Week 1 _ Discussion _NURS 3100 _ Issues/Trends in Nursing

Instructions:

Read and respond to two (2) of your colleagues’ postings. Consider providing a supporting statement about each colleagues’ response. Or consider asking a clarifying question about each colleagues’ vision.

**minimum of two (2) scholarly references are required for each reply cited within the body of the reply & at the end**

Reply # 1

Laya Peterson

The world of nursing is a world wind of emotions from one of your happiest moments to one of the toughest days of your life.  Those who have chosen to be a nurse understand why WHO designated the year 2020 as the year of the Nurse and Midwife (McEnroe,2020). We have all carried Florence Nightingales lamp and lit the way of her dream. Amidst all hopes and dreams there is always challenges that cross our path along the way. As a nurse we are the patient's shoulder to lean on and sometimes that weight gets too heavy. Compassion fatigue is very real in the world of nursing. We carry everything from medicine review, vitals sign assessment, lab review, health assessment, pain assessment and the list can go on and on. In order to aide with the decline of compassion fatigue, I believe as a nurse leader it is important to recognize the symptoms among staff and also offer mental and load breaks.

As a nurse leader it is important to recognize symptoms of compassion fatigue. Educate yourself on what it resembles. According to (What Is Compassion Fatigue in Nursing and How Can It Be Prevented? | Norwich Pro, n.d.), compassion fatigue can look like mood swings, feelings of detachment, depression, anxiety, trouble being productive, insomnia, physical and psychological exhaustion and feeling of helplessness/hopelessness. I am sure all of us have felt this way before, but we can help uplift each other by recognizing the symptoms in order to begin to help with the load.

Once we recognize symptoms, I believe the next step as a nurse leader would be to help with mental load by possibly reassigning patients. If we can pinpoint one nurse that possibly had a weary patient for several days, it is possible to just “give her a break” from that patient. This will help physically and mentally as she would receive a fresh assignment. If this is not possible, I would then suggest the nurse to take a break to regroup and reset. In order to empower one nurse, we may have to take on the responsibility of that nurse. In the nursing profession we all are one and without each other we would not be able to give the patients adequate care. To make a good leader we have to take care of our own.

References

What Is Compassion Fatigue in Nursing and How Can It Be Prevented? | Norwich Pro. (n.d.). Retrieved from pro.norwich.edu. (n.d.). What Is Compassion Fatigue in Nursing and How Can It Be Prevented? | Norwich Pro. [online] Available at: https://pro.norwich.edu/academic-programs/resources/compassion-fatigue-in-nursing.

McEnroe, N. (2020). Celebrating Florence Nightingale’s bicentenary. LancetLinks to an external site., 395(10235), 1475–1478. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30992-2

Reply # 2

Inas Luka

Short staffing is one of the issues facing nursing and healthcare in general, as Buerhaus (2021) mentioned. One factor causing that shortage is the retiring of many baby boomers. Buerhaus estimated that about two million registered nurses will retire between 2020 and 2030. According to the BLS (2022) report, the need for registered nurses is expected to increase by six percent from 2021 to 2031. Other factors contributing to short staffing include the unsuitable working environment and the need for more staffing flexibility (Buerhaus, 2021).

While staffing depends on many factors, such as the number of patients admitted to the hospital and the skills of the healthcare team, appropriate nursing staffing is found to be related to reducing both the length of patients' stay in the hospital as well as the unavoidable incidents that may happen during their stay. One study revealed that increasing nurses' workload by only one more patient due to insufficient staffing may increase the risk of patients dying within the first 30 days after admission to the hospital. The nursing shortage and insufficient staffing became even more apparent during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses were required to work long shifts in unsafe environments without the necessary protective equipment and with increased patient acuity that may need more care (Bourgault, 2022).

Despite the importance of nurses to the healthcare system, they do not get the same acknowledgment physicians get. In order to resolve the nursing staffing issues, we need to empower our nurses, provide them with equal recognition as physicians, and allow them to practice the full scope of their education (ANA, n.d.). Allowing nurses professional development time is worth it and should not be considered nonproductive (Bourgault, 2022).

In addition, appropriate nursing staffing should be managed flexibly with a commitment to patient safety and offer the nurses a reasonable working environment with proper funding for sufficient positions. Nurses' critical decisions contribute to providing appropriate healthcare to patients, and providing excellent healthcare costs money. On the contrary, inadequate staffing may cost patients' lives. Moreover, to graduate more nurses to replace the retiring workforce, we may need to hire, train and retain nursing faculty. The deficiency of qualified faculty may contribute to rejecting applicants to nursing programs (AACN, 2022). Both hiring and development of faculty need appropriate budgeting.

In conclusion, short staffing due to a retiring workforce, unsafe working environment, and a lack of recognition face nursing. Suggestions to resolve the issue are appropriate budgeting, a flexible staffing model, and hiring qualified faculty in nursing schools to graduate more nurses.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2022). Fact sheet: Nursing faculty shortage.  https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/ Links to an external site.  News/Factsheets/ Faculty-Shortage-Factsheet.pdf

American Nurses Association. (n.d.). Nurse staffing. policy/nurse-staffing/"https://www.nursing world.org/practice-policy/nurse-staffing/ nurse-staffing-crisis/

Bourgault, A. M. (2022). The nursing shortage and work expectations are in critical condition: Is anyone listening? Critical Care Nurse, 42(2), 8–11.  https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2022909 Links to an external site.

Buerhaus, P. I. (2021). Current nursing shortages could have long-lasting consequences: Time to change our present course. Nursing Economic$, 39(5), 247–250.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022, September 8). Registered nurses: Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm