NURS 6053 Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Essay
NURS 6053 Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Essay
NURS 6053 Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Sample Essay
The healthcare system encounters a host of pertinent issues that require interventions to improve the quality of care offered to patients and reduce costs. The Quadruple Aim framework focuses on ensuring quality access to care that leads to better patient experience, improvement of population health, reduced costs and enhancing the work life of healthcare providers (Arnetz et al., 2020). However, a pertinent healthcare issue that can impact this framework and public health in general as well as care delivery is personnel shortages, especially nursing shortage. The purpose of this paper is to discuss nursing shortage as a pertinent health issue and its impact on the organization.
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Nursing Shortage and Impact on the Organization
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Nurse staffing shortage is a critical issue that requires interventions because of its effects. Organizations and evidence from federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Nurses Association assert that there will be a significant increase in nursing jobs over the next five years compared to any occupation or profession. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that over 176,000 openings will be available for nurses in healthcare due to newly created roles as a result of advanced education and the need to address physician shortage, nurses leaving the profession and those retiring because of their age (Broome et al., 2022). The BLS assert that the nursing shortage will continue to bite the healthcare delivery as more Americans with diverse needs get access to care due to reforms through legislations at both state and federal levels.
Nursing shortage has serious implications on the organizations, especially in critical care situations and the need to deliver quality patient-centered interventions. The increased number of patients per nurse means poor quality of care due to strain and associated fatigue. Nurse shortage is a leading cause of burnout and nurse turnover. For instance, figures from the organization’s leaders show that over ten nurses left the facility in the last two years due to working on long shifts. Data also indicates a rise trend of missed nursing care in the facility due to the shortage (Tamata et al., 2023). The implication is that nursing shortage in any facility leads to increased cost of care and high turnover rates. Having limited nurse of nurses also leads to increased risk of patients to adverse events like medication errors and falls which the organization cannot get reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As such, the entity loses funds when patients miss care or experience adverse events that preventable like falls, healthcare associated infections, and medication errors.
Summary of Studies on Nursing Shortage
In her article, Bourgault (2022) focuses on the issue of nursing shortage and work expectation for nurses caring for patients in critical care conditions. The article asserts that the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at its height during the Omicron wave, demonstrated the crisis of nursing shortage due to thousands of missed nursing care moments. Further, the article highlights the long hours that nurses are working, increased workload and patient acuity while others have to endure with mandatory overtime while also nursing health issues like COVID-19. The paper also highlights the unsafe conditions for nurses and other health care workers without protective personal equipment despite the heightened risk of infections. The implication is that the article highlights the current state of nursing shortage and need for innovative approaches to handle the situation. The article explores the need for policies to help organizations manage safe nurse-to-patient ratios.
The second article by Griffiths et al. (2018) identifies the association between nurse staffing and adverse patient events or outcomes, including mortality. The article asserts that by measuring the number and level of missed care, healthcare organizations can determine the adequacy of their nursing staff and develop innovative interventions to address the situation. The findings from the study indicate that low staffing levels lead to increased prevalence of missed care that result into poor patient outcomes.
Organizations Handling Nurse Staffing Shortage
Organizations are employing innovative approaches to deal with the nurse staffing shortage. These include a collaborative approach to ensure that nurses and their leaders can develop innovative approaches to improving care as opposed to all patients coming for physical visits. For instance, the integration of technologies like telehealth and telemedicine can help organizations address the issue. Nurses are on demand because of increased access to care through health care reforms and partly due to an aging population (Spurlock Jr., 2020). Therefore, organizations need effective leadership to inspire nurses to offer better solutions to care provision. Good working conditions as incentives for nurses in any facility are essential to addressing the nurse shortage. More fundamentally, reducing the turnover rates is also an effective strategy to address the issue. Flexible work schedule and shifts can also help alleviate the issue.
Strategies Used to Address Nursing Shortage
The articles are categorical that stakeholders can address the healthcare issue of nursing shortage through a raft of strategies. These include policies that focus on improving the work conditions and organizational efforts to enhance a collaborative approach among healthcare workers. Secondly, the use of technologies like telehealth and telemedicine can help nurses offer care remotely and reduce the current workload burden (Broome et al., 2021). The strategies are impactful to organizations positively since they are evidence-based practice and will lead to quality patient outcomes. These strategies will ensure that the facility has sufficient number of staff to cater to patients based on their needs. However, they require sufficient resources allocated by the management to attain their goals.
Conclusion
Nursing shortage is a serious healthcare issue that needs stakeholders, especially organizational managers and leaders to address to enhance quality patient outcomes. The articles used in this study demonstrate the need for nurses as innovative care providers to develop EBP interventions to improve care outcomes for patients. Policy interventions and other approaches will be important in addressing nursing shortage as a serious healthcare issue.
