NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay

NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay

Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay-Step-By-Step Guide

This guide will demonstrate how to complete the Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay assignment based on general principles of academic writing. Here, we will show you the A, B, Cs of completing an academic paper, irrespective of the instructions. After guiding you through what to do, the guide will leave one or two sample essays at the end to highlight the various sections discussed below.

How to Research and Prepare for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay                     

Whether one passes or fails an academic assignment such as the Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay depends on the preparation done beforehand. The first thing to do once you receive an assignment is to quickly skim through the requirements. Once that is done, start going through the instructions one by one to clearly understand what the instructor wants. The most important thing here is to understand the required format—whether it is APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.

After understanding the requirements of the paper, the next phase is to gather relevant materials. The first place to start the research process is the weekly resources. Go through the resources provided in the instructions to determine which ones fit the assignment. After reviewing the provided resources, use the university library to search for additional resources. After gathering sufficient and necessary resources, you are now ready to start drafting your paper.

How to Write the Introduction for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay                     

The introduction for the Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay is where you tell the instructor what your paper will encompass. In three to four statements, highlight the important points that will form the basis of your paper. Here, you can include statistics to show the importance of the topic you will be discussing. At the end of the introduction, write a clear purpose statement outlining what exactly will be contained in the paper. This statement will start with “The purpose of this paper…” and then proceed to outline the various sections of the instructions.

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How to Write the Body for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay                     

After the introduction, move into the main part of the NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay assignment, which is the body. Given that the paper you will be writing is not experimental, the way you organize the headings and subheadings of your paper is critically important. In some cases, you might have to use more subheadings to properly organize the assignment. The organization will depend on the rubric provided. Carefully examine the rubric, as it will contain all the detailed requirements of the assignment. Sometimes, the rubric will have information that the normal instructions lack.

Another important factor to consider at this point is how to do citations. In-text citations are fundamental as they support the arguments and points you make in the paper. At this point, the resources gathered at the beginning will come in handy. Integrating the ideas of the authors with your own will ensure that you produce a comprehensive paper. Also, follow the given citation format. In most cases, APA 7 is the preferred format for nursing assignments.

How to Write the Conclusion for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay                     

After completing the main sections, write the conclusion of your paper. The conclusion is a summary of the main points you made in your paper. However, you need to rewrite the points and not simply copy and paste them. By restating the points from each subheading, you will provide a nuanced overview of the assignment to the reader.

How to Format the References List for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay                     

The very last part of your paper involves listing the sources used in your paper. These sources should be listed in alphabetical order and double-spaced. Additionally, use a hanging indent for each source that appears in this list. Lastly, only the sources cited within the body of the paper should appear here.

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NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay

NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay

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.

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The second article by Shah et al. (2021) explores the prevalence and factors leading to nursing

NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay

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

Cost of medication determines whether the patients will be willing to seek healthcare services from an institution or not. The goal of the quadruple Aim is to reduce the cost of education and increase the access to healthcare services by the population. The cost of medication depends on various factors including the changing economic times and the need to increase the number of healthcare providers in an organization. From the business perspective, institutions operate with the aim of making profits.

Therefore, in the call for improving the quality of the healthcare services the patients receive, the healthcare institutions may require to increase their staffs and other equipment necessary for efficient operations. Addition of the resources result in the increased cost which must be transferred to the patients who are the consumers. Therefore, the current study explores the conflicting perspective of the mandatory overtime as a way of meeting the needs of the patients without increasing the cost of medication.

Competing Needs

The increasing number of patients in the healthcare institution requires an additional human resource. However, conventionally, the ratio of healthcare providers to the patients have remained low because of the limited resources. Healthcare providers are forced to attend to many patients beyond the standard requirements. Alternatively, the healthcare institution may opt to recruit more staff and this will result in additional costs which may be transferred to what patients pay. Some leaders may opt of make full of their current staffing in responding to the rising costs and change in the payment policies by the federal government.

The introduction of the pay-for-value compensation method meant that healthcare institutions would improve the quality of healthcare services to the patients (Kominski et al., 2017). Besides, the policy aimed at eliminating all the unnecessary health interventions that could otherwise increase the cost of medication. Furthermore, the hospital institutions are forced to utilize their existing staff accordingly to improve both the quality of care and minimize the treatment costs.

