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Nursing Shortage
Tawada English, Tamara Hall, Erica Lark, Ashlee Plaster, Jason Sledge
Liberty University
BUS 646-D-02
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Statement of Topic
Nursing shortages lead to errors, higher morbidity, and mortality rates. In hospitals with high
patient to nurse ratios, nurses experience burnout, dissatisfaction, and low morale. In this paper
the pursuit of education, loss to advanced degrees, reducing turnover, impact of wages, the
demand for RN’s, the effect on Nurses during a global pandemic COVID-19, work overload, cost
savings within a hospital, and strategies to improve nursing shortages will be researched and
discussed.
I. There are multiple reasons that are attributed to the nursing shortage, one documented
reason for the nursing shortage is the pursuit of advanced degrees.
a. Nurses are pursuing higher education in order to teach or obtain different roles
within the healthcare profession, taking them away from the bedside.
b. There is a twofold issue with lack of faculty and the pursuit of education in order
to teach future nurses.
1. There are a limited number of students admitted to baccalaureate and
graduate programs due to lack of faculty staff (McIntosh & Thomas,
2018).
2. The lack of admissions creates the problem of producing nurses due to
decreased available faculty and those that are admitted into programs are
pulled away from the bedside.
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c. Nurse practitioners (NPs) and Physician’s Assistants (PAs) have contributed to the
healthcare workforce since 1967 (Craig et al., 2017).
1. The reason for this increase is a result of physician shortage, contributing
to the worsening nursing shortage.
2. NPs and PAs will be expected to fill voids left by the shortage of
physicians, making them responsible as primary care providers to a
growing, aging population within the United States (US) (Craig et al.,
2018).
II. Human resource impact wages of nurse shortages
a. Nurse wages play a significant part with labor force. When there are good wages
it is critical interventions that will improve the work environment.
1. Salary and income can be improved from hiring additional staff with
longevity.
2. Nurses play a critical role in health care but the impact of wages with
nursing is viable to the labor workforce.
a. Human resource are critical for nursing and the processing of the
application and pay.
b. Nursing wages have an impact on patient care within the healthcare industry.
1. Wage are imperative for government officials to negotiate and
communicate for procedures and practice for nurses.
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2. The Lord wants one to rely on him when facing adversities such as
nurse shortage.( Psalm 18:2 ,ESV ) says, “the Lord is my rock and my
fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my
shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold”.
c. Nurse shortage reducing turnover
1. Staff turnover are increasing due to from world- wide motivation and
enticement causing an influx in hiring cost.
a. Refining hiring strategies and maximizing on shortages allow
incentives to work.
b. Strategies consist of performance-based reward systems, long-
term career prospects.
d. Impact wages with Nursing
1. Wages for home health are governed by federal legislation
2. It is important that health care organization implement strategies to
contribute to wages with nursing.
III. The effect from the Pandemic of Nurses (5 Page)
a. Nurses have stressors that are forcing them out of the profession
1. 43% of inpatient nurses experience a high degree of emotional
stress and exhaustion (Gelinas, 2019).
2. Nurses find the job rewarding, but many are leaving within 3 years of
clinical practice (Snavely, 2016).
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3. Nurses who work 12-hour shifts or more are more likely to experience
burnout (Dall’Ora, Griffiths, Ball, Simon, Aiken, 2015)
a. Extended hours can cause health issues in nurses
(Rhéaume & Mullen,2018).
b. COVID-19 has added more stress to nurses
1. The pandemic has caused nurses to provide more end of life care
(Maben & Bridges, 2020).
2. There is a lack of PPE and testing for nurses causing more anxiety
(Maben & Bridges).
3. Nurses are experiencing fear, anger, and frustration as they deal with
the new normal (Maben & Bridges).
c. Nurses must find ways to deal with stress
1. “Approaches and interventions to address emotional strain are needed
and should be readily available to nurses and nursing students in
all settings” (Sitzman, 2017, p. 66).
IV. As Population live longer RN demand continue to rise (5 Pages)
a. As countries experience a rise in a residence there is a need for prolong health
care. Healthcare systems are strained due to nursing staff.
b. Universal unavailability in healthcare causes requirement for service.
c Nursing population are reduced from being drag to multiple areas at the same.
time .Nurse/ patient interaction are adversely obstructed due to length of appointment
slots.
V. Existing RNs work significant number of hours (5 Pages)
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a. Increase work hours for nurse causes extreme hardship.
b. There is limited research on the impact of long shifts on nurses.
c. The effect of burnout, working conditions and demographics.
d. Nurses morale and quality healthcare.
e. Nurses are knowledgeable in the importance of health-promoting activities such
as healthy eating, physical activity, stress management, sleep hygiene, and
maintaining healthy relationships
VI. Increased Usage of Nursing Assistants MA instead of RN for cost savings (5 Pages)
a. Nursing assistants (NAs) make up a sizeable portion of the healthcare provider
workforce and their numbers are projected and anticipated to grow.
b. Hospitals cope with financial insecurities due to shortage in staffing which
diminishes productivity and effectiveness.
c. Community-based health services offer numerous benefits and advantages for
saving in costs.
d. Interventions are effective to reduce turnover rates in health care organizations.
VIII. Conclusion (1 page)
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