Developing Organizational Policies and Practices
As healthcare organizations continue inventing interventions for addressing the nursing shortage, competing needs affect policy formulation and practice immensely. Competing needs represent organizational priorities that must be addressed concurrently. Among many competing needs, organizational resources affected the nursing shortage significantly. According to Hamlin (2023), a nursing shortage in organizations intensifies when organizations cannot replace the aging workforce or adopt innovative approaches to meet the increasing patient visits due to chronic illnesses. Adequately-resourced organizations are better positioned to address these challenges hence preventing a nursing shortage. The other competing need is workforce needs. As healthcare organizations adjust their procedures and implement innovative care delivery approaches, staffing needs should be prioritized. The implication is that new interventions to optimize health outcomes should not burden the current workforce. An additional workload can cause burnout, resulting in nurse turnover (Shah et al., 2021). As a result, a balance between the organization’s and staff’s needs is crucial when making decisions regarding the nursing shortage.
Policy to Influence the Nursing Shortage
Policies and practices vary in relevance and practicality in addressing healthcare issues. The nursing shortage can be effectively addressed by implementing technologies such as telehealth and telemedicine. Broom et al. (2021) observed that telehealth and telemedicine could help nurses to provide patient care remotely and reduce the current workload burden. Remote care reduces physical visits to healthcare providers and ensures patients receive timely care.
Ethical Considerations, Strengths, and Challenges
Besides competing needs, healthcare practitioners should be aware of barriers and facilitators of technology implementation in care. Ethical considerations associated with telehealth/telemedicine include equity of access, data protection, and confidentiality (Solimini et al., 2021). Since technology is not evenly distributed and affordable, it would be challenging to provide equitable care through telehealth/telemedicine. Primary strengths of the intervention include quick patient care delivery, a reduced workload, and reduced infections by minimizing physical interactions in healthcare settings. Challenges include implementation setbacks such as patients’ technology literacy, nurses’ attitude toward technology, and security issues.
Other Practice Changes
As healthcare organizations continue implementing telehealth, interventions to prevent nurse burnout should be prioritized. As Shah et al. (2021) conjectured, a nursing shortage is a leading cause of nurse burnout since it increases nurses’ workload. Given that, practice changes like leadership support, collaborative care, and opportunities for social interaction should be implemented. These interventions will increase nurses’ satisfaction with their job and enable them to participate in patient care actively and passionately. Burnout prevention will further reduce costs associated with nurse turnover.
Conclusion
The nursing shortage is a composite healthcare issue that should be addressed competently and comprehensively. As healthcare organizations implement different policies and practices, competing needs should guide them in decision-making. Telehealth/telemedicine can help nurses to provide patient care remotely and reduce the current workload. However, its implementers should be aware of its ethical limitations, such as privacy and the inability to offer equitable care.
References
Arnetz, B. B., Goetz, C. M., Arnetz, J. E., Sudan, S., vanSchagen, J., Piersma, K., & Reyelts, F.
(2020). Enhancing healthcare efficiency to achieve the Quadruple Aim: An exploratory study. BMC research notes, 13(1), 1-6. DOI: 10.1186/s13104-020-05199-8
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert
clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
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
Griffiths, P., Recio-Saucedo, A., Dall’Orca, C. Briggs, J., Maruotti, A., Meredith, P. & Missed
Care Study Group (2018). The association between nurse staffing and omissions in nursing care: A systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 74(7), 1474-1487. DOI: 10.1111/jan.13564.
Hamlin, K. (2023). Why is there a nursing shortage? NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/articles/why-is-there-a-nursing-shortage/
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
Solimini, R., Busardò, F. P., Gibelli, F., Sirignano, A., & Ricci, G. (2021). Ethical and legal challenges of telemedicine in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania), 57(12), 1314. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57121314
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.
Tamata, A. T., & Mohammadnezhad, M. (2023). A systematic review study on the factors
affecting shortage of nursing workforce in the hospitals. Nursing Open, 10(3), 1247-1257. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1434
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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.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
To Prepare:
- Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
- Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
- Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.
The Assignment (1-2 pages):
Developing Organizational Policies and Practices
Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages:
- Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
- Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
- Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
- Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
- Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
- Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback.
BY DAY 7 OF WEEK 3
Submit your revised paper.
SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Before submitting your final assignment, you can check your draft for authenticity. To check your draft, access the Turnitin Drafts from the Start Here area.
- To submit your completed assignment, save your Assignment as WK3Assgn_LastName_Firstinitial
- Then, click on Start Assignment near the top of the page.
- Next, click on Upload File and select Submit Assignment for review.
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Rubric
NURS_6053_Module02_Week03_Assignment_Rubric
| Criteria | Ratings | Pts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeAdd a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. For this assignment, in 1-2 pages, address the following: · Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor. |
|
25 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome· 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. |
|
30 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome· 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. |
|
25 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeResource Synthesis |
|
5 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Expression and Formatting—Paragraph Development and Organization:Paragraphs make clear points that support well-developed ideas, flow logically, and demonstrate continuity of ideas. Sentences are carefully focused—neither long and rambling nor short and lacking substance. A clear and comprehensive purpose statement and introduction is provided, which delineates all required criteria. |
|
5 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Expression and Formatting—English Writing Standards: Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation. |
|
5 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Expression and Formatting: The paper follows correct APA format for title page, headings, font, spacing, margins, indentations, page numbers, running head, parenthetical/in-text citations, and reference list. |
|
5 pts | ||||
| Total Points: 100 | ||||||
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