Nurses and other healthcare providers may be forced to work for long hours since they have to spend lots of time understanding the need of their patients to meet the quality threshold (Bernstrøm et al., 2019). On the other hand, the increasing number of patients also force them to work overtime. Therefore, the need to lower the cost of medication and at the same time maintain the quality exists.

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.

Also Read:

NURS 6053 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice

NURS 6053 Discussion 2: Your Leadership Profile

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.

The Selected National Healthcare Stressor

The selected national stressor in the healthcare sector for the assignment is medical errors. Medical errors have been defined as the failure of undertaking or completing planned actions as intended or completion utilizing a wrong plan. Medical errors results in negative health outcomes such as harm to patients (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Medical errors are a critical issue being experienced in the US healthcare systems.

It is estimated that medical errors account for 3.9% of all the events in patients hospitalized with cardiac problems. The incidence of medical errors in the U.S. healthcare system is estimated to be 25 in every 100 outpatients. This rate makes medical errors the most frequent cause of injury caused by medical care in not only the US but also other developed economies. It is further reported that between 44000 and 98000 people in the US die on an annual basis from adverse events due to medical errors (Ohta et al., 2019).

Impact on My Organization

The issue of medical errors is not only affecting the state but also our organization too. The impacts of medical errors are evident in the institution. One of them is the increased hospital stay among the admitted patients. Patients who suffer adverse events of medical errors often stay too long in the hospital due to unintended care needed by them. The other impact is the increase in the operational costs.

The insurance reimbursement claims due to incidences of medical errors have also been high in the institution. The hospital also has to spend its resources in lawsuits due to harm in care. The last impact is the rise in the mortality rate in the affected patients. Patients with chronic conditions such as heart failure and kidney disease often die due to the complications of medical errors (Kaur et al., 2019). Therefore, these effects of medical errors have affected the ability of my organization to achieve its objectives.

Article Summary on How the Issue is Being Addressed in Other Organizations

The articles that were selected to explore the issue of medical errors include those by FDA (2019) and Pérez et al. (2019). The article by FDA (2019) reveals that the incidence of medical errors in the US is high. The number of reported medical errors annually in the state is more than 100,000. The outcomes of these errors include disability, hospitalization, and death. Pérez et al. (2019) echo similar assertions in their research where medical errors were identified as the leading stressors experienced in not only the US healthcare system but also globally too. The articles by Pérez et al. (2019) and FDA (2019) provide practical solutions that health organizations in America can embrace to address the issue of medical errors.

They include container labelling and proprietary branding to minimize the risk of confusion in drug dispensing. The articles also point the need for provider training, prioritized counselling to providers, and refresher training opportunities to minimize the risk of medical errors (FDA, 2019; Pérez et al., 2019). Health organizations in my state have embraced a number of interventions to address the issue of medical errors in their setting. They include increasing nurse to patient ratio to minimize burnout, adopting technology use to increase efficiency, improving inter-professional communication, and incident reporting and review to minimize the risk of future occurrence of medical errors.

Strategies Used to Address the Impacts of the Stressor and Impact on my Organization

Studies have been conducted to identify and determine the effectiveness of various strategies utilized to address the issue of medical errors. The research by Zikhani (2016) provides a seven-step approach that health organizations can use to prevent and minimize the risk of medical errors. The seven steps include health provider education and training, development of rules and policies, implementation of protocols such as checklists and reminders and simplifications and standardization of procedure.

The steps also include automation and computerization of organizational functions and forcing function. According to Zikhani (2016), an effective use of these seven steps of preventing and minimizing medical errors creates patient safety culture in an organization. Consistent findings to the above are seen in the study by Adelman et al. (2017) where automation and computerization of operations in the NICU resulted in the significant reduction in wrong-patient orders. Distinct naming of drugs and ID re-entry was also associated with a significant reduction in the overall incidence rate of medical errors. Other strategies proposed by Rishoej et al. (2018) in their study include standardization of procedures, provide education, refresher training for skill acquisition, and the adoption of double-check processes to minimize the risk of confusion.

