Assignment: Developing Organizational Policies And Practices on Nursing Shortage

Assignment: Developing Organizational Policies And Practices on Nursing Shortage

Assignment Developing Organizational Policies And Practices on Nursing Shortage

As nurses we’re faced with ethical dilemmas daily. We must not confuse ethics and the actual laws surrounding this profession. Although ethics and the law are very similar and paths overlap, they are not the same. Ethical dilemmas occur quite frequently in the healthcare field, which makes healthcare professionals more aware of how to respond to such events. Ethical issues put all healthcare professionals in the mindset of doing what is best for the patient. A national healthcare issue that is currently on a higher trend seems to be the nursing shortage in the work field. Overwhelming patient assignments ultimately lead to disgruntled staff affecting the overall working environment. The shortage in nursing many organizations are facing seem to have multiple effects on quality improvement or indicators such as customer service scores, increased amount of workloads and a decrease in the quality of care rendered (Buerhaus, Skinner, Auerbach, & Staiger, 2017). As safety is the number one goal inpatient care, polices over time have been revamped to ensure safer working environments for the shortage of nurses ultimately reducing medication errors as well as nurse burnout. Moreover, whereas patient needs dictate that hospitals shpuld hire more nurses, the financial performances of these hospitals is also a factor. Thus, nurisng shorateg is being affected by the need to provide quality healtt care services vis-à-vis the need to maintain heallty financial performances by health care facilities. Evidence suggests that hospitals have chosen the latter need hence the existence of nursing shortage.

Policies and Practices to Address Nursing Shortage

At a leadership level, leaders must find the common balance to retain nurses by any means necessary while also understanding the demands placed on staff with unbearable patient acuities. Finding such balances demand strict policies to be put in place even if they are state-regulated. Within my organizations, we have strict policies for the different levels of care to determine the patient/nurse ratio (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017). With the higher demands of needs for the care the patient may require they are put on different units, which also sets the bar for the nurse-patient ratio. A patient at a medical-surgical level of care does not and may not require the same care as a patient at an intensive care unit. For each level, there are guidelines our hospital follows, which will tell providers, managers, and patient flow coordinators the needs of the patient and the appropriate floors. This is done to ensure the acuity levels are not too intense for that unit, especially for the nurse-patient ratio on that unit. Along with setting limits regarding the units and patient level of care, there are also patient acuity tools utilized. Patient acuity tools have been proven useful with the formulation of proper nurse to patient ratios as well dispersing workloads. The purposes for nursing tools as such “increase nurse satisfaction with their patient assignment.”

Composing policies is done at many organizations and is forever changing. With established

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Assignment Developing Organizational Policies And Practices on Nursing Shortage
Assignment Developing Organizational Policies And Practices on Nursing Shortage

policies, the healthcare field is able to have standards in place to protect staff. Furrther, by enforcing these policies, nurses are protected from things such as assuming care of patients in what may be unsafe working environments. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is the safeguard for nurses and guides the policymakers within organizations for safe conditions. According to the ANA, federal regulations have been in placed to support nursing staff for safer working environments implying that facilities have an adequate amount of staff for patient care. The goal of policies and laws as such are necessary for the ensuring safety of the patient as well as safe workloads (Ferrer et al., 2014). Currently, there are a few states with staffing laws which is remarkable because by law that nurse is protected. The main strengths of staffing laws are that they help in enhancing the number of nurses employed annually in the healthcare sector, hence reducing patient-nurse ration in addition to protecting the rights of nurses for better healthcare (Yang, Hung, & Chen, 2015). However, the main obstacle towards this policy is that some states have failed to implement staffing laws, which makes it very hard to track down the hiring frequency and the total number of nurses in that state. As a result, the quality of healthcare tends to be affected negatively. Within such states, items such as patient acuity tools are used to help with facilitating fair-shared assignments amongst staff.

Response I

Hello Ayeshia, Great post! Thank you for your insight into this discussion; very informative. The first case of Covid-19 was reported in Wuhan, China. As of April 4th, 2020, more than 1 million infected patients were reported, and the disease spread over more than 60 countries worldwide (Talaee et al., 2022). According to Huang et al. (2020), COVID-19 is an acutely fatal disease that causes millions worldwide due to progressive respiratory complications.

At the beginning of the pandemic, a lack of available treatment forced healthcare professionals to optimize only symptomatic treatments, isolate patients and provide supportive care. It was a stressful experience for many healthcare workers. The authors state that gender or age can influence the stress level at work and thus represent a risk factor; among nurses, women are more stressed than men (Couarraze et al., 2021). Covid was a pandemic that affected the whole healthcare system.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the working conditions were overwhelming; healthcare professionals experienced high work-related stress. I worked as a progressive care unit (PCU) and Intensive care unit charge nurse. This pandemic was the most challenging experience I have been through in my life. There were days that I witnessed nurses and doctors crying, frustrated because there was no chance to save the patient despite performing all the possible interventions and following all the policies. Sometimes, doctors and nurses coded patients for as long as an hour because we refused to lose the battle; calling families to notify them that we lost their 20-year-old child, husband, wife, mother, father, siblings, or loved one was hard to do.

