Staffing Shortage in the nursing profession - Research Paper Example

? Staffing Shortage In delivering effective health care, the contribution of nurses is considered to be essential. Nurses are professionals in the frontline staff of most health systems. Clinical experience is part and parcel of the nursing profession, and it is essential for delivery of quality services. Management plays a key role in any successful organization. The modern health systems require qualified managers, capable of running the complex hospital equipment and personnel. Managers in nursing environments spend much time resolving conflicts among junior nurses. This paper seeks to show the negative impact of nursing staff shortage in the national health systems. The paper seeks to develop a solution to the problem against the current none functional solutions. Clinical experiences develop an atmosphere for implementing the theoretical lessons learnt in the nursing classes. Problem definition Exploring the problem of the nursing shortage is essential in order to come up with structured and long term solutions. Some of the factors known to have contributed to this problem include the aging of the registered nurses and the impact of educators in the nursing field. Negative perception of the nursing perception of the nursing procession has a profound effect on the enrollment rates. The negative impact of some of these factors has been felt in both nursing profession and the quality of patient care. Nurses are supposed to provide adequate safe care in a critical care setting. The problem is linked to the high turnover rates of registered nurses in the profession. The problem has been compounded by the incompetent leadership with is hand-off and laisser fair. The shortage of the nurses is a multicultural set up can only be addressed through a balanced approach. The leadership style used by the nurse manager is essential. This is because it can be a source of inspiration, or reduce the morale among nurses (Bland, 2008). The leadership style of the manager was easy going but keen of getting the job completed. During the clinical experience, the clinical nursing management was evidently approachable, trustworthy and naturally quiet. The quality of nurse education depends on the clinical experience. Both professors and hospitals play a crucial role. However, management and leadership can affect the effectiveness in the profession. Research shows that effective students placement given rise to confident professional nurses (Peter & David, 2009). The experiences are central to student nurse preparation before entering the workforce. Clinical experiences expose nurses to role models and develop their problem solving skills. It becomes easy to incorporate the theoretical skills into practical experiences in a clinical environment (Buchan, 2006). Patient care is a priority. When nurses are subjected to strenuous professional conditions, patient care tends to falter. Studies show that staff shortage and strenuous jobs cause the nurses to have emotional exhaustion and excellent job dissatisfaction. This can result to avoidable deaths. Nursing shortage is said to affect the work-life of nurses, and the time spent with patients. A survey indicated that 75 percent of the registered nurses believe staff shortage increases stress among nurses. 93 percent indicated that nurse shortage lower the quality of patient care and 93 percent also believed this resulted in high rates of turnover. Therefore, the clinical experience indicated that increasing the staff leads to a reduction in hospital mortalities. However, it is increasingly becoming clear that hospitals lack the required supply of nurses to cater for the increased workloads. The staff mix depicted a multicultural set up with 60 percent Philippines, 30 percent whites and a minority of 10 percent blacks. This called to an inclusive culture where negative ethnicity or racism was highly discouraged. The attribute of cultural diversity was viewed as strength. Multilingual skills were a strong advantage in the hospital when it came to overcoming communication barriers. The unit is a medical or oenological floor with 24 beds. The hospital has a strong capacity to deal with patients and emergency cases. Other than medical skills the hospital has a rich cultural set up which exposed the student nurses to a cosmopolitan experience. The organizational set up was hierarchical and conventional. There was a real need to address the staff shortage in a multicultural set up. Staff shortage in a clinical environment is leads to multiple challenges (Buchan, 2006). It is the work of the manager or the leading nurse to ensure roles are distributed effectively. The ratio of nurses to the number of expected patients at any given time is paramount in giving each patient the attention they deserve (Bland, 2008). The clinical experience exposed the need to have strong leadership skills in the clinical field. This entailed even distribution of personnel, and proper supervision mechanism. Staff shortage is inversely proportional to increased workload. Professional orientation of nursing personnel has a significant influence in the learning