The above strategies have significant implications to our hospital. They increase the need for the provision of training to the healthcare providers on different types of medical errors and ways of preventing them. They also raise the need for the provision of refresher training courses to the healthcare providers to ensure that they remain up-to-date on the effective strategies to address the issue of medical errors. The other implication is the need for the development and implementation of policies and regulations that relate to medication errors in the organization. The hospital needs to develop policies that guide the manner in which medical errors in the institution are prevented and addressed. The last implication is the need for provider transparency and responsibility in communicating error incidences. Medical errors should be utilized as a learning tool rather than for punitive purposes. The lessons learned from the errors are used to prevent similar occurrences in the future. Therefore, the strategies have a positive impact on the organization.

Competing Needs Impacting Medication Errors

One of the competing needs in the healthcare process is the management of the workforce and the establishment of quality healthcare processes. Every healthcare facility ought to enhance processes geared towards ensuring quality healthcare outcomes. At the same time, there is always the need to ensure effective workforce that is capable of making sure that quality healthcare is given to the patients. The above competing need impact medication errors in clinical processes. Medication error is a major issue that sometimes arise as a result of lack of enough medical staff and quality measures.

Needs of the workforce can impact the quality healthcare delivery, a scenario that can in turn cause medication errors in the healthcare processes. To ensure the reduction in medication errors, there is always the need for the management to ensure the effective control of the workforce and all that they do. Also, the need to establish the quality treatment processes often cause a lot of confusion (FDA, 2019). When the two needs are combined they may greatly impact medication errors. In other words, when the two needs are carefully handled, the whole process may lead to the reduction of medication errors. On the other hand, when the two needs are poorly handled, there may be an increase in the rate of medication errors within the healthcare institutions. The management should therefore be ready to address the two competing needs to be able to ensure quality outcomes in the management of medication errors.

The process of disciplining nurses engaged in the medical errors is one of the approach in the management of medication errors. The whole approach should however, take a positive approach so that other nurses can learn. The process of discipline may involve revoking the license of practice for some period. On the other hand, the process of discipline may involve sending a nurse back to the class to concentrate more on the areas of weaknesses that could have led to the medication errors (FDA, 2019). When two nurses make mistakes and all the cases are detected, both of them should be punished equally. In other words, they need to be disciplined in the same way because in the process of treatment all the mistakes may led to ineffective patent outcome of loss of life. In a just culture, the process of disciplining should be done equally so as to improve a strong corporate culture.

Relevant Policy or Practice That May Influence Medication Errors

There are different policies in my organization that may impact medication errors. One of the main policy in my healthcare setting is that can impact or influence the medication errors is the employee and health safety policies. The policy is meant to establish safety and security in the operational process among the healthcare workers and the patients. Safety policies require guidelines that ought to be followed by every healthcare professional to ensure the attainment of the set objectives. To ensure the reduction in the medication errors, the above policy ought to be implemented. Medication error is common in the treatment processes. While some may go unnoticed, other are always detected (Kaur et al., 2019).

Medical error can lead to adverse effects among the patients. Some may lead to death while others may complicate the medical conditions. Safety measures is required in the healthcare system to ensure quality healthcare delivery. The application of the policy is critical in the management of healthcare system, it provides guidelines and strategies for ensuring that effective healthcare provision. Increased safety in the healthcare system should always be attached to the quality service delivery which may ensure that reduction in the medication errors.

Employee and health safety policies are important in ensuring that all the stakeholders adhere to the required standard of operation. In other words, the policy ensures that there is the reduction in the possible practices that may lead to the cases of misdiagnosis and the medication errors. Patient safety is always the main concern for healthcare systems. Patients are always vulnerable to different conditions given their already weak immune system. Healthcare management should always provide a mechanism of ensuring that patients are safe regardless of their condition. Before even the treatment is conducted, patients need to be protected from all aspects of harm, including medication errors, healthcare-acquired infections, wrong treatment approaches, and lack of enough nurse to patient ratio.

Critiquing the Policy for Ethical Consideration

Safety policy is in line with the ethical consideration required in ensuring quality treatment. Safety policy provides an elaborate environment where healthcare professionals can operate with dignity and respect. Also, safety policy ensures that patients are treated with high level of respect. The policy is essential when it comes to the promotion of ethical values among the healthcare workers. One of the policy’s strength is that it provides the basis for managing quality in the healthcare process.

