Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

Posted: November 25th, 2022

Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

 

 

Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor: An Urgent Pertinent Public Health Issue Affecting My Organization

One of the most important national healthcare stressors at the moment is without doubt the shortage of nurses in healthcare facilities across the United States. This healthcare issue affects and impacts almost all healthcare organizations in the country, mine included. When the number of nurses is not enough, there is inevitable burnout among the few staff members. This is a fact that is detrimental to the organization because a nurse suffering burnout due to excessive workload is an ineffective and unsafe nurse. This is a nurse who is prone to making serious errors of judgement because of both physical and psychological fatigue. As an organization, this is a risk that is preventable but difficult to contain because of insufficient numbers of qualified nurses.

 

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The organization therefore finds itself faced with the risk of negligence and malpractice suits. These may lead to a finding of vicarious liability and enormous financial losses due to settled suits. Organizational risk management in light of nursing staff shortages is therefore a reality that many healthcare organizations have to deal with. This paper looks at the impact of nursing shortage in my healthcare organization and the discussion is addressed to the organization’s leadership team who are the policy makers responsible for recruitment policies.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

The Impact of Nursing Shortage on the Organization

In my organization, the impact of nursing shortage has been felt greatly. In the past three months alone, the hospital’s only nurse informaticist and three primary health care nurse practitioners have left. Despite concerted efforts by the human resource department, it has not been possible to find the right nursing staff with the right training, experience, and skill mix to replace these four. As a result, there has been exceptional pressure on the remaining nurses and nurse practitioners who are feeling the weight of the extra work and getting demoralised. It has been observed elsewhere that replacing specialist nurses who are leaving for various reasons is not an easy task. Some of the reasons identified for this rapid turnover include the removal by organizational policy makers of professional development budgetary allocations, lack of financial support for student nurses, and low or insufficient pay (Wise, 2018). Healthcare organizations like ours should therefore be very worried when they do not have the right skill mix or numbers of nurses that are necessary to deliver quality and safe healthcare. As an incentive, therefore, policy makers should remember that overworked nurses may feel a bit more empowered and motivated if they receive fair pay, appreciation, and recognition (Day-Calder, 2017).Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

A Brief Summary of Two Articles on the Healthcare Issue/ Stressor Being Discussed

Combes et al. (2018) opine that nursing staff shortage may be a result of uncompetitive pay by the concerned organization. They investigated the situation of assistant nurses (ANs) and registered nurses (RNs) working in hospitals in England between 2003 and 2005. What they found was that when the pay competitiveness of registered nurses was increased by 10%, the shortage of both cadres of nurses decreased by 0.6% for RNs and 0.4% for ANs.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

Wise (2018) on his part reports that the King George Hospital Cedar Centre in the United Kingdom had to suspend its treatment of its cancer patients after four oncology nurses left the facility and two others went on maternity leave. They were forced to do this because the absence of these six resulted in an insufficient number of oncology nurses in the cancer centre. Of course the repercussions of such a decision are dire. Not only will the cancer patients treated at the facility bear the brunt of the closure, but the facility itself will suffer negative reviews and may lose the confidence that the public has had in it. Building back that reputation and trust may thereafter take a very long while to achieve. But like our organization, this hospital should closely interrogate the reasons why a whopping four oncology nurses had to leave at once, thereby crippling its operations. Could it be the remuneration? Could it be the staffing policies? Or could it be a lack of transformative leadership on the part of the nurse managers in the organization? All these are possible reasons that any organization in the same predicament ought to consider and address. In other organizations, these reasons are given prominence and addressed with urgency because nurses are the backbone of the healthcare sector.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

Strategies to Address the Organizational Impact of Nurse Shortage

So far in this discussion, it has been seen that strategies that work to address this healthcare issue include giving nurses fair pay, investing in staff development programs, providing a conducive working environment through transformative nursing leadership, and taking a bottom-up approach to nursing management (Wise, 2018; Combes et al., 2018; Day-Calder, 2017). However, the other strategy to tackle this menace and which is very effective is legislation. It is because of this that in 2015 Democratic senators Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Barbara Boxer (California), and Democratic House Representative Jan Schakowsky introduced The National Nursing Shortage Reform and Patient Advocacy Act (Rubin, 2015). This particular bill sought to set minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for all hospitals, protect the advocacy role of nurses, and anchor in legislation mandatory investment in nurse training and retraining. As such, the goal of the bill was to promote patient safety and facilitate quality healthcare delivery. It was supported by amongst others the California Nurses Association (Rubin, 2015).Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

These strategies may impact my organization positively in that nurse numbers will increase; and with it the quality of nursing care and the joy of working as a nurse. The only negative way they may impact my organization is by way of consuming funds that may have been channelled to buy more equipment and other fixed assets. However, because the numbers of specialist nurses is falling and the demand for them is outstripping supply, the investment is worth the struggle (Triggle, 2015).