of students in a clinical environment. The leading nurse had to ensure the staff nurses shared the responsibilities evenly. Cases of staff over-work were common. The staff shortage problem had a profound impact of nursing students. In most cases, the students become overworked and disrespected (Peter & David, 2009). The challenge is compounded by a lack of teaching skills. Many nurses become threatened by the student nurses. According to research, many clinical experiences to nurses suffer from communication setbacks. Therefore, the role of the top nurse is to ensure the prejudices and irresponsible behaviors are minimized (Buchan, 2006). The nurse manager minimized the use of hierarchies. The leadership style encouraged junior nurses to communicate freely and directly to the management. The lessening of bureaucracy had a direct impact in students confident and understanding. The nurse managers used social and inspirational leadership style. Research shows that hostility during clinical experiences causes students to be unable to communicate on subjects vital for their learning activities. This affects the overall learning activities (Bland, 2008). According to Davey, an ideal clinical experience must address the issue of the nursing shortage. Nursing students may be perceived as trainees. Clinical experiences aim at giving students skills off practical interventions and teachings on a variety of role. The nurse manager must ensure that nurses must possess fundamental leadership skills while executing their roles. In most outstanding hospitals, clinical trainees are not allowed to perform methods like administration of medication. The nurse manager ensures that he protects the interest of the experienced and professional nurses while at the same time attending to nursing students. Dealing with the problem of staff shortage is not easy. Most nurses prefer to work in where opportunities to develop professionally are promising. According to research, most of the nurses and approaching retirement, therefore, the problem of the nursing shortage is set to increase in the foreseeable future. Nurses are keen on flexible employment opportunities, decentralized management and the nature of the working environment. The nurse manager ensured a balanced, working environment which factored in the minority groups (Buchan, 2006). The nursing students were given the chance to give their contribution in the policy intervention to address the problem of the nursing shortage. The clarity of roles, equilibrium of RN in addition to support personnel must be addressed while addressing the challenge of staff shortage. Flexibility is about maintaining the work life balance. Clarity of roles leads to a health skill mix. According to studies, the student nurses stand to benefit from the clarity of professional skills and organization in the clinical environment. However, the problem of staff shortage has lingered for long because of one-off solutions (Bland, 2008). However, as student nurses were able to participate in the formulation on structured policy to address the challenge of the nursing staff shortage in the long term. The nurse leader must have organizational leadership skills that utilize the input of all nurses while coming up with policy. The short time solutions to staff shortage are crucial in cases of emergencies. Some hospitals absorb the student nurses at the end of internship programs. Most nurses become overworked and poorly paid leading to high staff turnover in the clinical field. Nurse staffing must match work overload. To address the challenge of staff shortage, the clinical field must expand nurse recruitment, retention and remuneration (Peter & David, 2009). The student nurses encounter these challenges while in the clinical environment. Inadequate workforce planning and allocation mechanisms were the main causes of staff shortage during the clinical experience. There was an outright disconnect between service based funded demand and education supply. The available nurses were not utilized effectively as a result of inappropriate skill mix (Peter & David, 2009). The structures for incentives are dysfunctional causing the nursing experience to be strenuous. The nurses’ morale was affected by inadequate career support. The student nurses are required to rise above, or these realities are portraying a determination to learn. It is clear the field suffers from an under supply of new staff and poor recruitment. Therefore, the solutions offered must take into consideration the urgent requirements besides establishing lasting solutions. Policy interventions must address both demand and supply issues. Nursing is labor demanding (Buchan, 2006). Staff shortage is not just about the numbers; rather, it entails the methods used by the system to ensure that the knowledge and the skills of the nurses are maximized (Bland, 2008). Enhancing and aligning workforce planning capacity across occupations with the aim of identifying roles and skills are crucial to meeting service demands. According to Elliot, clinical experiences can affect nursing students either positively or negatively. The biggest challenges include unstructured and unpredictable