Another strength of the policy is that it provides strategies for eliminating weaknesses that may be associated with the healthcare institutions. The weakness of the policy is that it does not incorporate other processes in the healthcare system. In some cases, safety policy may interfere with the ethical practices in the healthcare settings. With the safety standards, healthcare professionals may compromise some of the essential requirements in the treatment process. For instance, they safety policy may interfere with the patient’s consent as healthcare institutions or the healthcare professionals may be required to strictly adhere to the policy requirement.

Policy or Practice Changes

The application of the evidence-based practice in the healthcare processes can enhance the balancing of the competing needs of the resources, workers and the patients, while at the same time addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. With the evidence-based practices, it would be easier to control workers, resources and the needs of the patients. At the same time, there will be consideration of ethical principles required in the healthcare practices. For example, the policy changes will ensure. Also, the application of the community-based care can enhance the application of the policy; the system of community-based care can enhance safety measures among the healthcare workers.

References

Adelman, J. S., Aschner, J. L., Schechter, C. B., Angert, R. M., Weiss, J. M., Rai, A., Berger, M. A., Reissman, S. H., Yongue, C., Chacko, B., Dadlez, N. M., Applebaum, J. R., Racine, A. D., & Southern, W. N. (2017). Evaluating Serial Strategies for Preventing Wrong-Patient Orders in the NICU. Pediatrics, 139(5). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2863

FDA. (2019). Working to Reduce Medication Errors. FDA. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-information-consumers/working-reduce-medication-errors

Kaur, A. P., Levinson, A. T., Monteiro, J. F. G., & Carino, G. P. (2019). The impact of errors on healthcare professionals in the critical care setting. Journal of Critical Care, 52, 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2019.03.001

Makary, M. A., & Daniel, M. (2016). Medical error—The third leading cause of death in the US. Bmj, 353.

Ohta, Y., Miki, I., Kimura, T., Abe, M., Sakuma, M., Koike, K., & Morimoto, T. (2019). Epidemiology of Adverse Events and Medical Errors in the Care of Cardiology Patients. Journal of Patient Safety, 15(3), 251–256. https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000291

Pérez, C. D., Fuentes, P. S., García, E. J., Pérez, C. D., Fuentes, P. S., & García, E. J. (2019). Addressing medical errors: An intervention protocol for nursing professionals. Revista Da Escola de Enfermagem Da USP, 53. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220×2018012703463

Rishoej, R. M., Lai Nielsen, H., Strzelec, S. M., Fritsdal Refer, J., Allermann Beck, S., Gramstrup, H. M., Thybo Christesen, H., Juel Kjeldsen, L., Hallas, J., & Almarsdóttir, A. B. (2018). Qualitative exploration of practices to prevent medication errors in neonatal intensive care units: A focus group study. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 9(7), 343–353. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098618771541

Zikhani, R. (2016). Seven-step pathway for preventing errors in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Management, 61(4), 271–281.

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Learning Objectives

Students will:

  • Analyze the impact of competing needs of workforce, resources, and patients on policy development
  • Analyze the impact of competing needs on healthcare issues/stressors
  • Analyze policies and practices for healthcare issues/stressors
  • Critique organizational policies and practices for ethical considerations
  • Recommend policy or practice changes to balance competing needs and ethical considerations
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Week 3, Days 1–2 Read the Learning Resources.
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Learning Resources

Required Readings

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Silver Spring, MD: Author. Retrieved from

https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only

Note: Review all, with special attention to “Provision 6” (pp. 23–26).

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. doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man06. Retrieved from

http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html  

Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 1. doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man01. Retrieved from

http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Awareness.html

NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2012). Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2009b). Working with Individuals [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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 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.

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

Recommendations

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.

References

Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum, O.-A., & Srisuphan, W. (2017). Analysis of a government policy to address nursing shortage and nursing education quality. International Nursing Review, 64(1), 22-32.

Buerhaus, P. I., Skinner, L. E., Auerbach, D. I., & Staiger, D. O. (2017). Four Challenges Facing the Nursing Workforce in the United States. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 8(2), 40-46.

Ferrer, J., Boelle, P. Y., Salomon, J., Miliani, K., L’Hériteau, F., Astagneau, P., & Temime, L. (2014). Management of nurse shortage and its impact on pathogen dissemination in the intensive care unit. Epidemics, 9, 62-9.