References

Couarraze, S., Delamarre, L., Marhar, F., Quach, B., Jiao, J., Avilés Dorlhiac, R., … & Dutheil, F. (2021). The major worldwide stress of healthcare professionals during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic–the international COVISTRESS survey. PloS one16(10), e0257840.

Huang, C., Wang, Y., Li, X., Ren, L., Zhao, J., Hu, Y., … & Cao, B. (2020). Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. The lancet, 395(10223), 497-506.

Talaee, N., Varahram, M., Jamaati, H., Salimi, A., Attarchi, M., Sadr, M., … & Seyedmehdi, S. M. (2020). Stress and burnout in health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic: validation of a questionnaire. Journal of Public Health, 1-6.

Recently, I analyzed some of the challenges we face regarding the shortage of nursing staff. Nurses and healthcare organizations encounter many issues that affect their delivery of care to patients and health populations. Frameworks like the Quadruple Aim offer a host of goals for individuals to pursue to maintain and enhance healthcare. The changes and reforms in the healthcare sector mean that healthcare providers and organizations will always encounter challenges like the nurse staffing shortage amidst rising demand for care and the need to reduce costs (Broome & Marshall, 2021). This letter aims to analyze nurse staffing or personnel shortage in the healthcare sector and how organizations are navigating the issue to meet rising patient needs, reduce costs, and offer high-quality care.

Nursing shortage entails the lack of sufficient levels of staff to meet the legal requirements or ratios for effective care delivery. Different sources and organizations, including federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, estimate that the number of available nursing jobs would increase compared to all professions (ANA, 2022). The BLS attributes this rise to newly created roles, nurses leaving the profession for other areas, and those retiring due to age. The implication is that these factors will lead to the creation of over 175,000 openings for registered nurses every year until 2029 (Department of Labor, 2022). The agency opines that more openings will occur simultaneously within this period among other advanced practice roles like nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and even anesthetists.

In our organization, nurse shortage is a critical issue, as evidenced by the need for nurses to work for long hours and have few of them per shift. These working conditions mean that nurses experience stress, burnout, and fatigue and are susceptible to events like medication errors. Nurses also have to endure an increased workload that makes them experience mental exhaustion since they cannot undertake their duties effectively. Again, nurses in the organization do not get leadership support since the reporting procedure and policy for medication errors lack sufficient safeguards to protect them from litigations. For instance, two nurses left the organization last month because of these issues and the lack of effective mechanisms to solve the ever-rising shortage of personnel, especially when handling emergencies in the emergency room.

According to two professional journal articles that I read, the nursing shortage is not just a national healthcare issue but also a global one affecting the health industry in many countries, especially developing nations. However, developed nations like the United States also face increased shortages of nurses, including specialty nurses, to meet the rising care needs due to reforms in the industry. The first article by Aiken et al. (2022) explores the nursing shortage issue before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study notes that before and during the pandemic, many healthcare organizations experience nurse shortages leading to high levels of nurse burnout. The authors note the need for healthcare facilities to improve their nurse ratios to attain better outcomes and prevent chronic hospital understaffing.

The second article by Shah et al. (2021) explores the prevalence and factors leading to nursing burnout in the U.S. The authors are categorical that one of the factors causing burnout among nurses is nurse shortage, as the remaining nurses carry on the workload of others to offer patient care. The implication is that nurses leave their profession and organizations because of burnout and fatigue since they face a myriad of patients with diverse health conditions. Again, the study by Bourgault et al. (2022) emphasizes the effects of burnout associated with the current nursing shortage problem. While addressing this issue requires being data-informed and using a country or setting-unique approach, it is no doubt that nurse shortage is a serious healthcare stressor for nurses and healthcare organizations.

Organizations vary in their approach to nursing shortage based on the interventions they initiate and implement. Most organizations address the issue through innovative care models that reduce the demand for in-person interactions between nurses and patients. These include telehealth and telemedicine as evidence-based practice approaches to address the issue. The implication is that they are investing in health technologies to allow them to offer better patient care to diverse patient populations. Organizations seek better ways to retain their nurses and reduce nurse turnover through incentives like professional development opportunities and better working conditions (Spurlock Jr., 2020). They ensure that they have a satisfied nursing staff dedicated to offering quality care.

In summary, according to the two articles, addressing the issue of nurse staffing shortage requires a collaborative effort and leveraging technology as well as promoting primary care interventions to reduce demand for care in facilities. Primary health promotion ensures that individuals reduce their susceptibility and vulnerability to diverse conditions while leveraging technologies means that organizations can integrate better and innovative ways to meet care demands.

