Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership
Tamika response National Healthcare Issue- Staffing in Nursing
One of the competing needs that we face today is a shortage of nursing staff. With that, is make the healthcare organization have to spend more money to recruit agency staff in order to feel in the gaps.
As for me, I work in acute care dialysis and the manager is informing that the staff are not meeting productivity with the demand that the patient population are having. Even though it looks as things are running smooth, it’s never really touched on how things are running. With the demand, patient treatments are being cut by an hour in order to make sure each patient is receiving treatment. So, for example, patients are given 3-hour treatments instead of 4 hours. That means patient are not getting as good of a cleaning.
This is not what the organization wants to do, and it’s not ethical, but the goal is to make sure the patients are given the best treatment and care possible (ANA, 2015). We have to make sure we put our patients on the machine in a timely manner. We are given thirty minutes once the patient comes to the unit to get them hooked up, on the machine and running. With this, it can contribute to poor patient’s dialysis treatment, burnout and turnover.
Another thing is when mentioning the competing needs in healthcare, nurses are working long shift, not getting out of work on time, when they have other obligations they are committed to. According to the AACN is leveraging its resources to shape legislation, identify strategies, and form collaborations to address the shortage (AANC, n.d). Unfortunately, job satisfaction plays a heavy role in a nurses’ decision to leave the workforce or cut back on hours. Even though organizations continue to hire nurses, there is only a few at a time to keep spending down.
Competing Needs vs. Development of Policies in Addressing Issue
The presence of conflicting demands or competing needs in an organization may lead to policy change or the development of a new policy’s. With the change in policy, it address the needs as in what’s priority towards patient care. Nurses need to voice their concern and issues related to working understaffed. As I stated before, nurses are not leaving on time, however you can’t make a nurse stay over, because of the lack of staffing. That’s where calling in your agency staff comes into place in order to relieve your staff. With policy guides in place it allows for workers to practice under safe and fair setting (Rivers & Glovers, 2008).
Conclusion
As I conclude, policies and procedures set boundaries or guidance in practice especially when it comes to competing needs of our patients. In this case, it’s all about practicing in a safe and happy environment. As things change, and thing arise it does require that the managers collect data and make the necessary changes.
References
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Silver Spring, MD: Author. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only Note: Review all, with special attention to “Provision 6” (pp. 23–26).
News & information. American Association of Colleges of Nursing: The Voice of Academic Nursing. (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.aacnnursing.org/news-information/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage
Rivers, P. A., & Glover, S. H. (2008). Health care competition, strategic mission, and patient satisfaction: research model and propositions. Journal of health organization and management, 22(6), 627–641
Jonathan response
COVID-19 had a huge impact in so many different ways, mostly negative. Whether that be through health or economical, its impact was felt in many different ways. The pandemic affected healthcare in more ways than people thought, and one of those impacts includes a drug shortage. Lack of resources are nothing new to healthcare, not enough working computers, not enough staff to work a certain day, or even lack of break times to ensure high quality level of care; those are all different needs that nurses face on a daily basis. One of the more unique ways that COVID impacted healthcare that nurses haven’t really had to worry about is a drug shortage.
COVID-19 was a fast and infectious disease that spread throughout the world like wildfire. Rightfully so, there was a strong emphasis on pharmaceutical companies to develop a vaccine. Not only were companies competing against time to produce a vaccine because of the increase in death rates, but they were also competing against each other because they knew that whoever were the first companies to develop a vaccine, it would result in economic benefits. This was a need and companies were putting majority, if not all, of their resources into developing a vaccine, but now that we have developed the vaccine, there is a shortage of other drugs, most notably narcotics such as dilaudid and others (Badreldin & Atallah, 2021). When the vaccine was made, by the time everything was starting to normalize, healthcare centers were starting to realize there was a shortage of drugs. Pharmaceutical companies were devoting their resources on the vaccine so by the time the demand started catching up with the supply, that is when the shortage started. As a nursing leader, one of your jobs is to make sure your staff has all the available resources they need in order to do their job, but having a drug shortage is a problem that goes beyond just the surface level. By not having enough drugs, specifically pain medications, you are putting patients at risk. Pain can cause physiological alterations such as increased heart rate, blood pressure, and even temperature (Chen, et al., 2021). The drugs that one may have may not work for certain patients and that is why there are so many different types of pain medication because everyone's bodies are different and respond differently.
One of the more pressing needs of a shortage of pharmaceutical drugs, other than from the patient's side, but from a nursing leadership standpoint, it can drive up the cost of drugs (Alijadeed, et al., 2021). The supply and demand of the drugs can be distorted because hospitals and even other outpatient centers are competing with each other to make sure they are able to get enough drugs. The pandemic was something that no one could’ve predicted, in which case, there needs to be a policy in place for when, hopefully not, another pandemic arrives or if we are ever put in this same situation again. There needs to be a policy that pharmaceutical companies are devoted to the pandemic, but at the same time, either by hiring temporary workers to continue to develop their normal amount of pain medications or allowing other companies to start developing pain medications. A shared knowledge of how to make these medications is needed in a time of crisis. Similar to how companies that didn’t normally make ventilators, but started making them during the pandemic, that is something that politicians and lawmakers should consider. We are still experiencing the fallback from COVID-19, but I believe whenever we are able to move past it, we should learn from the experience and have policies and laws in place to prevent issues like these from coming up again.
References
Chen, J., Kandle, P. F., Murray, I., Fitzgerald, L. A., & Sehdev, J. S. (2021, July 26). Physiology, pain - statpearls - NCBI bookshelf. NIH. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539789/
Aljadeed, R., AlRuthia, Y., Balkhi, B., Sales, I., Alwhaibi, M., Almohammed, O., Alotaibi, A. J., Alrumaih, A. M., & Asiri, Y. (2021, March 7). The impact of covid-19 on essential medicines and personal protective equipment availability and prices in Saudi Arabia. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland). Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001971/
Socal, M. P., Sharfstein, J. M., & Greene, J. A. (2021, April). The pandemic and the supply chain: Gaps in pharmaceutical production and distribution. American journal of public health. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7958046/
Badreldin, H. A., & Atallah, B. (2021, January). Global drug shortages due to covid-19: Impact on patient care and Mitigation Strategies. Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7235598/