Nurse Shortage Recent visits to my doctor office has left me thinking about the long wait time and stress on all the staff during my visit. Same thing happened when we got sent into urgent care when my son had a run in with a fence. What should have been a quick visit in both locations became over baring and way to long. The Rio Grande Valley has seen a growth in population the past few years resulting in a shortage in nurses needed our health care system. As a personal experience that I have had since I work in the health care system is that it is very hard to call to the doctor’s office and get them to help us out. Front page newspaper stories paint a picture of a nursing shortage born of increased patient loads and escalation pressure to treat more people, more quickly, for less money (Facts About the Nursing Shortage July 2001). My on-line source only reflected something we are currently hearing from many doctor offices. When confronted with wait times from my own customers I talk with them about the need to get their nurses on the line for questions and the lack of such help in their doctor office. …show more content…
Who can only move as quickly as possible after the nurse has done our intake. Without our first visit to the nurse station the doctor cannot work on us slowing down an already slow process. “The nursing shortage impacts access to care and creates stress and burnout for the working nurses in the RGV” said Sylvia Vargas, RN, a family nurse practitioner, member of the Texas A&M Collage of Nursing’s Clinical Advisory Board and native of the RGV (The Rio Grande Valley Needs More Nurses January 29,2018). Imagine just how much we could accomplish if we worked through the shortage we
The current and growing shortage of nurses is posing a real threat to the ability of hospitals, long-term care facilities, and others to provide timely access to quality care. Nurse staffing shortages and nurse turn-over contributes to the growing reduction in the number of staffed patient beds available for services, increasing costs, and rising concerns about the quality of care. Health care organizations highly depend on nurse managers and leaders to reverse this trend. This paper discusses the reasons for nursing shortage and turn-over, different approaches to solve this issue, and my personal philosophy about this issue.
According to an article submitted by Rosenfeld, 2009, the growing trends of an aging population require the need for more nursing services. In addition, there are insufficient numbers of facilities to train new nurses (Rosenfeld, 2009). The above issues pertaining to nursing shortages have created what is called a “nursing crisis” which have caused and will continue to cause dramatic shortages on a national basis.
The shortage of nurses in the United States has been discussed often and has been fully reported in the media over the past several decades. There have been reports of shortages so critical that they actually have become "…a national security concern" (Nelson, 2002). Moreover, the reasons for the shortages and potential solutions for this crisis are extremely well covered in the scholarly literature. In this paper, an article in the peer-reviewed Health Marketing Quarterly points to how the nursing shortage can be addressed using marketing strategies. In addition, other scholarly articles will be reviewed in order to address the challenges and consequences that could result if this crisis is not addressed immediately.
It is no secret that the United States is currently experiencing a shortage of nurses . “The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics ( 2009 ) estimated that more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2018 to meet the increased demands of the health care workforce” (). The stressful conditions under which nurses work, due in part to the nursing shortage, are among the risk factors that contribute to nurses’ abuse of illicit drugs and alcohol. Nurses are unique in that they work in an environment where they not only have access to controlled substances, but also are exposed to critically ill patients, traumatic situations, death and dying, the stress of which can increase the risk of substance abuse. (Epstein, Burns, & Conlon, 2010). Unfortunately, it is the patient that suffers the most.
The nursing shortage has been influenced by the aging workforce, shortage of nursing faculty, professional alternatives, poor working conditions and poor nursing image. By 2020, there will be an increase in demand for registered nurses (RNs) due to the increase need for healthcare services to meet the needs of the baby boom generation (Keenan & Kennedy, 2003). It is estimated that the nursing shortage will range from 400,000 to 808,000 full-time equivalents (FTE) RNs. The nursing shortage has impacted the intensive care units (ICU), medical surgical units and operating rooms (Keenan & Kennedy).
In recent years, the healthcare industry has seen a significant decline in the quality of patient care it provides. This has been the result of reduced staffing levels, overworked nurses, and an extremely high nurse to patient ratio. The importance of nurse staffing in hospital settings is an issue of great controversy. Too much staff results in costs that are too great for the facility to bear, but too little staffing results in patient care that is greatly hindered. Moreover, the shaky economy has led to widespread budget cuts; this, combined with the financial pressures associated with Medicare and private insurance companies have forced facilities to make due with fewer
When was the last time you were in the hospital or a loved one was in the hospital, and ever wondered where the nurse is, and they haven 't returned for hours. You finally push the assistance button several times, and they open the door and hurriedly say, “I will be right back”, then you don 't see them for a while again. When they come back to check up on you, you explain to them what you need, and then they send in a less qualified staff member to assist you. At this point, you become very annoyed and frustrated not to mention scared to be admitted in the hospital to begin with. Little do you know, your nurse has ten other patients and other non-nursing tasks that they are responsible taking care of. They have been working a double shift and are extremely exhausted, and a large stack of charts that they will have to do before their shift is over. As a patient, you now become frustrated and are not happy about this; as a nurse, they are just as frustrated as you are, not only because the amount of work they have but more importantly they can 't deliver the appropriate care they long to give. For most hospitals they do not hire enough registered nurses for reasons that are good and bad. This is an issue that needs to be addressed not only locally but nationally and on a constant basis. When there are too many patients for one registered nurse to attend to, nurses become exhausted, mistakes are made, and patients are unsatisfied. A minimum nurse to patient ratio needs to be
There are nursing shortages all over the US and something needs to be done about it. Nurses become overworked and stressed out. If there were more nurses it can lead to a better outcome for the nurses and patients. This paper will discuss a broad overview of the patient outcomes, data to prove we need more nurses, nursing issues that specifically impact the patient outcomes, and how to collect data on the lack of nurses.
