Approaches of Nursing Leaders and Managers to Issues in Practice: Nurse Shortage and Nurse Turnover

In today’s ever-changing health care system, nurse leaders must possess key traits and skills that are needed to achieve goals, as well as face the multiple challenges across the different health care settings. Leaders take initiative, inspire followers with a vision, facilitate change and help with the development of coping mechanisms (Borkowski, 2016). Additionally, leaders are known to provide direction, empower subordinates and promote team work collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on my vision of a nurse leader by identifying three attributes that I consider essential in becoming a highly effective nursing leader. In my opinion, a nurse leader must have a drive for improvement, have the ability to communicate effectively

Not all nurses go into the profession with leadership ideas. The nursing profession must produce leaders throughout the health care system. Leaders must function as workers, and administrators with leadership qualities, while still meeting their budgets and running effective units with high functioning and happy staff members. They need to trouble shoot necessary and work with the medical faculty while pleasing their staff and the administers.

Nurse leaders are faced with issues or problems on a daily basis that are often expected and sometimes unexpected. It “comes with the territory” so to speak. If there were no issues to solve or hurdles to overcome the necessity of designating a leader would not seem quite as important. Nurse leaders can tackle issues that occur in their work environment using nursing theory to guide them. Nursing theory provides a framework that nurse leaders can use to implement interventions or changes to positively impact the staff they lead. This framework of the theory will set the standards for achieving the desired outcomes and is based on knowledge that is gleaned from practice and/or research.

The aging workforce has contributed to the nursing shortage. In the U.S the current average age of (RNs) is 45 years and almost a majority (40%) of RNs in the U.S are 50 years and older (American Nurses Association, 2011). Between 2001 and 2008, more than a majority (80%) of the

Leadership and management are essential to any health care organization, balancing patient care, employees, physicians, and the organization. Nursing is founded on interpersonal relationships. As a people-oriented profession, nursing leadership styles are influenced by humanism. The mission, attitude, and behaviors of a health care organization begins with its leadership, which creates the direction and purpose of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to differentiate between leadership and management, describe views of leadership, and explain the

In healthcare it is very important to have strong leaders, especially in the nursing profession. A nurse leader typically uses several styles of leadership depending on the situation presented; this is known as situational leadership. It is important that the professional nurse choose the right style of leadership for any given situation to ensure their employees are performing at their highest potential. Depending on which leadership style a nurse leader uses, it can affect staff retention and the morale of the employees as well as nurse job satisfaction (Azaare & Gross, 2011.) “Nursing leaders have the responsibility to create and maintain a work environment which not only promotes positive patient outcomes but also

In this essay I will discuss the leadership style of 3 nursing leaders, which I chose from Nursing Leadership DVD (Orazietti & Singh, 2014). I will then describe impact the leaders ' style has on improving nursing care, organizational processes, and inter-professional collaboration. In addition, I will provide some examples of a change process or difficult situation which leaders encountered. Finally, I will explain how I have dealt with difficult situation involving my colleague and one of physician in the hospital department where I worked. Throughout this essay I will analyze what leaders should have done differently. 3 Leaders which I have chosen were Debra Bournes from group 1 because of her political and administrative success, Mina Singh from group 2 because she is renowned for her educational style at York University, and Esther Green from group 3 because she is the sound and knowledgeable practitioner.