These strategies may impact the organization positively and negatively if it implements them. positively, it will mean that the organization will address shortages and improve its care delivery. It will mean that the entity can attain the Quadruple Aim goals (Drennan et al., 2019). However, it requires investment in these technologies and what they portend for diverse patients, especially in improving their outcomes and access to care services. The organization should also invest in better conditions and terms of service for its staff. These solutions include things such as subsidized funding or an increase in wages. A range of solutions needs to be offered to solve the nursing shortage in our health care organization., from subsidized funding to an increase in wages. Additionally, offering tuition for nurses seeking to advance their degrees could possibly be helpful. Resources could be allocated towards increasing wages, which would affect the recruitment and retention of registered nurses already in the facility. Another important strategy to further address the nursing shortage, is allowing our nurses, scheduling flexibility and coverage. This will help nurses to juggle their busy work schedule with their home life and provide room for decompressing between stressful and demanding shifts.

Competing Needs Impacting Nursing Staff Shortage

Competing needs in healthcare provision implore stakeholders, especially organizational managers and leaders to prioritize what they consider as essential at the expense of another component. Nursing staff shortage is a national health concern that arises due to diverse competing needs; these include the need to reduce operational costs and help facilities make profits based on financial returns and the need to invest in more personnel to improve quality of care and patient outcomes that requires additional resources (Haegdorens et al., 2019). These added resources imply that the organization spends more on expenses at the expense of making profits and investment. Therefore, the need for better profits means that these entities will not hire sufficient levels of nurses to meet the care demand because of cost-cutting measures. However, this means that nurses will not be motivated to work better and improve the quality of care offered to patients in their settings.

Competing need for nurse welfare as dictated by the Quadruple Aim framework cannot be attained as nurses have to work long hours and with increased workload to meet patient needs. Nurses work optimally when they are not strained and overloaded as these conditions make them susceptible to committing errors. These errors, considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as never events, lead to loss of revenue as facilities are never compensated or incentivized through financial resource allocation. As such, it is essential for health care entities to consider a raft of measures which will ensure that all competing needs do not affect their efforts to have recommended nurse-to-patient ratios in their facilities.

Relevant Policy or Practice to Address Nursing Staff Shortage

The organization employs different policies and practices aimed at reducing nursing staff shortage. Key among them include having a retention initiative that focuses on improving the overall professional development of nurses. Under this policy, nurses get reimbursed for their tuition once they commit themselves to the facility for at least three years. The initiative funds their training, workshop sessions, and even attending nursing conferences across the country. This policy has positive influence on mitigating the nursing staff shortage as nurses feel that the organization is keen on enhancing their professional growth and development, especially through the acquisition of new knowledge and research evidence (Haegdorens et al., 2019). Through the approach, nurses get to learn about new practices that they can implement to improve patient care delivery.

A core practice in the organization that encourages nurse retention is participative leadership model as adopted by nurse leaders and managers. Through this practice, leaders and managers in the organization engage nurses to solicit their views on changes and other structural issues that the organization wishes to implement to improve overall working conditions that translate to better care delivery and patient satisfaction.

Critiquing the Policy for Ethical Considerations & Policy’s Strengths and Challenges to Promote Ethics

The policy and practice in the organization are essential and help promote the welfare of nurses. However, from an ethical perspective, the policy does not consider nurses’ safety levels as it fails to address the high nurse turnover. The policy also ties one since evaluation of who qualifies to benefit from the reimbursement entails an elaborate process and need for one to commit at least three years in the facility. This is not ethical and may make one not keen on pursuing the benefits since it ties them to the organization.

Positively, the policy and practice are essential to retaining nurses who are more committed to serving the organization. The practice also ensures that both leaders and managers engage nurses to get their input on a raft of measures that they intend to implement in their organizational setting (Drennan et al., 2019). However, the practice should be more focused on helping nurses remain as opposed to leaving the organization to reduce the underlying nursing shortage issue. Due to the workload, many nurses in the facility cannot find time to attend such seminars, and if they do, those remaining must carry out their duties and obligations. The implication is that such these practice and policy are important but should lead to better results as the organization continues to experience increased levels of staffing shortage with devastating effects on overall patient care.

Recommendations

A policy as well as practice that can address the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients and create a balance is having a robust retention policy based on increasing quality leadership and resources to cater to different needs of the organization and nurses. A retention policy whose main focus is improving the welfare of nurses meets the requirements of the Quadruple Aim framework and implores providers to focus on better ways to deliver care since they are well catered to and their needs addressed. Such a policy must ensure that nurses do not leave the facility and when they leave, the have competent replacements since it is also costly to orient a nurse (Kelly et al., 2018). Incentivizing nurses to report about medication errors and other safety issues will also increase the retention rates as opposed to blanket condemnation when a mistake happens. The current policies may have ethical challenges or shortcomings which should be addressed through the implementation of new approaches and use of novel ideas that are nurse-driven and patient-centered.