In Greek tragedy, the fate of man is most often predetermined. No matter how hard a person of the ancient world tried to escape their destiny, if the gods decided otherwise, they were helpless to deviate far from the path that they were set to travel. Through a mere captivating 350 lines in Aeschylus’ tragedy, The Oresteia; Cassandra uses her plight to bring light to the horrors of the house of Atreus, prepare others for the inevitable, and eventually empower herself.
I would assume that all of us aspire to live a long healthy life, however, sometimes things don’t go as planned and some of us ultimately end up suffering from some type of ailment throughout our lives’. It would be disappointing if there wasn’t a nurse to care for you during your visit to a clinical facility. Unfortunately, this dilemma might come into existence due to a possible nursing shortage in the near future. That being said, all patients and their family members would be outraged if their loved one wasn’t receiving adequate care, understandably so. In addition, this scenario would also take a toll on physicians because I don’t believe they would be able to tack on all of the work that a nurse is specializes in.
Nursing shortages have always occurred in cycles. Recently, the shortage has become worse due to the implications of managed care as a way of controlling escalating health care costs. While the shortage did ease some during the recession of 2009, there is still a shortage in some areas of the country (Cherry & Jacob, 2014). Increased student enrollments and government policies have helped with the shortage, but the occupational outlook for nursing jobs is expected to grow faster than any other occupation through 2018. So it is essential that the supply of nurses increases to keep up with the demand. The current shortage is due to several factors. First, new nurses are needed to replace “baby boomers” who will be retiring in the near future. Second, as the population ages, there will be a demand for more healthcare, leading to a demand for more nurses. Third, new advances in patient care will lead to more people in the healthcare system needing more specialized care, and lastly, the affordable care act places a large emphasis on preventive care, leading to more people desiring wellness visits (Cherry & Jacob, 2014). Finally, according to Dall’Ora, Chiara, Griffiths, Peter, Ball, Jane, Simon, Michael Aiken, Linda H. (2015), “shifts lasting 12 hours or longer were associated with a 40 percent greater level of job dissatisfaction and a 31 percent higher risk of planning to quit. Job satisfaction and burnout in the nursing workforce are global
It is likely that most people have heard about the nursing shortage for years now, and perhaps they believe it’s been fixed. However, the nursing profession is experiencing a reoccurring deficiency. According to Brian Hansen, (2002), there was a nation wide shortage in 2001 of 126,000 full-time registered nurses, but the shortage will surge to 808,000 by 2020 if something isn't done. This pattern is a persisting cycle of high vacancies followed by layoffs and a high over supply of registered nurses. Various factors contribute to the lack of nurses within the health care facilities, but today’s shortages are a little different. Many feel that this scarcity is severe and long-drawn-out. The four major issues contributing to
Barry Hill (2017) performed studies related to the quality of care that patients receive and what factors are associated with those perceptions. One area that was noted to be of importance and directly related to quality of care provided to patients is staff dissatisfaction and burnout. This study also found that longer shifts contributed to increased amounts of emotional exhaustion leading to decreased quality of care for patients. Addressing staffing needs early and intervening can decrease the amount of nurse burnout and dissatisfaction that is often seen. This study has shown that hiring additional competent nurses reduces medication errors, falls, infections, wounds, and decreases hospital litigation costs, while improving staff morale, patient experience and care, and cost-effectiveness for the hospital.
Macarons, a decadent kind of French/Italian cookie (with ganache squished between two shells), is loved by millions of people. The shell was introduced by Catherine de Medici’s pastry chefs, in Italy, 1533. Then later brought to the United States by Pierre Desfontaines who had the idea of putting ganache between two of the shells to make a sandwich.
As a young child, I remember there were three things I had always wanted. First, I wanted a small black puppy with a white spot over its eye, like I had seen in the ‘One Hundred and One Dalmations”. Then, I wished for a lot of Barbie dolls that I could play with. Finally, my most important wish was that my mom and dad would stay together forever, like they did it the Disney movies. I had received my puppy that I loved. I had even received all the dolls I wanted from the Ariel collection. But, sadly, my last wish couldn’t be fulfilled because my parents had filed for divorce after being together and married for 20 years. As stated in the ‘Psychosocial Development in Middle Childhood’ power point divorce is considered a grieving process and we all had lost my dad. Not only had we lost our dad, but we lost a second income and support system in the household. So, I wasn’t surprised when it was stated divorced families typically have secondary losses because, after the divorce my mom, two sisters, and I had to move into a two bedroom apartment because we couldn’t afford the house anymore. My mom had received custody of my two sisters and me, and when my dad felt like dealing with us for the weekend, we went over to his one bedroom apartment. As stated in the textbook on page 258 and 259, children who experience their parents getting a divorce tended not do as well in school, have and maintain normal relations with others, and had a harder and longer time getting use to different