Nantsupawat, A., Kunaviktikul, W., Nantsupawat, R., Wichaikhum, O.-A., Thienthong, H., & Poghosyan, L. (2017). Effects of nurse work environment on job dissatisfaction, burnout, intention to leave. International Nursing Review, 64(1), 91-98.

Yang, P.-H., Hung, C.-H., & Chen, Y.-C. (2015). The impact of three nursing staffing models on nursing outcomes. Journal of Advanced Nursing.

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

Healthcare Policies are put into place to promote both safe patient care along with safe working conditions for healthcare workers. There is always a competing force between the workforce, patients, and resources that need to be assessed before a policy is put into place. Let’s consider the visitor policies that are currently put into place at the hospital where I work at. Adult patients can have two visitors that may rotate during the hours of 0600 to 2100. These two individuals can switch during the day but can only be a total of two individuals in the hospital at a time. Pediatric patients can have two visitors that can stay throughout the night.

Those visitors can switch during the day but need to be a total of two visitors in the hospital at one time. All visitors are screened for COVID symptoms and verified as being on the list of approved visitors at the hospital’s main entrances. The unit nurse is responsible for updating this list per the patient’s request when the visitors are going to switch places. This policy was put into place due to the pandemic to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. When reviewing this policy, it is obvious that patients may want to have more than two visitors at a time due to having a large family and/or wanting friends and family to visit them. But a competing factor would be the workforce. The hospital is responsible for protecting its staff and patients from the COVID virus, therefore, regulations needed to be put into place as a safety measure vs. adhering to the patient’s preferences. The challenge is balancing the risks and benefits of lightening the visitor restrictions due to possible emotional/psychological harm vs. the risks/benefits of strict visitor restrictions to prevent physical harm and possible death to individuals (Virani, A., Puls, H., Mitsos, R., Longstaff, H., Goldman, R., & Lantos, J., 2020). This is a great example where there is no way to protect the patients and staff members and at the same time adhere to the patient’s preferences. One or the other must take precedence to ultimately save individuals’ lives. It is imperative that safe work environments be established during workforce development (McNally, K., 2018). It is essential that policies be put into place in the order of priority.

When it comes to healthcare staffing shortages one of the main competing factors would be continuity of care for patients and workforce shortages. It is awesome to have travel nurses to help bridge the gap between nursing shortages and hiring new employees, but it may not be in the best interest of the patients. When travel nurses come onto a unit it is typically not necessarily their area of expertise, the facility is typically new to them, and they are only planning on staying for a short period of time. For the nursing staff, this is so appreciated because that means their workload can be reduced to a safe nurse-to-patient ratio and they have an increased amount of time to spend with their patients. As for the patients, they receive excellent care but can usually tell that the nurse is not an expert in the field. This is a minor issue, but some patients have complaints. I’m sure if these patients did not have the travel nurses and had the long-term nurses that had an unsafe nurse-to-patient ratio they would change their minds due to limited time/resources to deliver extra care. As one can see safety always trumps patient preferences and rightfully so. Policies need to be in place for safe nurse-to-patient ratios to prevent adverse events, improve patient care, and improve patient satisfaction. A recent study showed that as the nurse-to-patient ratio increased so did the number of sentinel events (Phillips, J., Malliaris, A., & Bakerjian, D., 2021).

References

McNally, K. (2018). American Hospital Association (AHA). The imperative for strategic workforce planning and development: Challenges and opportunities Retrieved from: https://www.aha.org/news/insights-and-analysis/2018-02-28-imperative-strategic-workforce-planning-and-developmentLinks to an external site.

Phillips, J., Malliaris, A., & Bakerjian, D. (2021). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Nursing and patient safety. Retrieved from: https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/nursing-and-patient-safetyLinks to an external site.

Virani, A., Puls, H., Mitsos, R., Longstaff, H., Goldman, R., & Lantos, J. (2020). American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Benefits and risks of visitor restrictions for hospitalized children during the COVID pandemic 146(2) https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-000786Links to an external site.