Conclusion

Nursing shortage requires interventions that will help to reduce its prevalence and allow organizations to attain better nurse-to-patient ratios. The effects of the nurse shortage are profound, and having technologies may help improve the current situation. More fundamentally, the engagement of all stakeholders is necessary to improve quality outcomes. Together, we must work to make our workplace a success in achieving the quadruple aim of increasing access, decreasing cost, increasing quality, and finding meaning in the work of healthcare and now this must include a safer, less stressful workplace.

Sincerely,

Beverly Jennings, RN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., McHugh, M. D., Pogue, C. A., & Lasater, K. B. (2022). A repeated

cross-sectional study of nurses immediately before and during the Covid-19 pandemic: Implications for action. Nursing Outlook, 101903. DOI: 10.1016/j.outlook.2022.11.007

American Nurses Association (ANA). (2022). Nurses in the Workforce.

https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/workforce/

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

Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert

            clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

Department of Labor (2022). US Department of Labor announces $80M funding opportunity to

help train, expand, diversify nursing workforce; address shortage of nurses. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20221003

Drennan, V. M., & Ross, F. (2019). Global nurse shortages: the facts, the impact and action for

change. British medical bulletin, 130(1), 25-37. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldz014

Haegdorens, F., Van Bogaert, P., De Meester, K., & Monsieurs, K. G. (2019). The impact of

nurse staffing levels and nurse’s education on patient mortality in medical and surgical wards: an observational multicenter study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 864. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4688-7

Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical nursing care versus cost containment: Considerations to

enhance RN practice. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1),

Manuscript 6. https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man06.

Shah, M. K., Gandrakota, N., Cimiotti, J. P., Ghose, N., Moore, M., & Ali, M. K. (2021).

Prevalence of and factors associated with nurse burnout in the US. JAMA network open, 4(2), e2036469-e2036469. DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.36469

Spurlock Jr, D. (2020). The nursing shortage and the future of nursing education is in our hands.

Journal of Nursing Education, 59(6), 303-304. DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20200520-01.

Yang, Y. T., & Mason, D. J. (2022). COVID-19’s impact on nursing shortages, the rise of travel

nurses, and price gouging. Health Affairs Forefront.

DOI: 10.1377/forefront.20220125.695159

Ethical Considerations

One ethical issue when dealing with policies aimed at solving nursing shortage the laws on aging nurses and retirement. Healthcare facilities are faced with the hard decision of how to reduce the nursing shortage when the majority of nurses will be retiring in a few years. Many healthcare organizations have come up with strategies to work with nursing schools in the country where students will get absorbed after studying. It is however difficult for health institutions as they want to retain experienced nurses (Ferrer et al., 2014). Some of the policies that should address the nursing shortage should look at how the nurses are hired and the intervals of hiring to prevent the massive exit of nurses due to retirement such as the staffing laws. Aging nurses have the experience and expertise to provide quality health services. Experience in nursing will help in observing the principle of doing no harm. Experienced nurses will do little or no harm to patients. It is therefore important to consider the nursing principle of nonmaleficence when addressing the issue of nursing shortage in the country. Additionally, offering subsidized funds for students and nursing faculties will also help in solving the nursing shortage (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017). This will help in increasing the enrollment of more students into nursing. Loan programs with no interest will also be initiated in nursing schools for registered nurses who want to enroll in advanced nursing courses. Consequently, increasing using wages will also attract more students to nursing school, which will, in turn, increase the number of nurses in the entire state

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Given the community gap in understanding the nursing profession, improving the image of nursing in the country, by encouraging nurses to frequently communicate with the press on positive nursing aspects will help to attract more students to take up nursing courses hence curbing the nursing shortage. Consequently, nurses should be encouraged to mentor students and lure the younger generation into taking up nurses courses. It is also necessary to launch nursing professionals’ advertising campaigns through social media platform, which will support the profession. It is also important for the supervisors in health care facilities to be encouraged to offer physical and psychological support to the workers. The supervisors should also be trained frequently to improve their supervisory skills. The knowledge imparted to them during the training will include treatment of the staff favorably, being friendly to the staff and encouraging team building (Nantsupawat et al., 2017). Positive impacts of nurses will be acknowledged through recognition. A chance for the nurses to voice their view and take part in policy-making activity will be in cooperated in all healthcare facilities. As such, the nursing working environment will be friendly hence retaining most nurses in their jobs and attracting young students towards joining the profession in future. A good example is a work that has been accomplished by the America Nursing Association in protecting the rights of nurses and enhancing ethical observation in the nursing profession which has greatly led to an increase in the number of nurses in the country (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017). The organization has also initiated several training programs and scholarships which has attracted more young generation to study nursing which will completely abolish the issue of nursing shortage in future.

Assignment: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly.

Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice.

Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization.

To Prepare:

  • Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
  • Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.

The Assignment (4-5 pages):

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following:

  • Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
  • Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
  • Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
  • Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback.

