captone project

M1D2 Capstone Project: Topics of Interest (Week 2)

Leadership and Nursing

The healthcare system and facilities are facing numerous challenges that need the intervention and collaboration of different stakeholders. They face the challenges of nurse shortage and burnouts. The nurse shortage problem includes having less number of staff (nursing) than the available workload. Nurse shortage may be caused by several factors, including an aging population that retires an aging workforce, and limited recruitment and supply of nurses. On the other hand, nurse burnouts involve consistent mental, emotional as well as the physical state where nurses experience chronic overwork as well as dissatisfaction from the job (lack of support and work fulfillment) (JM et al., 2020). These nursing problems create a challenge where nurse leaders cannot dedicate their effort toward patient-centric services and practices. As nurse leaders try to transform the healthcare environment with an emphasis on a patient-centric focus,

There are two ways in which nurse leaders can influence, bridge the dichotomy between nursing and medicine, as well as effect change that can help implement patient-centered approaches. First, undertaking an interdisciplinary team consultation can help promote patient-centered approaches (Gusmano et al. 2019). Notably, it will bring all healthcare stakeholders on board as a way of solving issues that may become barriers to patient-centered care. For example, it helps solve the issue of staff non-commitment to the course of providing the care. Similarly, nursing leaders can increase the recruitment of nurses and other medical professionals. Notably, one of the barriers to patient-centric healthcare provision is the lack of enough medical professionals to cater to patients (Hochman, 2017). If nurse leaders recruit adequate nurses and medical professionals, they would add to the staff ready to provide patient-focused service. These two strategies will help bridge the dichotomy between nursing and medicine as a patient-centric approach is more of a nursing function than the disease-centered approach that emphasizes on medicine provision.

References

Gusmano, M. K., Maschke, K. J., & Solomon, M. Z. (2019). Patient-centered care, yes; patients as consumers, no. Health Affairs, 38(3), 368-373.

Hochman, O. (2017). Patient-centered care in healthcare and its implementation in nursing. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 10(1), 596.

JM, B. C., Hatfield, L., Brom, H., Houton, M., Kelly-Hellyer, E., Schlak, A., & Aiken, L. H. (2020). System-Level Improvements in Work Environments Lead to Lower Nurse Burnout and Higher Patient Satisfaction. Journal of Nursing Care Quality.