Competing needs in healthcare organizations affect their abilities to deal with national health issues or stressors that compromise the quality of care delivery. Employees and leaders compete in healthcare settings based on the need to attain better quality provision and ensure that patients get value for their money, particularly through implementing evidence-based models like value-based care. Nurse burnout is a national health issue because of the adverse effects on nurses, patients, and the entire health care system (Chen et al., 2021). As such, healthcare organizations should evaluate their policies and practices to address nurse burnout while maintaining quality care and ethical standards. The purpose of this assignment is to discuss nurse burnout as a national health issue and the competing needs that hinder organizations from overcoming it. The paper critiques organizational policies on tackling the issue and recommends strategies to balance the competing needs while addressing ethical weaknesses of the current policy.

Competing Needs Leading to Nurse Burnout

Nurses encounter demanding workloads because of low nurse-to-patient ratios, high patient acuity, limited resources and time that reduces charting shorts or breaks, and increased patient needs and assignments. The two critical competing needs identified in this situation include the attainment of proper or appropriate staffing ratios and the need to offer quality care (Chen et al., 2021). Staffing ratios allow organizations to increase their bottom line since private health facilities focus on profit maximization. However, meeting these needs is a challenge for the health care organization that I work for because of the existing nursing shortage. Nurse turnover contributes to a substantial shortage, with figures showing that it will reach close to 400,000 by 2025 (Brown, 2018). Due to the shortage, burnout is bound to surge, exacerbated by the increasing demand for care and the emergence of infectious diseases like the current COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the organization’s leadership needs to develop interventions to address and manage these competing needs of adequate staffing ratio and patient quality care.

Policies/ Practices to Impact Nurse Burnout

The organization has not instituted sufficient policies to address the current issue. However, practices like innovative approaches through staff scheduling exist, but these are standard interventions that do not substantially affect the issue. Having sufficient staffing numbers can reduce stress among employees, lower the prevalence of burnout associated with overburdened working, and create a better work-life balance for nurses. In their study, Kelly and Poor (2018) observed that enhancing employee well-being and ensuring improved patient care requires organizations to have an effective work-life balance. Through this approach, nurses become more engaged, compassionate, healthier, and well-positioned to offer quality care since they are well-rested.

Lowering the nurse-to-patient ratios is one of the most effective ways to address the problem of nurse burnout. The approach allows nurses to have more time for patients and provide holistic care. The organization also implements hourly rounding, enhancing the patient perception of nurses’ responsiveness in units where such may be a challenge. Hourly rounding also reduces patient falls, uses call lights, and enhances patient satisfaction levels and scores (Garcia; Brosinski & Riddell, 2020). Implementing an hourly rounding program is essential for identifying the “most cost-effectiv eapproach.” The implication is that if a facility integrates these strategies and enhances the quality of care without necessarily raising the cost of care or doing budget cuts, it can address the issue of nurse burnout.

Policy Critique

Ethical considerations are essential for effective care delivery, especially in healthcare organizations when dealing with employee issues like nurse burnout. Leaders in organizations need to balance profits and welfare of healthcare workers to alleviate other issues like nursing shortage which increases the susceptibility to adverse conditions like medication errors (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018). Ethical awareness implores organizational leaders to consider the overall good of these practices to nurses and their welfare against profits (Milliken, 2018). Purposeful and systematic hourly rounding offers several benefits that include improved patient satisfaction, patient safety, and quality of care. Nurses can recognize any adverse patient event fast and employ corrective interventions (Hutchinson et al., 2018). Patient safety is a core aspect of human dignity, and providers should take all measures to protect patients. Implementation of hourly rounding is based on ethical principles related to the professional code of conduct as advanced by the American Nurses Association (ANA). Ethical considerations implore nurses and the facility administration to embed hourly rounding to enhance patient dignity through harm reduction and attending to all their needs timely.

Recommendation

The need to address nurse burnout and the competing aspects of quality and appropriate nursing ratios implores the organization to adopt evidence-based practice policies. Among these is the Quadruple Aim framework. The model focuses on enhancing patient experience, lowering the cost of care, improving the health of populations, and enhancing the welfare of healthcare workers, especially nurses. The framework allows organizations to focus on patients, nurses, and even the management (Jacobs et al., 2018). Therefore, implementing this approach would offer a host of benefits to tackling the issue of nurse burnout in the facility by addressing nursing ratios and quality of care.

