Part 2

The covid-19 pandemic is presenting a great issue to the provision of quality healthcare services to the patients. The process of dealing with the covid-19 pandemic requires well- being of the nurses both physically and mentally. The mental and physical issues caused by the nursing shortages affects the delivery of quality healthcare services and improvement in the safety of the patients during this pandemic. The shortages of numbers increase the possibilities of medication errors and this tampers with the quality healthcare services delivered to the patients. It increases the risks of infections for both nurses and patients thus extending the chain of covid-19 transmission.   Nursing shortages in the covid pandemic The identified clinical issue is on how nursing shortages during this covid pandemic is putting nurses and patient at risk within the healthcare facilities. Nursing shortages are described as a situation whereby the demand for the nursing professionals like the registered nurses is exceeding the supply either locally, nationally, or globally. COVID-19 has affected millions of individuals in the entire world and this has overwhelmed the healthcare systems of the nations. It has also affected healthcare providers like the nurses who are considered to be on the frontline in helping to protect the lives of every individual who is affected. Nursing shortages are amongst the issue that affects the performance of the nurses in the facilities. Due to the rise in the number of patients who are visiting the facilities for chronic illness, both nurses and patients are highly exposed to the risk of covid infections (Arabi et al., 2020). The need for change

The risk of nurses to covid infection is associated with the shortages in nurses. The shortages of nurses imply that they are working under a high level of pressure and this is affecting the mechanisms of dealing with COVID-19. The severity of nurse shortages affects the process of handling emergencies and disasters. Many healthcare facilities were not prepared for this pandemic hence are considered to be less resilient. The shortage of nurses is considered to be a lower level of resilience and this affects the sustainability of the healthcare services as well as the well-being and health of the nurses. When nurses are working under pressure, it is becoming hard to follow the strict guidelines and adhere to the protocol that is set to help in handling the patients (Arabi et al., 2020). Nursing shortages not only affects the physical well- being of the nurses but also their mental health. This exposes patients to an increased rate of errors such as exposure to nosocomial infections like COVID-19-associated hospital infections. These infections are then passed from one patient to the other and then to the families. The infection is also passed from one nurse to another nurses. This problem makes it impossible to break the chain of COVID-19 infections (Arabi et al., 2020). The best practice to the issues Several solutions can help in dealing with the issue of nurse shortages during this covid pandemic. According to Legido-Quiley et al (2020), it is important to recall the retired nurses who are experienced in handling emergencies and pandemics. In this case, the retired or the staff nurses who are well equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes are called upon to help in the provision of holistic care for the patients who are infected with covid-19. This solution is

important since it ensures that the healthcare facilities increase their abilities to receive more patients (Legido- Quigley, et al., 2020). Another solution is for the financial department along with the CFO to work together and find a good enough pandemic salary to offer current employees and new ones in order to keep them from seeking employment elsewhere. Also, calling volunteers like the nursing interns and student nurses who are in the final semester of nursing school and ready to have an experience of working in a clinical setting is also a good idea. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that nurses are having clear plans for the management and supervision of the volunteers when identifying their roles and tasks that are supposed to be accomplished. The nursing experts must be brought on board to help in dealing with emergencies and dangerous situations. These nurse experts can help in outlining the potential risks from the pandemic and help in the creation of the long-term plan that is important in the modification of the risks (Thobaity et al., 2019).  References Arabi, Y. M., Murthy, S., & Webb, S. (2020). COVID-19: a novel coronavirus and a novel challenge for critical care. Intensive Care Med., 46(5), 833-836. doi:10.1007/ s00134-020-05955-1 Legido-Quigley, H., Mateos-Garcia, J. T., Campos, V. R., Ge- Sanchez, M., Muntaner, C., & McKee, M. (2020). The resilience of the Spanish health system against the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e251-ee252. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30060-8 Thobaity, A. A., Alamri, S., Plummer, V., & Williams, B. (2019). Exploring the necessary disaster plan components in Saudi

Arabian hospitals. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 41, 101316. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.ijdrr.2019.101316