Staffing Shortage In Nursing Care

Gordon, S., Buchanan, J., & Bretherton, T. (2008). Safety in Numbers: Nurse-to-Patient Ratios and the Future of Health Care (pp. 1-2). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

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.

In 1960, Virginia Avenel Henderson a nurse and a theorist in the same time, defined nursing, “the unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to a peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge. And to do this in such a way as to help him gain independence as rapidly as possible”. It is a noble function and to be fulfilled at the highest levels, it takes time, patience and the devotion. When the number of people given this care is much lower than that of people who must receive the care, then a crisis occurs. The phenomenon is acute not only in America but all around the world. Even if the nursing is considered a meaningful work, the country is facing a nursing shortage that grows more with each passing year. Nursing shortages in America affect all parts of the health care delivery system.

The Nursing Profession has been experiencing shortages for many years. The pattern seems to be repetitive, high demand for nurses followed by phases of downsizing with a surplus of nurses. The earlier years of the nursing shortage was short compared to today’s current nursing shortage. The nursing shortage exist globally and in all nursing areas. There are several factors that are the cause of the nursing shortage of today as well in years past.

The national nursing shortage is an ever-growing concern, and it is essential for healthcare organizations to confront the looming issue. Possible solutions to the nursing shortage include retaining older nurses who are looking to retire, increasing the amount of students graduating from nursing schools, and drawing nurses back to the bedside who have left the nursing workforce (Hatcher, 2006). Leaders must assess the nursing turnover in their organization, and they must strategize on ways to retain those nurses. Organizations must implement techniques to retain older nurses to help combat the national nursing shortage and prevent a national healthcare disaster (Keller & Burns, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to identify the demographic breakdown of an organization, explain how the organization’s environment is conducive and non-conducive for older workers, and describe tactics to retain older workers.

Two major forms of staffing guidelines will be discussed, nurse-to-patient ratio and staffing by acuity. This paper will discuss the history of each staffing form. It will point out the benefits and negative features of both practices, describe how hospitals deal with staffing and discuss the states that have laws requiring certain guidelines be followed.

In the health care industry, nurse to patient ratios is often a controversial issue related to the cost involved to maintain a safe staffing level. Registered nurses know and continue to reiterate the importance of safe staffing levels in health care facilities. However, reductions in nursing budgets, coupled with the expanding nursing shortage, have resulted in a reduction of available nursing staff. As a result, the nursing staff at most health care facilities are forced to work longer hours with more acutely ill patients. Consequently, patient care is compromised and this ultimately perpetuates the nursing shortage because of this negative work environment.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) we are currently experiencing a nursing shortage. It stated that this nursing shortage is currently different than the past shortages. The present nursing shortage is due to fewer nurses entering the workforce due to unacceptable conditions, and the ones that do enter the workforce are not prepared to provide patient care in a changing health care environment. One would think, if they graduated from a nursing program, and passed the NCLEX licensure exam, how is one not prepared to provide excellent patient care? I believe it’s not that the individual is not qualified for the job, they may be lazy or even overwhelmed with too much work, due to the shortage. With there being

As an RN you will convey and ensure patient care by surveying and diagnosing patient's condition, creating an arrangement of consideration and assessing understanding's reaction to give a second thought. You will likewise take an interest in patient training and release arranging and work together with, direction and aide assigned consideration colleagues in arranging patient care and accomplishing objectives.

According to Dr. Jack Needleman the more hours a nurse spends caring for each patient, the less complications such as infections and deaths occur (Needleman, 2002). The authors and scientists involved in the medical journal “Nurse-Staffing Levels and the Quality of Care in Hospitals” are all from the medical field, including Jack Needleman, Ph.D. and his colleagues. Dr. Needleman is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at UCLA with expertise in quality of care and health policy. The data he recorded with his colleagues was focused on 14 of the most common hospital complications that can be treated early on to yield better outcomes such as pneumonia, shock or cardiac arrest, pressure ulcers, sepsis, gastrointestinal bleeds, deep vein thrombosis, and urinary tract infections (Needleman, 2002). The

The constant factor in the healthcare field is change! As the nursing professionals navigate the front lines of patients' care, they are typically exposed to change. As the year goes by, the nursing profession continues to change and progress at a spectacular pace. There are many current trends in the nursing profession, some of which are; the rise in the senior citizen's population, evolution of informatics, shortage of nurses and the researches on health outcomes.

Overwhelming workloads of hospitals nurses present a considerable problem for the American health system. With the growing nursing shortage resulting from an aging population and the pressure felt by health care organizations to reduce nursing staff in response to massive budget cuts, nurses are being forced to care for too many patients at one time causing severe work stress, fatigue, and burnout. Consequently, the quality of patient care suffers. Implementing a safe staffing strategy to assess the needs of registered nurses (RNs) in the acute care setting would ensure better patient outcomes and guarantee the diminution of the current healthcare crisis.

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.

According to the Nursing Economics, the nursing shortage is caused by an aging workforce, attrition of older nurses and lack of young people and minorities attracted to the nursing profession. Some solution they offered involved factors that affect job satisfaction and work environment (Allen, 2008). Along with solutions like recruiting from the new student population, removing barriers to admission, working with the media to explain partnerships between a university and hospital, new programs and accelerated nursing programs, increased access to clinical settings, and a restructured learning with technology and other simulators. The short-term strategies were broken down to 5 main points, looking at non-traditional resources for faculty instruction,

Modern nursing is a rewarding, but challenging, career choice. The modern nurse's role is not limited only to assist the doctor in procedures, however. Instead, the contemporary nursing professional takes on a partnership role with both the doctor and patient as advocate caregiver, teacher, researcher, counselor, and case manager. The caregiver role includes those activities that assist the client physically, mentally, and emotionally, while still preserving the client's dignity. In order for a nurse to be an effective caregiver, the patient must be treated in a holistic manner. Within the subject of nursing, there are often times in which different aspects of the practice must be analyzed by using primary research from other scholars. Nursing scholarship is vital to the profession, as we have seen, in order for the modern nurse to remain current with scholarship and practice. At the very core of this paradigm, though, is the manner in which the blend of art and science in nursing will be expressed to others, to the next generation, and through pedagogical theory (Alligood & Tomey, 2002). To do this, however, requires a new approach to the paradigm of nursing leadership strategic thinking, planning and action and above all appropriate integration of a more holistic and multidisciplinary approach to professional nursing.