The United States as well as many countries around the world are experiencing a nursing shortage that is expected to worsen significantly. It is estimated that by the year 2020, if current trends in nurse employment persist, that only 65% of the nurses needed to care for patients will be available to do so; this is equivalent to a 36% deficit or 1,016,900 nurses (Huber, 2010, p. 576). This shortage will

By 2024 the US is expected to be short about 1.09 million nurses; this number is combining the openings that will be available along with retirements (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2017). In Illinois one-third of the nursing population intends to retire in the next five years; thus, leaving plenty of vacancies (Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation, 2015). There is also concern because the age of the nursing workforce is not drastically changing towards younger generation; the majority of nurses are age 50 and over (Budden, Zhong, Moulton, & Cimiotti, 2013). Another factor that plays into the nursing shortage is the condition of patients that nurses are taking care of is changing and becoming more complex (Van Oostveen, Mathijssen, & Vermeulen,

Even though Baby Boomer retirement is the most cited reason for the impending nursing shortage, several other factors contribute to the gap. [1] 80-percent of retirees suffer from at least one chronic condition and nearly 70-percent suffer from two persistent illnesses and require more service compared to patients with one illness. Additionally, some states have experienced steep population growth, and a great number of those individuals now qualify for affordable health care. Many of the nurses qualified to handle this increased workload will soon retire.

Nursing leaders are crucial to any nursing organization. They motivate, empower, influence, and communicate the organization’s vision to create change within the organization. Great nursing leadership depends on great nursing leaders. This paper will define nursing leadership and describe leadership characteristics. It will further depict the democratic style and transformational theory of nursing leadership. While exploring leadership in action, this paper will illustrate the aspects of nursing.

According to Paller (2012), the nursing shortage in different countries for example the United States tends not to be the only growing problem, but has also become a complex one. Nursing shortage and nurse's turnover has become the worsening predicament in the health care industry in the United

Over the past decades the average age of employed as registered nurses have increased from 42.7% as at 2000 to 44.6 in 2010 (nursingworld.org). However, the government has seen the vast increase in the number of people over the ages of 65years that have medical issues and health needs. And this has placed some restrain on the health system. And some of these restrain have caused changes in the role of nurses as a result of current U.S nurse shortage. Many factors include: the recent healthcare reform has given rise to million to have access to healthcare, thus creating a renewed critical shortage for nurses in the system. Meanwhile, many more nurses retire every year, and this calls for shortage in the workforce in spite of new nurses getting higher degree into the system. Relatively, the present average age of an employed registered nurse

Some of the reasons that are leading to shortage of nurses is the aging population, chronic disease and aging nursing workforce as Rebecca mention in her article. There is an increased to the emerge of registered nurses, per, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “1.2 million vacancies will emerge for registered nurses between 2014 and 2022. By 2025, the shortfall is expected to be “more than twice as large as any nurse shortage experienced since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s,” (Grant 2). This is important because it’s giving me a background of the upcoming nurses in the future. This calculation might be less, or greater than what might come, but it is a close calculation. Even so, the calculation of older people in hospital, or nursing home also increased, “Today, there are more Americans over the age of 65 than at any other time in U.S. history. Between 2010 and 2030, the population of senior citizens will increase by 75 percent to 69 million … in 2050, an estimated 88.5 million people in the U.S.” (Grant 2). In this calculation, there are going to be more people to take care of then how many nurses we will receive. As the population ages, there will be a demand for health-care service. If there aren’t enough services, this leads to shortage of

Even though nurses are considered the largest group of professionals in the health care system there is a global nursing shortage. In addition to the nursing shortage, there are nurses terminating their job, profession, or are leaving the workforce of nursing completely (Flinkman, Isophkala-Bouret, & Salantera, 2013). “The youngest generation of nurses are the most willing to leave the job and the nursing profession” (Flinkman et al., 2013, p. 2). It is estimated that 17.5 percent of registered nurses who are newly licensed leave their first nursing job within the first year of employment and those leaving within two years is 33.5 percent (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014). Additionally, those reporting that they were “ready” to change their job was 37% (Fears, 2010). According to Barron and West (2005), the percentage of those parting from the nursing profession for a superior job was highest at the age of 32. Hospitals nationally reported that their annual turnover for registered nurses is between 1 and 20 percent, but with 14 percent as the average (Rapheal, 2011). The Bureau of Labor Statistics (n.d.) estimates that there will be a necessity to replace 525,000 nurses in the labor force by the year 2020.