Nurses Leaving the Profession - Essay Example

"Nurses Leaving the Profession" is a great example of a paper on care. Nurses continue to leave their profession due to complaints related to overwork, emotional strain, environment, and culture, among others. According to the study done by the RN network, which is a travel nurse staffing agency, they found various issues that affected nurses, causing them to leave their job. One of the factors is workload; nurses are required to do much with fewer resources. Some of the nurses also complained of the small number of nurses who are available to attend to the large groups of patients. This forces the nurses to work in longer shifts making leading to workload. There is also a developed culture that 'nurses eat their young. This is one of the common phrases in nursing that is used for newly employed nurses. They are given tough shifts and challenging assignments. A nurse is expected to handle about 3-4 nurses; however, in the first month, the nurse can handle about twice the amount of numbers. Another factor contributing to nurses leaving their profession is the emotional strain. While nursing is referred to as the work of the heart, emotional draining can affect the nurse and fail to balance the level at which they are supposed to connect with the patient without getting into the personal life of the patient. This is difficult for some nurses due to their personality traits as well as skill level. However, nursing is able to assist some of the nurses due to different departments that support nurse personality.

Another factor that affects most nurses is the environment. The environment in which the nurses are expected to carry out their roles has changed a lot over the years. Affordable healthcare seems like more people accessing health services than before. Most of the hospitals were not ready for such numbers; this overwhelming of nurses has affected them negatively (Quaile, 2019). The increase in the number of patients has also led to an increase in healthcare rosters which nurses must struggle to meet. Some of the nurses are also reporting cases of workload that have affected their mental health. Due to affected mental health, most of the health workers cannot be able to work in the most effective manner (Lee et al. 2019). Cases of nurses leaving hospitals are affecting healthcare in a negative manner. Since there is already a reduced number of healthcare workers who are required, the more they leave, the more they continue overwhelming the nurses who are left in service. Also, there is low patient attendance since there are not enough nurses to attend to the patients. The healthcare organization is struggling to meet its needs in the most effective manner since the challenges faced in hospitals are alarming. Some of the patients opt for private hospitals since their services are well organized, and the number of nurses available can attend to the available number of patients without failure.

Nurses continue to leave their profession, showing challenges that are within the nursing profession. With the alarming rates of the nurses who are leaving their profession, there is a need to take action through leadership. Servant leadership is one of the best ways to approach the current problems that are affecting nurses. Servant leadership takes place when leaders serve their fellow workers. The leaders help other workers overcome some of the challenges that they are facing while at work (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). A leader in healthcare must understand that if he or she wants the patients to be given the best services, there is a need to think about the employees as well. The leadership model in healthcare focuses on strengthening the team, developing trust, and serving the needs of the patients. When the leader is interested in nurses' welfare, nurses are able to understand that their leader is concerned about their welfare, thus leading to increased engagement, a healthy working environment, and attracting more nursing staff. These are some of the ways the leaders manage to keep their workers close.

The servant leadership model has its own strengths and weaknesses that affect how it impacts the targeted staff. Some of the advantages associated with the model are that the decisions are made for the interest of the staff and not just the organization. The leader is able to prioritize his staff, making decisions that do not affect them. Leaders are also able to consider the requests of the nurses and respond to them in the most appropriate manner. However, the leadership model also has some disadvantages, such as decision making. The organization takes a long time to make decisions; therefore, the leaders are unable to implement the changes within a short period of time. It takes longer for the staff to have a leader who can be servant-oriented due to personal interests. The leader may also not work as expected has he is perceived to be weak. These challenges can limit the performance of the servant leaders, thus affecting the nurses who depend on their leaders. However, generally, servant leadership is one of the most appropriate ways to prevent nurses from quitting their careers since most of the issues that make them quit can be addressed through servant leadership.