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Healthcare professionals are faced with stressors daily, ranging from role clarity, time pressures, and workload. Each of these can lead to physical and psychological symptoms. In this discussion, a national healthcare issue/stressor will be discussed, and an explanation of how the issue may impact one's work setting. A descriptive explanation of how the issue was addressed will also be provided, along with what changes were made in the current setting.

Healthcare issue on Nursing shortage and turnover

In a perfect nursing world, a nurse leader will make an assignment using the agreed staff-patient ratio matrix based on the acuity of the patients. This can be a major challenge when the health care facility is facing a nursing shortage and unfortunately, it is not unusual for a health care institution to come across the nursing shortage. Currently, the US is experiencing a critical nursing shortage which is anticipated to intensify; the shortage of registered nurses is estimated to be 340,000 by the year 2020 (Grohar-Murray, & Langan, 2011). It is always a struggle to find coverage in our daily nursing life.

The demand for professional nurses increases every day with supply not nearly enough to match the need. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections have projected that nursing will exceed other professions in job growth for the period of 2014 to 2024 (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2017). As it is well known that the nursing shortage is not a strange topic in our work areas, there should be a high alarm for addressing this national wide health care problem. Several factors contribute to the nursing shortage in health care facilities and turnover is one of them.

Increased nursing turnover rates and nursing shortages are prominent issues in health care (Wei, Roberts, Strickler, & Corbett, 2019). Turnover refers to how long an employee keeps the job before leaving it for another. It is estimated between 35 and 69 percent of the newly hired nurses leave their jobs with the first year of employment (Grohar-Murray, & Langan, 2011). In order to address the nursing turnover issue, it is imperative to understand the reason behind workplace turnovers (Colwell, 2019).

The impact of the nursing shortage in the health care facility

Nurses are expected to provide the best care possible to the patients and this relies heavily on the nurses’ job satisfaction. Nursing shortage decreases nursing satisfaction rates, hinders the process of patient care delivery, and can contribute to poor patient outcomes. Insufficient staffing raises the stress level of nurses, impacting job satisfaction, and causes many nurses to leave the profession (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2017). Nursing surveillance is limited when they have a heavy workload, limiting patient-centered care, and increasing risks for mistakes ("Nursing Shortage Impact," 2018). And the nursing turnover causes a toll on organization revenue.

Weiss memorial hospital response to the nursing shortage issue

The hospital has the matrix of nurse-patient ratio preassigned for each unit based on the patient acuity and time of the day. The House supervisor oversees the assignments for each shift in the entire hospital. Based on the hospital patient census, there might be an additional need for staffing or extra staff that can be called off. Most of the time, there is a need for staffing due to unpredicted demands such as patients needing 1:1 care or increased census. The hospital has prepared for the nursing shortage issue by regularly recruiting new graduate nurses from the surrounding colleges.

With each unit staffed based on their matrix demand, the hospital also allowed another group of staff to be as float pool to help cover any unit that is running short-staff at any specific time. Float pool nurses are not preassigned to any unit, they have usually notified their assignments within the last few minutes of the beginning of their shifts. To reward these nurses, they get an additional dollar amount to their pay for their flexibility.

Another hospital strategy for the nursing shortage is the use of staffing agencies. This tends to be a temporary fix while waiting for new hires due to the nature, cost, and complexity of the service. In an effort to battle the national wide healthcare issue of the nursing shortage, some States have launched campaigns such as student loan forgiveness programs and develop strategies to educate, recruit, and retain nurses’ programs (Grohar-Murray, & Langan, 2011). The AACN is working with States to shape legislation and strategies to address the nursing shortage issue (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2017).

If you could change one thing about our healthcare system, what would you change and why?

All areas of healthcare face shortage, because this is crucial in the healthcare setting, I will acknowledge the warning signs and makes changes to safeguard mental health. Also, I will provide better training and education to help create more opportunities for those individuals already in the existing pool of RNs seeking better growth in their field. This professional development can create a sense of loyalty, which can go a long way in tackling the problem of high turnover of nurses in hospitals. Another strategy would be to expand beyond conventional target groups and seek out people from underrepresented backgrounds. Apart from alleviating the shortage, this approach will help create diversity within the profession. Finally, I will simply be paying more, and offering bonuses to those individuals who sign on to become nurses can go a long way in rectifying the problem.

Conclusion

The nursing shortage is one of the most serious problems facing healthcare national wide and it can impair patient outcomes. Various evidence-based studies show a correlation between adequate levels of registered nurse staffing and safe patient care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2017). Due to the increased number of elder adults in the US, there is always a greater need for more nurses to care for patients and the elderly population. Besides the unfilled nursing positions, there have been reports of high turnover rates among the newly hired nurses (Grohar-Murray, & Langan, 2011). In 2017, hospital turnover rates ranged from 4.5% to 30.7% with a mean of 18.2%, the highest since 2013 (Wei, Roberts, Strickler, & Corbett, 2019). It is critical to continue to search for better means of addressing the nursing shortage issue locally and nationwide.

References

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Grohar-Murray, M. E., & Langan, J. C. (2011). Leadership and management in nursing. Boston:

Pearson.