By Day 7 of Week 3

Submit your revised paper.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

  • Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK3Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
  • Click the Week 3 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
  • Click the Week 3 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
  • Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK3Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
  • If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
  • Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
  • Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback

Rubric Detail

A rubric lists grading criteria that instructors use to evaluate student work. Your instructor linked a rubric to this item and made it available to you. Select Grid View or List View to change the rubric\’s layout.

Content
Name: NURS_6053_Module02_Week03_Assignment_Rubric
Grid View
List View
Excellent Good Fair Poor
Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. In 4–5 pages, address the following:

· Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.

Points Range:23 (23.00%) – 25 (25.00%)

The response accurately and clearly identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

Points Range:20 (20.00%) – 22 (22.00%)

The response identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

Points Range:18 (18.00%) – 19 (19.00%)

The response identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague or inaccurate.

Points Range:0 (0.00%) – 17 (17.00%)

The response describes at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.
· Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.

· Critique the policy for ethical considerations and explain the policy\’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.

Points Range:27 (27.00%) – 30 (30.00%)

The response accurately and thoroughly describes in detail a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

The response accurately and thoroughly critiques in detail the policy for ethical considerations and explains in detail the policy\’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.

Points Range:24 (24.00%) – 26 (26.00%)

The response accurately describes a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

The response accurately critiques the policy for ethical considerations and explains the policy\’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.

Points Range:21 (21.00%) – 23 (23.00%)

The response describes a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague or inaccurate.

The response critiques the policy for ethical considerations and explains the policy\’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics that is vague or inaccurate.

Points Range:0 (0.00%) – 20 (20.00%)

The response describes a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.

The response critiques the policy for ethical considerations and explains the policy\’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.
· Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.

· Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.

Points Range:27 (27.00%) – 30 (30.00%)

The response provide one or more accurate, clear, and thorough recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies.

Specific and accurate examples are provided.

Accurate and detailed evidence is cited that informs the healthcare issue/stressor selected and a specific synthesis of at least two outside scholarly resources in full support of the policy or practice recommendations is provided. The response integrates at least 2 outside resources and 2 or 3 course-specific resources that fully support the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

Points Range:24 (24.00%) – 26 (26.00%)

The response provides one or more recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies.

Specific examples may be provided.

Evidence is cited that informs the healthcare issue/stressor selected and a synthesis of at least one outside scholarly resource that may support the policy or practice recommendations is provided. The response integrates at least 1 outside resource and 2 or 3 course-specific resources that may support the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

Points Range:21 (21.00%) – 23 (23.00%)

The response provides one or more recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies that is vague or inaccurate.

Examples may be provided.

Vague or inaccurate evidence is cited from 2 or 3 resources that informs the healthcare issue/stressor selected and may support the policy or practice recommendations provided.

Points Range:0 (0.00%) – 20 (20.00%)

The response provides one or more recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.

Examples are missing.

Vague and inaccurate evidence is cited that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and may include at least 1 scholarly resource that vaguely and inaccurately supports the policy practice recommendations is provided, or is missing.
Written Expression and Formatting – Paragraph Development and Organization:

Paragraphs make clear points that support well-developed ideas, flow logically, and demonstrate continuity of ideas. Sentences are carefully focused—neither long and rambling nor short and lacking substance. A clear and comprehensive purpose statement and introduction is provided which delineates all required criteria.

Points Range:5 (5.00%) – 5 (5.00%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity.

A clear and comprehensive purpose statement, introduction, and conclusion is provided which delineates all required criteria.

Points Range:4 (4.00%) – 4 (4.00%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 80% of the time.

Purpose, introduction, and conclusion of the assignment is stated, yet is brief and not descriptive.

Points Range:3.5 (3.50%) – 3.5 (3.50%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 60%–79% of the time.

Purpose, introduction, and conclusion of the assignment is vague or off topic.

Points Range:0 (0.00%) – 3 (3.00%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity < 60% of the time.

No purpose statement, introduction, or conclusion was provided.
Written Expression and Formatting – English writing standards:

Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation
Points Range:5 (5.00%) – 5 (5.00%)
Uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation with no errors.
Points Range:4 (4.00%) – 4 (4.00%)
Contains a few (1 or 2) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
Points Range:3.5 (3.50%) – 3.5 (3.50%)
Contains several (3 or 4) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
Points Range:0 (0.00%) – 3 (3.00%)
Contains many (≥ 5) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that interfere with the reader’s understanding.
Written Expression and Formatting – The paper follows correct APA format for title page, headings, font, spacing, margins, indentations, page numbers, parenthetical/in-text citations, and reference list.
Points Range:5 (5.00%) – 5 (5.00%)

Recently, I analyzed some of the challenges we face regarding the shortage of nursing staff. Nurses and healthcare organizations encounter many issues that affect their delivery of care to patients and health populations. Frameworks like the Quadruple Aim offer a host of goals for individuals to pursue to maintain and enhance healthcare. The changes and reforms in the healthcare sector mean that healthcare providers and organizations will always encounter challenges like the nurse staffing shortage amidst rising demand for care and the need to reduce costs (Broome & Marshall, 2021). This letter aims to analyze nurse staffing or personnel shortage in the healthcare sector and how organizations are navigating the issue to meet rising patient needs, reduce costs, and offer high-quality care.

