Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

 The value of nursing care has a direct relationship with quality and safety outcomes. The nursing shortage is a persistent national health issue affecting the ability of nurses to provide effective nursing care to patients; thus, undermining the safety and quality of care. The effects of the nursing shortage in healthcare are multifaceted impacting nurses, patients, and healthcare organizations. Nursing shortage leads to work overload, resulting in burnout and stress for nurses. According to studies, burnout and stress has multiple negative outcomes, including medication errors, adverse events, high rates of infections, patient safety issues, poor nurse performance, high turnover rates, increased length of hospital stay, and negative patient experience(Dall’Ora et al., 2020). These factors have quality and safety implications as hospitals struggle to enhance the patient experience, reduce infection, adverse events, length of hospital stay, and other quality indicators and improve overall population health. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of the nursing shortage at my organization and identify possible strategies for remedying the healthcare stressor from scholarly sources.

National Healthcare Issue/Stressor and Its Impact on the Organization

A recent quality assessment and audit at my organization revealed several issues negatively impacting quality and safety outcomes. First, the review noted a higher rate of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) than the value of last year’s review. Secondly, the assessment also pointed out that some patients had a longer hospital stay (LOS) than necessary. Thirdly, the review revealed significant cases of medication errors and adverse events such as avoidable patient falls. A separate assessment investigating the experience of nurses and patients with work and care, respectively, also showed that nurses are stressed because of the high w

orkload. A significant portion of the patient population surveyed reported a low level of satisfaction with the services and care experience. Equally, nurses reported high workload, stress, and low job satisfaction.

Summary of Two Articles

The article, A nursing shortage – a prospect of global and local policies, examines the factors driving nursing shortage around the world, primarily, the rising population of senior citizens. According to the article, the nursing shortage has no single cause but multiple interrelated factors. Some of the contributors tothe nursing shortage include ineffective planning and utilization of nursing resources, demographic changes, and poor recruitment practices (Marć et al., 2018). The authors provide strategies for addressing the nursing shortage from policies point of view. Similarly, the article, Discuss Reasons for Acute and Chronic Problems with The Crisis of Nursing, acknowledges that recruitment and retention of nurses remains

a crisis in countries worldwide. The author argues that one of the causes of the perennial nursing shortage is the nursing education structure, which dwells on theory and allocates less time for practical exper

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

ience (Wada, 2020). As such, nurses enter the profession with less practical experience, giving them anxiety and a high tendency to quit. Additionally, the article notes that time constraints and high workloads limit the nurses’ ability to deliver ideal care(Wada, 2020).

Recognizing the negative implications of the nursing shortage, organizations have come up with strategies attempting to address the issue and enhance patient outcomes. One of the strategies implemented in other organizations is an onboarding program to reduce new nurses’ turnover rates. A recent RN Staffing report reveals that the turnover rate for novice nurses is 18.7%, a 2.8% increase from the 2020 survey (NSI Nursing Solutions, 2021). Novice nurses are likely to resign because of poor organizational culture, bullying, challenging clinical environment, and f