 

 

 

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19: An Urgent Pertinent National Public Health Issue

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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19: An Urgent Pertinent National Public Health Issue

The healthcare issue that is quite pertinent and chosen for my organization is the recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This is a severe kind of pneumonia that was first observed in Wuhan, Hubei Province of the Peoples Republic of China. It was soon established that the causative agent of this pneumonia was a novel coronavirus. The World Health Organisation later named the disease coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (Zhang et al., 2020; Zu et al., 2020; Bai et al., 2020; Dong et al., 2020). Despite having its origins in Wuhan, this disease has quickly spread and is currently the number one global public health headache of all countries, including the United States of America. The enormity of the outbreak and its risk to the United States has been demonstrated by the action of the government to evacuate its citizens from China and suspend all flights from the affected country. In a single day alone on February 13, China reported 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 and 242 deaths in Hubei provinve (The Lancet, 2020). But as at February 17, 2020 there were already a whopping 70,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Dong et al., 2020).Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

The outbreak of COVID-19 was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan. It is suspected that the virus that causes it resides in bats, and were initially transmitted to the human host through pangolin and related wild animals. This has been widely understood to have occurred at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China (Zu et al., 2020). The disease is however now spreading through human-to-human contact by droplets.

Epidemiology of COVID-19

It has been established that the median incubation time of COVID-19 is three days. Transmission of the virus typically occurs from infected symptomatic hosts by droplets However, there is suspicion of potential transmission from infected but asymptomatic persons. To date, the best global control strategy has been early detection of the pandemic and symptomatic treatment. This is followed by several days of quarantine which run up and above two weeks. The aim in all this is to control the human-to-human transmission of the disease. The latest statistics indicate that as at February 19, 2020 China had 74,280 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Outside China and spread across 24 countries were 924 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 (Zu et al., 2020).Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

The clinical presentation of COVID-19 is nonspecific and may mimic other conditions. Commonly seen symptoms include a cough, fatigue, and fever. At the beginning, there may be diarrhea and a feeling of nausea. Also, for some patients there may be blood-stained sputum and a headache. Once the disease has developed, there is a quick progression to organ failure. This is typically heralded by kidney failure and heart failure (Zu et al., 2020).

Impact on the Organization  

COVID-19 is currently a global health emergency threatening international travel, trade, and tourism. As with all other countries, the United States is taking all the necessary measures to protect its citizens from this global pandemic. To do this effectively, all healthcare organizations must be aware of and ready to tackle any case of COVID-19 that may present in the country. This is how this disease affects my organization as a health issue of public concern. The organization has to be prepared by setting aside funds for protective gear, an isolation wing, face masks, and so on.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

Two Articles

Bai et al. (2020) have looked at the possibility that human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 may occur from tge asymptomatic host. They opine that since the confirmation of the disease up to now (in less than three months), persons with the virus but with a normal chest computed tomography (CT) scan have not been shown to be infectious. Zu et al. (2020) on their part contend that radiologic examination is crucial in the early diagnosis of COVID-19. This is especially attributable to the pneumonia with which the disease presents. They also opine that chest CT scan can be effectively used to control the disease and prevent it. This is possible because the chest CT identifies disease as an early lung infection after which immediate large-scale public health surveillance can be instituted.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

Nationally and worldwide, other healthcare organizations are also dealing with this public health issue through screening of all inbound persons, isolating symptomatic cases, and putting those that are asymptomatic but suspected of contact in quarantine. In China itself, entire cities have been put on lockdown, with over 760 million people impacted (The Lancet, 2020).Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

Strategies for Addressing Organizational Impact

The strategies that are employed to address the organizational impact of this public health issue are globally uniform (The Lancet, 2020). They include:

• Screening of all travellers into the country who might have been in contact with victims of COVID-19.
• Isolating all cases that show active symptoms coupled with a history of contact with a possible victim.
• Putting on quarantine all those patients who have travelled from places that are known to have confirmed cases of COVID-19.
• Health education on the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 to all patients and how to prevent oneself from contracting the disease (for instance, through proper hand washing and wearing a face mask).

These measures affect my organization positively in that it is forced to practice emergency preparedness for health emergencies of a global nature. This is a good thing. However, this diverts financial resources that could have been useful elsewhere. This the negative side.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

 

 

Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.

 

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.
• 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 (3-4 Pages):

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Develop a 3- to 4-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:Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.

• 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. Be specific and provide examples.

 

Nursing Shortage as a National Healthcare Stressor.