Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue – Nurse Staffing Essay
Analysis of Pertinent Healthcare Issues
With a rising number of people insured by government-sponsored health insurance schemes, concern has emerged regarding how to meet the nation’s healthcare demands. Although financial investments have increased, human resources have not kept pace with the growing number of patients who require healthcare services (Carthon et al., 2019). This is especially true given the growing elderly population eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. This problem has spread to healthcare facilities, including where I work.
Nurse staffing is essential to patient outcomes, especially the quality of care provided to patients. Several studies have been conducted to investigate the impact of nurse staffing on patient outcomes, with the majority claiming that decreased nurse staff numbers resulted in missed care, an upsurge in nursing errors, and poor patient outcomes (Carthon et al., 2019) Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue – Nurse Staffing Essay. Similarly, inadequate nurse staffing levels lead to relatively low satisfaction and higher burnout among nurses.
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The rising number of patients in the organization where I work has steadily put pressure on the nurses, with an increase in the frequency of floating in even more than one unit. However, handling an expanded range of patients employing short-term approaches such as floating will not be appropriate in the long run, necessitating the development of a more definite solution. Data collected in the previous year at the facility where I work revealed an increase in the instances of missed nursing care. Although some cases did not result in tragic consequences, they did represent a risk to the patient’s general well-being. The next part uses two chosen articles to illustrate the scope of the problem and show how other healthcare institutions have addressed the shortage of nurses amid the rising patient population.
Summary of Studies On the Healthcare Issue
The first article chosen was a study by Griffiths et al. (2018) that found an apparent connection between low nurse staffing and poor patient outcomes, such as mortality in inpatient institutions. The researcher continued by arguing that using missing care could be a more accurate way to determine if nurse staffing levels are acceptable or that it could be a valuable way to determine the causal relationship between nurse staffing levels and their effects. Low staffing numbers resulted in a high rate of missed care, which, according to the study, caused poor patient outcomes. According to the study’s findings, missing care was thought to be a reliable measure for determining nurse staffing levels in a healthcare facility.
The second research was carried out by Cho et al. (2016). The article’s main goal was to establish a link between nurse staffing, the workplace, and patient outcomes. The observed elements that affected the level of job satisfaction among the nursing staff were primarily connected to the independent variables identified. According to the report, there are more instances of incorrect medicine administration, missing care, and impaired patient safety due to insufficient nurse staffing and a poor working environment Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue – Nurse Staffing Essay.
Other organizations tackle nurse staffing concerns in various ways, including ensuring that there is as little employee turnover as possible within the health institution. Nurses are in high demand because of the increasing number of patients requiring their services (Boamah et al., 2018). As a result, most are eager to work for firms that will provide improved working conditions. This is when organizational leadership plays a role.
Working circumstances for healthcare staff will be excellent with good leadership, resulting in high work satisfaction and minimal nurse turnover. This indicates that the number of employees will remain the same. Another strategy for dealing with nurse staffing difficulties is developing a formal staffing plan with nursing personnel. A rigid staffing structure is not appropriate in an ever-changing environment, and a more flexible employment plan will assist the hospital in dealing with unequal nurse-to-patient ratios.
Strategies Used to Address the Healthcare Issue
Several recommendations were made based on the research chosen to address the issue of inadequate nurse staffing ratios. One suggested method is to develop successful techniques for increasing nurse staffing and improving working conditions, which will also address the issue of nurse turnover (Cho et al., 2016). Implementing this method will benefit the business by allowing nurses to work more effectively and with less burnout, resulting in better patient outcomes. The negative effect is that the organization will most likely need to increase its labor spending, which may need more resources.
Another technique was to utilize missing care as an indicator to determine changes in policy in nurse staffing ratios. This was thought to be a more practical unit of measurement for raising the sufficiency of nurse staffing ratios (Griffiths et al., 2018). Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue – Nurse Staffing Essay This strategy is advantageous because the institution will alter its case-by-case staffing basis instead of having a fixed system of analyzing nurse staffing needs. The disadvantage of this method is that it’s more reactive than proactive.
Conclusion
To sum it up, nurse staffing is a critical healthcare issue that must be addressed at national and corporate levels to ensure better patient outcomes.
References
Boamah, S. A., Laschinger, H. K. S., Wong, C., & Clarke, S. (2018). Effect of transformational leadership on job satisfaction and patient safety outcomes. Nursing Outlook, 66(2), 180-189.
Carthon, J. M. B., Davis, L., Dierkes, A., Hatfield, L., Hedgeland, T., Holland, S., … & Aiken, L. H. (2019). Association of nurse engagement and nurse staffing on patient safety. Journal of nursing care quality, 34(1), 40.
Cho, E., Chin, D. L., Kim, S., & Hong, O. (2016). The relationships of nurse staffing level and work environment with patient adverse events. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(1), 74-82.
Griffiths, P., Recio‐Saucedo, A., Dall’Ora, C., Briggs, J., Mariotti, A., Meredith, P., … & Missed Care Study Group. (2018). The association between nurse staffing and omissions in nursing care: a systematic review. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(7), 1474-1487.
To Prepare:
- Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
- Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue – Nurse Staffing Essay.
- Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (2-3 Pages):
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Develop a 2 to 3 page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
- Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
- Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
- Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue – Nurse Staffing Essay. Be specific and provide examples.