Nursing shortage entails the lack of sufficient levels of staff to meet the legal requirements or ratios for effective care delivery. Different sources and organizations, including federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, estimate that the number of available nursing jobs would increase compared to all professions (ANA, 2022). The BLS attributes this rise to newly created roles, nurses leaving the profession for other areas, and those retiring due to age. The implication is that these factors will lead to the creation of over 175,000 openings for registered nurses every year until 2029 (Department of Labor, 2022). The agency opines that more openings will occur simultaneously within this period among other advanced practice roles like nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and even anesthetists.

In our organization, nurse shortage is a critical issue, as evidenced by the need for nurses to work for long hours and have few of them per shift. These working conditions mean that nurses experience stress, burnout, and fatigue and are susceptible to events like medication errors. Nurses also have to endure an increased workload that makes them experience mental exhaustion since they cannot undertake their duties effectively. Again, nurses in the organization do not get leadership support since the reporting procedure and policy for medication errors lack sufficient safeguards to protect them from litigations. For instance, two nurses left the organization last month because of these issues and the lack of effective mechanisms to solve the ever-rising shortage of personnel, especially when handling emergencies in the emergency room.

According to two professional journal articles that I read, the nursing shortage is not just a national healthcare issue but also a global one affecting the health industry in many countries, especially developing nations. However, developed nations like the United States also face increased shortages of nurses, including specialty nurses, to meet the rising care needs due to reforms in the industry. The first article by Aiken et al. (2022) explores the nursing shortage issue before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study notes that before and during the pandemic, many healthcare organizations experience nurse shortages leading to high levels of nurse burnout. The authors note the need for healthcare facilities to improve their nurse ratios to attain better outcomes and prevent chronic hospital understaffing.

The second article by Shah et al. (2021) explores the prevalence and factors leading to nursing burnout in the U.S. The authors are categorical that one of the factors causing burnout among nurses is nurse shortage, as the remaining nurses carry on the workload of others to offer patient care. The implication is that nurses leave their profession and organizations because of burnout and fatigue since they face a myriad of patients with diverse health conditions. Again, the study by Bourgault et al. (2022) emphasizes the effects of burnout associated with the current nursing shortage problem. While addressing this issue requires being data-informed and using a country or setting-unique approach, it is no doubt that nurse shortage is a serious healthcare stressor for nurses and healthcare organizations.

Organizations vary in their approach to nursing shortage based on the interventions they initiate and implement. Most organizations address the issue through innovative care models that reduce the demand for in-person interactions between nurses and patients. These include telehealth and telemedicine as evidence-based practice approaches to address the issue. The implication is that they are investing in health technologies to allow them to offer better patient care to diverse patient populations. Organizations seek better ways to retain their nurses and reduce nurse turnover through incentives like professional development opportunities and better working conditions (Spurlock Jr., 2020). They ensure that they have a satisfied nursing staff dedicated to offering quality care.

In summary, according to the two articles, addressing the issue of nurse staffing shortage requires a collaborative effort and leveraging technology as well as promoting primary care interventions to reduce demand for care in facilities. Primary health promotion ensures that individuals reduce their susceptibility and vulnerability to diverse conditions while leveraging technologies means that organizations can integrate better and innovative ways to meet care demands.

These strategies may impact the organization positively and negatively if it implements them. positively, it will mean that the organization will address shortages and improve its care delivery. It will mean that the entity can attain the Quadruple Aim goals (Drennan et al., 2019). However, it requires investment in these technologies and what they portend for diverse patients, especially in improving their outcomes and access to care services. The organization should also invest in better conditions and terms of service for its staff. These solutions include things such as subsidized funding or an increase in wages. A range of solutions needs to be offered to solve the nursing shortage in our health care organization., from subsidized funding to an increase in wages. Additionally, offering tuition for nurses seeking to advance their degrees could possibly be helpful. Resources could be allocated towards increasing wages, which would affect the recruitment and retention of registered nurses already in the facility. Another important strategy to further address the nursing shortage, is allowing our nurses, scheduling flexibility and coverage. This will help nurses to juggle their busy work schedule with their home life and provide room for decompressing between stressful and demanding shifts.

