the duties they are expected to perform thereby causing distress in their performances. Once distressed, the nurses are then unable to perform at their best, therefore, reducing the quality of services (Cowen and Moorhead, 2011). With reduced quality of service delivery, fewer individuals would be seeking for medical services from a facility that faces a shortage of the service providers, an aspect, which would affect the financial perspective of the sector by a gross margin (Buerhaus, Straiger and Auerbach, 2009).

Under the legal provisions, it is clearly stated that individual ought to receive sufficient and quality healthcare. However, when there is the shortage in the number of nurses, it is evident that the realization of quality service as per the legal requirements remains a dream merely. Such evidence points directly that shortage of nurses would indeed have severe legal implications on the provision of healthcare services (Cowen and Moorhead, 2011). On a similar perspective, there are ethical implications associated with a shortage of nurses towards the provision of healthcare services.

Ethically, a healthcare environment should be one in which all players have better placements in order to offer them an opportunity to offer the best of services. One aspect that has been considered to cause the shortage of nurses is that of poor working conditions. With poor working conditions, it is clear that service delivery is likely to be affected and in the long run affecting the patients (Huber, 2006). ReferencesBuerhaus, P. I., Staiger, D., & Auerbach, D. I. (2009). The future of the nursing workforce in the United States: data, trends, and implications.

Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Cowen, P. S., & Moorhead, S. (2011). Current issues in nursing (8th ed.). St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby Elsevier. Huber, D. (2006). Leadership and nursing care management (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier. Huston, C. J. (2009). Professional issues in nursing: challenges and opportunities (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.