Reflection on Learning April 7

5

Local Practice Problem Exploration

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Local Practice Problem Exploration Related to Cancer Patients

Nursing Staff shortage in cancer care facilities is one of the problems that affect many local healthcare organizations in Florida. It alludes to an inadequate number of workers in cancer medical facilities that cannot serve the patient population. As a result, the few nursing staff members cannot adequately perform the healthcare tasks. The shortages are caused by the increased need for healthcare that has been caused by an increased number of elderly populations as well as the newly diagnosed patients with different types pf cancer who need constant medical attention (Griffith et al., 2021). Subsequently, the ACA has made medical services more affordable; hence more people visit healthcare facilities to seek treatment for different multimorbidities. Nurses are the ones affected most by the practice problem of cancer as well as physicians because there is a general shortage of nursing skilled personal to work on oncological units. Since 2014, cancer has been the second prominent reason of death in the state of Florida, after heart disease ( which is still the first cause) . In the three year period from 2016-2018, the total amount of cancer deaths was exactly 132,614. There’s an average of 115,000 new cancers diagnosed and reported almost every year to the statewide cancer registry (Florida Cancer Control & Research Advisory Council, 2020)

Impacts of the Problems

The problem impacts nurses by increasing their workloads. The nurses have to care for many oncological patients, leading to extreme exhaustion and burnout. The number of patients that each nurse is required to care for has increased drastically, causing an imbalance in the nurse-to-patient ratios in the medical units (Winter et al., 2021). The problem has also affected nursing care. The process of caring for many patients simultaneously has reduced the quality of nursing care provided to ailing individuals. The staff shortages also affect healthcare organizations. It causes a decline in its efficiency in providing care to the patient population. Further, staff shortages in oncological units also affect the quality of care offered in a healthcare organization (Griffith et al., 2021). The care standards diminish because the patients have to wait for a longer duration before they are served. As a result, they are discontented with the services that they receive. Another significant problem is that there is a safety issue for oncological nurses who are unnecessarily exposed more than the safe time to patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation. The shortages of nurses has made that nurses have to take care of more workload of patients receiving radiation therapy and making them to be exposed to radiation for longer periods than the recommended time (Florida Cancer Control & Research Advisory Council, 2020).

Key Stakeholders Related to Practice Problem

The key stakeholders who are affected by the problem of staff shortages in healthcare organizations include patients and nurses equally. Patients are the primary beneficiaries of the services provided in medical facilities; therefore, staff shortages impact them directly, other nurses who work in the health care are affected as well due to the increased workload (Griffith et al., 2021). The government is also a fundamental stakeholder in the issue related to staff shortages. It is tasked with ensuring that the citizens have access to adequate health. Therefore, the staff shortage impedes the government's goal of providing sufficient healthcare to the masses. The employees in the organization, including the nurses, doctors, nursing assistants, are also stakeholders in the staff shortage issue (Winter et al., 2021). They are directly affected when there are limited staff members in the healthcare organization because, in such circumstances, their workloads increase.

Approach for Resolving the Issue

The approach used to resolve the staff shortage in the local facility is seeking additional funding and the creation of more nursing programs and incentive programs to recruit nurses who wants to specialize in oncology, which will enable the facility to recruit extra workers in the organizations. The new employees will reduce the workload that each employee is expected to handle, increasing their efficiency and working pace (Oleribe et al., 2019). The strategy also helps in improving the quality of care that patients receive. The healthcare organization seeks funding from government and non-governmental agencies.

The strategy effectively resolves the issue because it increases the financial resources that the healthcare facility has in its possession. As a result, it can afford to hire more staff members to work in the institutions (Oleribe et al., 2019). Additionally, the facility can acquire individuals with the expertise needed to meet patients' varying needs and deliver holistic care that elicits positive outcomes. If the problem is not addressed in the healthcare institution, the local community will be required to train more individuals in healthcare-related work to increase the number of available individuals to fill the positions.

The primary risk factors in my local area for cancer are: not following a healthy diet , smoking , lack of exercise and not getting regular physical activity, family history , and exposure to certain chemicals due to working in factories or other manufacturing companies that expose the patient to these substances (Florida Cancer Control & Research Advisory Council, 2020).

Disparities present in this population are that certain groups continue to be at increased risk of developing or dying from particular cancers for example Blacks/African Americans have higher death rates than all other racial/ethnic groups to cancer types ( except for skin cancer and melanoma). African American women are more likely than Caucasian white women of dying from breast cancer. African-American men are two times as likely as White men to die of prostate cancer. Hispanic/Latino population as well as Black/African-American women have greater rates of cervical cancer than females of other racial/ethnic groups (Florida Cancer Control & Research Advisory Council, 2020).

Conclusion

A shortage of skilled personnel is a crucial issue with which many local organizations in contemporary society are grappling. The insufficient staff volumes negatively impact nurses and the nursing process, the quality of care that is disseminated, and the healthcare organizations. It is also affecting other stakeholders, including the patients , the nurses and the government. Therefore, it is necessary to find practical solutions to the problem, such as increasing the funding available to hire more skilled nurses.

References

Florida Cancer Control & Research Advisory Council. (2020). Florida Cancer Plan 2020-2025. Retrieved from https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Publications/Cancer/ccc/florida_ccc_plan-508.pdf

Griffiths, P., Saville, C., Ball, J. E., Jones, J., Monks, T., & Safer Nursing Care Tool study team. (2021). Beyond ratios-flexible and resilient nurse staffing options to deliver cost-effective hospital care and address staff shortages: a simulation and economic modelling study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 103901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103901

Oleribe, O. O., Momoh, J., Uzochukwu, B. S., Mbofana, F., Adebiyi, A., Barbera, T., ... & Taylor-Robinson, S. D. (2019). Identifying key challenges facing healthcare systems in Africa and potential solutions. International journal of general medicine, 12, 395. https://dx.doi.org/10.2147%2FIJGM.S223882

Winter, V., Schreyögg, J., & Thiel, A. (2020). Hospital staff shortages: Environmental and organizational determinants and implications for patient satisfaction. Health Policy, 124(4), 380-388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.01.001