Competing Needs Impacting Nursing Staff Shortage

Competing needs in healthcare provision implore stakeholders, especially organizational managers and leaders to prioritize what they consider as essential at the expense of another component. Nursing staff shortage is a national health concern that arises due to diverse competing needs; these include the need to reduce operational costs and help facilities make profits based on financial returns and the need to invest in more personnel to improve quality of care and patient outcomes that requires additional resources (Haegdorens et al., 2019). These added resources imply that the organization spends more on expenses at the expense of making profits and investment. Therefore, the need for better profits means that these entities will not hire sufficient levels of nurses to meet the care demand because of cost-cutting measures. However, this means that nurses will not be motivated to work better and improve the quality of care offered to patients in their settings.

Competing need for nurse welfare as dictated by the Quadruple Aim framework cannot be attained as nurses have to work long hours and with increased workload to meet patient needs. Nurses work optimally when they are not strained and overloaded as these conditions make them susceptible to committing errors. These errors, considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as never events, lead to loss of revenue as facilities are never compensated or incentivized through financial resource allocation. As such, it is essential for health care entities to consider a raft of measures which will ensure that all competing needs do not affect their efforts to have recommended nurse-to-patient ratios in their facilities.

Relevant Policy or Practice to Address Nursing Staff Shortage

The organization employs different policies and practices aimed at reducing nursing staff shortage. Key among them include having a retention initiative that focuses on improving the overall professional development of nurses. Under this policy, nurses get reimbursed for their tuition once they commit themselves to the facility for at least three years. The initiative funds their training, workshop sessions, and even attending nursing conferences across the country. This policy has positive influence on mitigating the nursing staff shortage as nurses feel that the organization is keen on enhancing their professional growth and development, especially through the acquisition of new knowledge and research evidence (Haegdorens et al., 2019). Through the approach, nurses get to learn about new practices that they can implement to improve patient care delivery.

A core practice in the organization that encourages nurse retention is participative leadership model as adopted by nurse leaders and managers. Through this practice, leaders and managers in the organization engage nurses to solicit their views on changes and other structural issues that the organization wishes to implement to improve overall working conditions that translate to better care delivery and patient satisfaction.

Critiquing the Policy for Ethical Considerations & Policy’s Strengths and Challenges to Promote Ethics

The policy and practice in the organization are essential and help promote the welfare of nurses. However, from an ethical perspective, the policy does not consider nurses’ safety levels as it fails to address the high nurse turnover. The policy also ties one since evaluation of who qualifies to benefit from the reimbursement entails an elaborate process and need for one to commit at least three years in the facility. This is not ethical and may make one not keen on pursuing the benefits since it ties them to the organization.

Positively, the policy and practice are essential to retaining nurses who are more committed to serving the organization. The practice also ensures that both leaders and managers engage nurses to get their input on a raft of measures that they intend to implement in their organizational setting (Drennan et al., 2019). However, the practice should be more focused on helping nurses remain as opposed to leaving the organization to reduce the underlying nursing shortage issue. Due to the workload, many nurses in the facility cannot find time to attend such seminars, and if they do, those remaining must carry out their duties and obligations. The implication is that such these practice and policy are important but should lead to better results as the organization continues to experience increased levels of staffing shortage with devastating effects on overall patient care.

Recommendations

A policy as well as practice that can address the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients and create a balance is having a robust retention policy based on increasing quality leadership and resources to cater to different needs of the organization and nurses. A retention policy whose main focus is improving the welfare of nurses meets the requirements of the Quadruple Aim framework and implores providers to focus on better ways to deliver care since they are well catered to and their needs addressed. Such a policy must ensure that nurses do not leave the facility and when they leave, the have competent replacements since it is also costly to orient a nurse (Kelly et al., 2018). Incentivizing nurses to report about medication errors and other safety issues will also increase the retention rates as opposed to blanket condemnation when a mistake happens. The current policies may have ethical challenges or shortcomings which should be addressed through the implementation of new approaches and use of novel ideas that are nurse-driven and patient-centered.

Conclusion

Nursing shortage requires interventions that will help to reduce its prevalence and allow organizations to attain better nurse-to-patient ratios. The effects of the nurse shortage are profound, and having technologies may help improve the current situation. More fundamentally, the engagement of all stakeholders is necessary to improve quality outcomes. Together, we must work to make our workplace a success in achieving the quadruple aim of increasing access, decreasing cost, increasing quality, and finding meaning in the work of healthcare and now this must include a safer, less stressful workplace.

References

Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., McHugh, M. D., Pogue, C. A., & Lasater, K. B. (2022). A repeated

cross-sectional study of nurses immediately before and during the Covid-19 pandemic: Implications for action. Nursing Outlook, 101903. DOI: 10.1016/j.outlook.2022.11.007

American Nurses Association (ANA). (2022). Nurses in the Workforce.

https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/workforce/

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

Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert

            clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

Department of Labor (2022). US Department of Labor announces $80M funding opportunity to

help train, expand, diversify nursing workforce; address shortage of nurses. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20221003

Drennan, V. M., & Ross, F. (2019). Global nurse shortages: the facts, the impact and action for

change. British medical bulletin, 130(1), 25-37. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldz014

Haegdorens, F., Van Bogaert, P., De Meester, K., & Monsieurs, K. G. (2019). The impact of

nurse staffing levels and nurse’s education on patient mortality in medical and surgical wards: an observational multicenter study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 864. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4688-7

Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical nursing care versus cost containment: Considerations to

enhance RN practice. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1),

Manuscript 6. https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man06.

