Nursing in America: How a nurse’s working conditions and work load are effecting patient care as a whole
Ryleigh M. Kennedy
Mill Valley High School
AP Literature and Composition
Mr. Shull
May 9, 2023
Abstract
This paper goes over how the nursing shortage is effecting patient care around the world. The nursing shortage is causing poor working conditions for nurses which is in turn effecting care they are able to provide their patients. With sources going back until 2003 and up to 2022, this paper provides statistics and quotes from registered nurses urging something to be done and sharing their experiences. This paper also provides solutions to this global issue and why it should be considered an issue to all of society. The nursing shortage is an issue people
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In order to combat both of these issues, the healthcare leaders must step up and make moves to improve the working environment nurses are working in. Once these nurses are working in a stable and safe environment, they will then be able to provide optimal care to their patients. With patients receiving optimal care, risk of post surgical infection and death rates will ultimately drop. Nurses will actually enjoy their jobs again, and remember the reason why they became nurses in the first place, to help people feel better.
The nursing community as a whole needs more women and men who can bring something new and fun to the table. Hospitals need more and more nurses each year. People interested in the medical field and who love helping people would be perfect for the job. With more and more nurses on the clock, the workload will be lessened and nurses can spend more one-on-one time with their patients. This means they can care for them more in depth and take their time which can prevent medical errors and proper treatment not being
As a nurse, I have seen the devastating health problems that are associated with
At this time, the province’s ratio of 72 nurses to every 100,000 people lags behind the nation’s average of 83 nurses to every 100,000 Canadians. As per the Canadian Nurses Association prediction, there is a staggering demand of 60,000 nurses that is needed by the year 2022. With continuously emerging trends in healthcare services, Ontario has become the top dream destination for patient care providers from all over the world. Plenty of job opportunities, best pay packages, government support, continuing education for specialization, cost of living and a rewarding career brings internationally educated nurses to Ontario to shape up their future. Ontario
Decision makers will need to determine how to best utilize nurses, technicians, and other professionals to close the gap in providing services to patients. Nurses require less time to train, are less expensive to train, cost less to employ, and can increase the efficiency and productivity of physicians who provide care to patients. The increase in the use of health care services as well as the increase in the number of venues where health care is provided has also increased the job opportunities for nurses and other members of the healthcare workforce. The demand for primary care services has stimulated the training of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse
According to Stanton, low-staffed hospitals resulted in higher incidences of poor patient outcomes. Such as, UTIs, pneumonia, and fall. However, poor patient outcomes not only result from short-staffed nurses, but can also result from inadequate nursing assistants as well. NAs play a great role in providing basic daily care of patients. These professionals are very crucial in the healthcare industry but sadly, there are NA shortages.
Due to hospital care reaching an all-time high in America, we need nurses now more than ever before. Currently in America, we have an issue with nurses having too many paperwork to fill out. In the article “We Need More Nurses” by Alexandra Robbins argues we need more nurses in the hospital. Nursing shortage has been a common issue throughout the world. Because of this issue others are being affected in many different ways.
One solution is to increase the number of healthcare professionals in the workforce. This can be achieved by increasing funding for healthcare education programs and providing incentives for healthcare professionals to enter the field. It may also prove successful in the long run for hospitals to recruit newly graduated candidates and implement nurse residency programs. These programs help reduce turnover, which is costly to hospitals because they can spend a lot of money on one individual nurse to train, only for that nurse to decide their new career was a mistake. “Nurse residency programs help new graduates transition from an academic environment to clinical practice” and focus on areas of “professional development, patient outcomes and nursing leadership” (Morris, 2023).
Nurses play an essential role in the healthcare industry. The nurse workforce is made up of licensed nurses: registered nurses (RNs), licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs), along with nurse aides. Registered nurses are responsible for assessments of patients’ needs, development of care plans, medication administration, and treatments, while licensed vocational nurses perform specific care under the delegation of the registered nurses and supervisions. Nursing aides perform activities of daily living (unskilled attention) to the patient. Adequate nursing staffing is essential to both patient care and outcomes, also to the retention of nurses while inadequate staffing creates problems for both the patients and
Right now, nurses all over the country are busy taking care of sick patients. Healthcare is continually evolving and changing. It seems like patient’s needs are becoming greater by the day. We’ve been told for years now that with the aging of the baby boomers the need for nurses will grow. These patients are often complex with multiple medical problems that need to be managed.
n her Nytimes Op-ed article “we need more nurses” Writer Alexandra Robbins reveals that while nurses plays a very important role in improving the health care system of the country, most hospitals and medical establishments are understaffed with nurses. nurses are often one the least recognized group of people who are long due overstretched with the service they provide. Inadequate staffing has become one of the major problems across the country, with the exception of state of California, no other state has set up a standard minimum nurse to patient ratio.many studies has shown that when more patients are assigned to a nurse, the higher for the risk of death, infection,complication, falls and longer hospital stay. the author quoted
Why the Role of Nurses Is Important in Healthcare Ryan Kumar English Department: Glendale Community College ENG102: First-Year Composition Feb 1, 2023 Rhetorical Analysis of “Why the Role of Nurses is Important in Healthcare” The Mercer University article titled, “Why the Role of Nurses is Important in Healthcare”, discusses how nurses are the foundation of the healthcare system. The author uses numerous rhetorical strategies to portray why nurses should be treated with respect and valued for their work. Mercer University uses pathos by emotionally describing how, “nurses are delivered a high standard of care to the general public” (Why the Role of Nurses is Important in Healthcare 2021 pg. 2).
This is important evidence because it gives us conditions and results of what can happen if patients get lower quality care. Patients’ are not having enough time getting checked up by a nurse, and nurses would miss some diagnostics. Patients are getting sick because of the poor care they are receiving from nurses. The care patients can get is affected by a nurse shortage, “Nursing workload definitely affects the time that a nurse can allot to various tasks. Under a heavy workload, nurses may not have sufficient time to perform tasks that can have a direct effect on patient safety.
be highly effective for improving clinical outcomes and reducing cost. Teaching methods that incorporate opportunities for interdisciplinary education and collaborative practice are required to prepare nurses for their unique professional role and to understand the role of other disciplines in the care of patients. Nursing shortages have a negative impact on patient care and are costly to the health care industry. A significant nursing shortage exists today, particularly in acute and long-term care settings. It results from many factors.
Staff Shortage has been an ongoing problem for decades and all that is being done is talks about solutions. Increasing salaries and improving work condition. Hiring more quality people and fulfilling the demand that is needed to run each facility properly. These few things might not prevent all problems, but making improvements in interdisciplinary teamwork, combined with making certain that providers and administrators have greater interdisciplinary education in improving quality and building safer environments for patients, could mitigate their harmful
Large patient loads combined with a stressful work environment affects nurses’ abilities to provide quality healthcare. Patient safety should never be compromised. It is our responsibility to learn from research and improve our current nurse staffing ratios. Nurse staffing is key and affects all other outcomes. Without nurses administering the right treatment at the right time to the right patients, all other healthcare interventions are not effective.
Savor reviewed research that interviewed nurses and explained how many nurses “pointed out that the demand for nurses is rising, with only slow increases in supply, and that nurses’ earnings flattened” (2017). This can lead to a shortage of nurses because in current day society, living has become much more expensive. For example the cost of housing has increased dramatically, and students who go to college are now in charge of paying back their tremendous amounts of student’s loans. All these expenses add up and can be discouraging to a student trying to enter the nursing field because starting pay of a nurse is not enough to live comfortably in current day society. Governments are beginning to realize this and are seeing the decrease of nurses entering the field.