nursing environment (Peter & David, 2009). This can make the nurse students vulnerable. Such clinical environment makes nurses feel overwhelmed, and cases of nurse turnover are high (Buchan, 2006). The relationship between the staff and nursing students is crucial for the learning process in the clinical experience. Studies show that many facets interact to develop the clinical learning experience and the quality offered in the process of clinical placements. Nursing students are known to identify the skills and qualities of nurse teachers and the workplace attitudes (Bland, 2008). For positive leaning outcomes, nursing students must observe how the organizational management and leadership skills deal with staff shortage during the clinical placements. The role of clinical nurse leaders has grown to include the determining the quality of patient care and furthering the ability of nurses in the healthcare systems (Buchan, 2006). The clinical experience offered a chance to learn how the clinical nurse leaders oversee care coordination of distinct groups of patients and the provision of care during complex situations. This ensures both cost-effective and cost-efficient healthcare. The nurse leaders encourage the junior nurses to further their education in order to remain relevant in the learning field (Peter & David, 2009). Globalization has affected the way most organizations carry out their functions. However, most of the hospital and healthcare organizations are stuck to conventional management skills. This can cause many professional nurses to become disorientated and demoralized. The shortage of nurses was being addressed through bureaucratic means that proved time consuming, and in most cases, ineffective. The decision- making process was rather casual and laid-back. The staff failed to capture the sense of urgency while executing their services to patients (Buchan, 2006). The turnover rates affected the quality of services offered in the hospital. The student nurses suffered from inconsistency as a result of high nursing staff turnover. In order to deal with this challenge in a structured and sustainable way, the enrollment programs must become non restrictive. Nursing has become competitive, and only new and innovative policies and educational opportunities can turn the situation around (Peter & David, 2009). The clinical experience exposed the need to have medical policies that evolve to meet the challenge of globalization. Increasing the quality of higher education affects the patient outcomes. This is one of the solutions suggesting that the nursing entry points must be restructured to ensure that nurses acquire the competence to deal with patient needs. The clinical experience exposed the need for healthcare organizational leaders to put emphasis on recruitment and retention strategies. According to a nursing journal, retaining the new registered nurses is necessary to help in ameliorating the projected nursing shortage by the year 2025. Retention of nurses and the strategies involved help in ensuring quality patient outcomes and reducing the cost of turnover. The strategy captures part of the desired outcomes in that it addresses the challenge of the staff morale and job satisfaction (Bland, 2008). It also decreases job absenteeism. Research shows that improved retention reduces turnover costs. In organizations that hire several hundred nurses annually, the cost of staff turnover is exceedingly high. The clinical experience revealed that the highest staff turnover happens in the first year of practice in the nursing profession. A research conducted in 2007 revealed that annual nurses turnover rates range from 5 to 20 percent. Structured residency program is being used as a strategy to reduce turnover for nurses in their first year of practice. The leadership plays are vital role when it comes to motivation and morale of the nurses (Peter & David, 2009). Organization leaders must be sensitive to the environment in which nurses’ work. This includes understanding perceptions in the medical practice. The healthcare policies must be drafted in a manner that facilitates the interaction and coaching of younger nurses by the experienced nurses. This is the heartbeat of every clinical experience. Teachings that are centered on patient care tend to give prospective and current nurses a sneak perspective or preview of the nursing profession early enough. Creating a safe and free atmosphere for both experience nurses and students is an excellent tool when it comes to mental preparation of prospective nurses. Other solutions include the use of simulations; post-clinical conferences and regular assessment. These incentives are likely to improve the quality of nurses and address the nursing staff shortage. References Bland, J. C. (2008). Revisiting Nurse Turnover Costs: Adusting for Inflation.". Journal of Nursing Administration, 2(1), 11-18. Buchan, J. (2006). Evidence of nursing shortages or a shortage of evidence? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 56(1), 457-458. Peter, B., & David;, A. (2009). "The Recent Surge In Nursing Employment: Causes and Implications.". Health Affairs, 1(1), w657-w668. Read More