Among the challenges experienced in the patient care environment is the nursing shortage. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there are various issues related to the nursing shortage. Registered nursing is among the top jobs with the fastest growth, meaning that as years pass, more and more registered nurses are needed, and the need is expected to grow by seven percent in the next decade (“AACN,” 2020). The nursing shortage is even expected to be more biting as the Baby Boomers get older hence the need for more nursing services. Another factor is that nursing schools are incapable of expanding their capacity to meet the increasing demands.
Various strategies are being employed by healthcare settings to prevent a nursing shortage. One of them is mentorship programs that help in mentoring nurses and reduce nursing staff turnover and prevent nurses from leaving the profession for other professions (Jacobs, 2018). Another strategy is the accelerated or second-degree bachelor of nursing. Such programs permit individuals who have bachelor’s degrees in another field to complete the bachelor of nursing degree in a year or two. This strategy allows more individuals to get into nursing hence helping reduce the shortage. The nursing problem can also be sorted by increasing funding to the nursing schools to support the programs associated with nursing education. These funds can also help in increasing the nursing schools’ capacity to respond to emergencies. The funding can also help the nursing schools to engage in projects such as the procurement of equipment, laboratories, and buildings.
Part Two
The adverse impacts of the nursing shortage have attracted considerable attention in recent times, with various stakeholders focusing on strategies for preventing and managing the nursing shortage. As such, various researchers have explored aspects connected with nursing shortages, such as the perils of short staffing for nursing, ways of preventing and managing nursing shortages, and possible causes of nursing shortage.
In one of the recently published research on the perils of short staffing for nurses, Ramsey et al. (2018) performed research that aimed at evaluating the impacts of decreased nursing staff in the emergency department. According to this study, the impact of nurse staffing on the emergency department is still an area of concern and interest to nurses, physicians, and administrators. By conducting a retrospective observational review of the electronic medical record database, this research revealed various impacts of nursing shortage. One of them is that some patients were not being seen, implying that if a patient has an uncomfortable status, then such a situation can easily deteriorate due to the nursing shortage. The implication is that the patients end up having poorer health outcomes.
Various methods can be used in the workplace to prevent staff shortages. One of the strategies is improving the working conditions. In some cases, poor working conditions are connected to high nursing staff turnover. Higher staff turnover has been connected to the nursing shortage as the nursing staff working in an unfavorable environment are more likely to look for better work opportunities. The other strategy is the use of professional educational modules, which train nurses to be more resilient in the work environment and stay in work without having to move to other professions believed to be less stressful (Ackerson & Stiles, 2018). While several strategies can be used in solving the problem of staff shortage, some of the solutions may depend on the cause of the shortage in a particular setting. Therefore, it is imperative that work environments are treated independently when solving the staffing shortage issue.
References
Ackerson, K., & Stiles, K. A. (2018). Value of nurse residency programs in retaining new graduate nurses and their potential effect on the nursing shortage. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 49(6), 282-288. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20180517-09
American Association of College of Nursing. (2020) Nursing shortagehttps://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Nursing-Shortage.
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