The facility can implement the model through a systematic approach by focusing on current operations and processes to ascertain that they lead to enhanced efficiency. The approach entails evaluating areas where the organization is not performing well (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018). The facility can use change models like Lewin’s change process to identify salient aspects to transform in the current practice of hourly rounding. The facility should integrate these components by identifying and using employees as change agents to make the case of enhanced effectiveness. The Quadruple Aim will help the organization enhance quality, address nurse burnout and improve nurses’ welfare.

Conclusion

Competing needs impact the ability of organizations to deliver quality care. Needs like the quality of care and attainment of appropriate patient ratios compete. They require healthcare facilities and their leadership to use effective interventions that result in quality care provision. The use of hourly rounding has ethical considerations based on its benefits and rationale. Implementing the Quadruple Aim framework will enable the facility to address the issue of nurse burnout while tackling the two competing needs of nurse staffing ratios and quality of care.

 

 

References

Brown, S. (2018). The Impact of Resiliency on Nurse Burnout: An Integrative Literature

Review. MEDSURG Nursing, 27(6), 349–378.doi:10.1097/JTN.000000

Brosinski, C., & Riddell, A. (2020). Incorporating hourly rounding to increase emergency

department patient satisfaction: A quality improvement approach. Journal of emergency nursing, 46(4), 511-517.DOI: 10.1016/j.jen.2019.08.004.

Chen, R., Sun, C., Chen, J. J., Jen, H. J., Kang, X. L., Kao, C. C., & Chou, K. R. (2021). A

large‐scale survey on trauma, burnout, and posttraumatic growth among nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 30(1), 102-116.DOI: 10.1111/inm.12796.

Garcia, M. G., Dutton, H., Samuel, K., & Marusich, J. (2021). Purposeful hourly rounding to

decrease peripheral intravenous infiltrations and extravasations in pediatrics. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 61, 59-66.DOI: 10.1016/j.pedn.2021.03.009.

Hutchinson, M., Jackson, D., & Wilson, S. (2018). Technical rationality and the decentering of

patients and care delivery: A critique of ‘unavoidable’ in the context of patient harm. Nursing Inquiry, 25(2), e12225.DOI: 10.1111/nin.12225.

Jacobs, B., McGovern, J., Heinmiller, J., & Drenkard, K. (2018). Engaging Employees in Well-

Being: Moving from the Triple Aim to the Quadruple Aim. Nursing Administration Quarterly,(3), 231.DOI: 10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000303.

Kadivar, M., Manookian, A., Asghari, F., Niknafs, N., Okazi, A., & Zarvani, A. (2017). Ethical

and legal aspects of patient’s safety: a clinical case report. Journal of Medical Ethics & Historyof Medicine, 10(15), 1–5.

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.

doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01-Man06

Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing &healthcare:

A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Chapter 1, “Making the Case for Evidence-Based Practice and Cultivating a Spirit of Inquiry”(pp. 7–32).

Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical Awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: Online Journal of

Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 1. doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man0

Rubric Detail

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Content

Name: NURS_6053_Module02_Week03_Assignment_Rubric

  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%) – 25 (25%)The response accurately and clearly identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected. Points Range: 20 (20%) – 22 (22%)The response identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected. Points Range: 18 (18%) – 19 (19%)The response identifies at least two competing needs impacting the healthcare issue/stressor selected that is vague or inaccurate. Points Range: 0 (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. Points Range: 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. Points Range: 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. Points Range: 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. Points Range: 0 (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. Points Range: 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. Points Range: 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. Points Range: 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. Points Range: 0 (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. Points Range: 5 (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. Points Range: 4 (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. Points Range: 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. Points Range: 0 (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 Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)Uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation with no errors. Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)Contains a few (1 or 2) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Points Range: 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)Contains several (3 or 4) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Points Range: 0 (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. Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)Uses correct APA format with no errors. Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)Contains a few (1 or 2) APA format errors. Points Range: 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)Contains several (3 or 4) APA format errors. Points Range: 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)Contains many (≥ 5) APA format errors.
Total Points: 100

Name: NURS_6053_Module02_Week03_Assignment_Rubric

Module 2: Professionalism (Week 3)

Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2018). Moral Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.