Shah, M. K., Gandrakota, N., Cimiotti, J. P., Ghose, N., Moore, M., & Ali, M. K. (2021).

Prevalence of and factors associated with nurse burnout in the US. JAMA network open, 4(2), e2036469-e2036469. DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.36469

Spurlock Jr, D. (2020). The nursing shortage and the future of nursing education is in our hands.

Journal of Nursing Education, 59(6), 303-304. DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20200520-01.

Yang, Y. T., & Mason, D. J. (2022). COVID-19’s impact on nursing shortages, the rise of travel

nurses, and price gouging. Health Affairs Forefront.

DOI: 10.1377/forefront.20220125.695159

Excellent Good Fair Poor
Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. In 4–5 pages, address the following:·   Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
23 (23%) – 25 (25%)
The response accurately and clearly identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected.
20 (20%) – 22 (22%)
The response identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected.
18 (18%) – 19 (19%)
The response identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague or inaccurate.
(0%) – 17 (17%)
The response describes at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.
·   Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.·   Critique the policy for ethical considerations and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
27 (27%) – 30 (30%)

The response accurately and thoroughly describes in detail a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

The response accurately and thoroughly critiques in detail the policy for ethical considerations and explains in detail the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.

24 (24%) – 26 (26%)

The response accurately describes a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

The response accurately critiques the policy for ethical considerations and explains the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.

21 (21%) – 23 (23%)

The response describes a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague or inaccurate.

The response critiques the policy for ethical considerations and explains the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics that is vague or inaccurate.

(0%) – 20 (20%)

The response describes a relevant policy or practice in an organization that may influence the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.

The response critiques the policy for ethical considerations and explains the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.

·   Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.·   Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
27 (27%) – 30 (30%)

The response provide one or more accurate, clear, and thorough recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies.

Specific and accurate examples are provided.

Accurate and detailed evidence is cited that informs the healthcare issue/stressor selected and a specific synthesis of at least two outside scholarly resources in full support of the policy or practice recommendations is provided. The response integrates at least 2 outside resources and 2 or 3 course-specific resources that fully support the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

24 (24%) – 26 (26%)

The response provides one or more recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies.

Specific examples may be provided.

Evidence is cited that informs the healthcare issue/stressor selected and a synthesis of at least one outside scholarly resource that may support the policy or practice recommendations is provided. The response integrates at least 1 outside resource and 2 or 3 course-specific resources that may support the healthcare issue/stressor selected.

21 (21%) – 23 (23%)

The response provides one or more recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies that is vague or inaccurate.

Examples may be provided.

Vague or inaccurate evidence is cited from 2 or 3 resources that informs the healthcare issue/stressor selected and may support the policy or practice recommendations provided.

(0%) – 20 (20%)

The response provides one or more recommendations for policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.

Examples are missing.

Vague and inaccurate evidence is cited that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and may include at least 1 scholarly resource that vaguely and inaccurately supports the policy practice recommendations is provided, or is missing.

Written Expression and Formatting – Paragraph Development and Organization:Paragraphs make clear points that support well-developed ideas, flow logically, and demonstrate continuity of ideas. Sentences are carefully focused—neither long and rambling nor short and lacking substance. A clear and comprehensive purpose statement and introduction is provided which delineates all required criteria.
(5%) – 5 (5%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity.

A clear and comprehensive purpose statement, introduction, and conclusion is provided which delineates all required criteria.

(4%) – 4 (4%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 80% of the time.

Purpose, introduction, and conclusion of the assignment is stated, yet is brief and not descriptive.

3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 60%–79% of the time.

Purpose, introduction, and conclusion of the assignment is vague or off topic.

(0%) – 3 (3%)

Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity < 60% of the time.

No purpose statement, introduction, or conclusion was provided.

Written Expression and Formatting – English writing standards:Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation
(5%) – 5 (5%)
Uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation with no errors.
(4%) – 4 (4%)
Contains a few (1 or 2) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Contains several (3 or 4) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
(0%) – 3 (3%)
Contains many (≥ 5) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that interfere with the reader’s understanding.
Written Expression and Formatting – The paper follows correct APA format for title page, headings, font, spacing, margins, indentations, page numbers, parenthetical/in-text citations, and reference list.
(5%) – 5 (5%)
Uses correct APA format with no errors.
(4%) – 4 (4%)
Contains a few (1 or 2) APA format errors.
3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Contains several (3 or 4) APA format errors.
(0%) – 3 (3%)
Contains many (≥ 5) APA format errors.
Total Points: 100

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