Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue - Essay Example

"Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue" is a wonderful example of a paper on the health system. The provision of standard health care is universally considered the most demanding concern in health care institutions. Poor organizational strategies, inadequate skills, and low social backing associated with an increasing demand for health care services create significant drawbacks compromising efficiency in the field (Mudallal et al. (2017). Rigorous examination of health care stressors, along with their impacts on both the health workers and the patients, would yield effective strategies for implementing thoughtful counteracting approaches. This paper evaluates work overload among healthcare providers conjointly with its influence on the absolute health care organization.
National Healthcare Issue/Stressor and Impact in the Organization

Work overload, in a health care setting, results in meager work achievement and dissatisfaction. The core roots of higher workloads span from increased demand for nurses, inadequate supply of nurses, reduced staffing and increased overtime, and a reduction in inpatient length of stay in healthcare units (Carayon & Gurses, 2008). Severe fallouts eventuate, comprising burnout and fatigue amidst health care providers besides decreased patient safety.

Burnout inhibits the rate of health care delivery among workers. Principally, burnout details a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion associated with excessive and prolonged stress. Carayon & Gurses (2008) details that nurses exposed to reduced physical and cognitive resources show burnout symptoms. The rising need for healthcare services, coupled with a limited number of workers, results in work overload. Consequently, physicians are obliged to work for longer hours to meet the profuse demand. Such physicians find low job satisfaction, thus developing burnout symptoms that lessen their ability to deliver faultlessly.

Stringent environmental conditions associated with work overload constitute fatigue among health care workers. The rapid rise in population calls for expansion in health facilities in an organization and an escalation in the staffing personnel. With the deficient supply of health practitioners, accessible workers are obliged to work under strict schedules. Nurses entitled to unexpected demanding tasks make frequent medical errors (Carayon & Gurses, 2008). Nonetheless, healthcare workers continue to work at times of emergencies, crises, and epidemics under severe circumstances inclusive of insufficient sleep. Such work factors contribute to fatigue and diminish the quality of service delivered.

Eventually, increased nursing workloads adversely affect patient safety. The repercussions of work overload eventually extend to patients. Carayon & Gurses (2008) stated that a charge nurse under heavy workloads might not be accessible to back other nurses with their patients. Heavy workloads on nurses inflict them to leave essential tasks undone on patients. Consequently, patients experience low satisfaction due to adverse outcomes. Under pressure to meet unexpected demands, nurses are likely to make mistakes in administrative procedures resulting in ineffective treatment.

Summary of Reviews of Healthcare Issue/Stressor Addressed in Other Organizations.
In the opinion of Zboril-Benson (2016), work overload notably correlates with low job satisfaction among workers. The concept of job satisfaction relates to employees' attitudes toward their tasks. Such attitudes incorporate both negative and positive feelings towards work and its environment. Heavy workloads negatively impact the well-being of health care workers resulting in a dismal performance. The issuance of effective incentive plans and proper training to nurses and doctors substantially increases their job performance, and they thus find more job satisfaction.

Heavy workloads incline severe physiological, psychological, and social consequences on healthcare workers. Mudallal et al. (2017) argue that depression, anxiety, helplessness, frustration, fear, despair, and stress prevail among nurses exposed to challenging work schedules. Organizational counteractive measures to balance workloads amidst workers require adequate recruitment and training of healthcare professionals to handle required tasks efficiently. Additionally, adequate measures are put in place to retain accessible workers to maintain an adequate workforce.

Strategies Used to Address the Organizational Impact of National Issues/Stressors
Varied organizational approaches have been evaluated and put into place to regulate work overload in healthcare units. Essentially, a model of work system and patient safety involving a rigorous examination of the causal elements of nursing workload is employed (Zboril-Benson, 2016). The model integrates all elements of a working system and the interaction between them. Methodologies comprise direct observations and interviews with the healthcare workers. Reasonable outcomes entail precise details on the work system's characteristics contributing to work overload and thus help to redesign the work system. Control or elimination of such failing elements results in proper interactions among healthcare practitioners, thus curbing work overload.

Additionally, an alternative approach aimed at compensating for the work system's negative aspects is engaged (Mudallal et al., 2017). The approach advocated for the implementation of reformatory measures to create a balance in the system. Such measures require sufficient nursing resources and social support to healthcare providers to adequately perform their tasks. The compensational mechanism demands informational support and practical and useful support to balance negative aspects in the work system.

Conclusion
In fine, work overload constitutes a dominant drawback in numerous healthcare organizations. A judicious examination of its causal factors and impacts is vital in generating practical solutions to the predicament (Zboril-Benson, 2016). Responsibility in governing work overload amidst healthcare professionals primarily lies in the organization's administration's capacity to create favorable work systems. Besides, governments ought to be liable to support capable individuals to pursue health-related studies, with the intent to advance staffing levels, thus deriving adequate labor to handle rising demands for health care.