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Learning Objectives

Students will:
  • Analyze the impact of competing needs of workforce, resources, and patients on policy development
  • Analyze the impact of competing needs on healthcare issues/stressors
  • Analyze policies and practices for healthcare issues/stressors
  • Critique organizational policies and practices for ethical considerations
  • Recommend policy or practice changes to balance competing needs and ethical considerations
Due By Assignment
Week 3, Days 1–2 Read the Learning Resources.
Compose your initial Discussion post.
Week 3, Day 3 Post your initial Discussion post.
Begin to compose your Assignment.
Week 3, Days 4-5 Review peer Discussion posts.
Compose your peer Discussion responses.
Continue to compose your Assignment.
Week 3, Day 6 Post two peer Discussion responses.
Week 3, Day 7 Deadline to submit your assignment.

Photo Credit: on_WAL_CBLE0001_er1_EN.mov – Freeze frame


Learning Resources

Required Readings

Required Media

Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2012). Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.


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Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2009b). Working with Individuals [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.


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NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay

Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues

Quite often, nurse leaders are faced with ethical dilemmas, such as those associated with choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for those resources occurs daily in all organizations.

For example, the use of 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses. However, evidence suggests that as nurses work more hours in a shift, they commit more errors. How do effective leaders find a balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of ensuring quality, effective, and safe patient care?

In this Discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and examine how competing needs may impact the development of polices to address that issue.

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources and think about the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously selected for study in Module 1.
  • Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery as they pertain to the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously examined.

By Day 3 of Week 3

Post an explanation of how competing needs, such as the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients, may impact the development of policy. Then, describe any specific competing needs that may impact the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected. What are the impacts, and how might policy address these competing needs? Be specific and provide examples.

By Day 6 of Week 3

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by providing additional thoughts about competing needs that may impact your colleagues’ selected issues, or additional ideas for applying policy to address the impacts described.

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 3 Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 6 of Week 3

To participate in this Discussion:

Week 3 Discussion

The current opioid crisis ranks as one of the most devastating public health catastrophes of our time. One main driver of the opioid crisis is the multi-system failure of regulation especially by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA allowed pharmaceutical companies to educate the public about their medications and advise prescribers on how to evaluate and mitigate risks (Jason & Sullivan, 2022). This was the case with the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and their drug OxyContin. The FDA did not properly enforce the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act when it approved Purdue Pharma’s drug OxyContin. This would have required adequate and well-controlled studies before OxyContin could be approved and promoted as safe and effective (Au-Yeung et al., 2019). Without FDA oversight, Pharm Purdue was able to recommend a fraudulent description of the OxyContin non-addictive side effects. Understanding these regulation failures in the past will help the executive branch and congress to write policies for more oversight and guidance from the FDA and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on opioid approvals and labeling.

Au-Yeung, C., Blewett, L. A., & Lange, K. (2019). Addressing the rural opioid addiction and overdoes crisis through cross-sector collaboration: Little Falls, Minnesota. American Journal of Public Health, 109(2), 260-262. https://Doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304789

Jason, N., & Sullivan, J. N. (2022). Knowledge translation and the opioid crisis. American Journal of Public Health 1(12), 15-17. https://DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306670

I agree that an experienced nurse will often be placed in a role model position through precepting new graduates and that it is essential for the nurse preceptor to remain patient when teaching these new graduate nurses. According to Hong and Yoon (2021), preceptorship is often utilized to support and guide newly graduated nurses as they acclimatize to hospital life. Preceptors, as experienced staff with particular expertise in their field, can aid rookie nurses in acclimating to the clinical setting and conveying specific information vital in their workplace setting. Additionally, Lafrance (2018) noted that preceptorship is a widespread technique in nursing practice. It has been acknowledged that it can support nursing students and new nurses with reality-based material, skills attainment, self-esteem, and professional engagement.

In their study, Powers et al. (2019) documented that the adjustment to the practice stage is demanding and stressful for newly graduating nurses. Departing from the controlled circumstances of nursing school and starting professional work can bring about real-world and adjustment stress for the new nurse, giving rise to hazardous patient care and a yearning to walk out on their job or the profession. A positive start to practice is dependent on the new nurse developing self-assurance and essential clinical conceptual understanding while adjusting to their new position. Furthermore, Phuma-Ngaiyaye et al. (2017) stated that the clinical setting continues to be a critical factor in forming students’ proficiency, self-esteem, and achievement of intended learning objectives. Preceptors and clinical educators are essential in helping students attain their professional goals by providing ongoing guidance and assistance.

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