Meliza Hernandez
1-24-18
Period 6
Mr. Hancock
Nurse Shortage There is no secret that the United States faces a vital shortage of registered nurses. Nurse shortage refers to a situation where the demand for nursing professionals exceeds the supply locally, nationally, or globally. There are multiple issues that contribute to nurse shortage like, burnout, an increase with incomplete education, limited resources, job dissatisfaction, and many more. Although nurse shortage gives incoming nurses an opportunity in the workforce, many patients and current nurses are suffering.
The demand for more nurses is to prevent current nurses from future burnout. Everyone gets strained or tensed sometimes, but intense strain experienced on a daily basis over a long period of time can become burnout. Burnout is categorized as physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. According to Rasmussen
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Due to shortages, nurses often need to work long hours under demanding conditions. Nursing is not a nine to five work; when there is a patient in need of help, nurses don’t leave them there and go home; nurses work overtime almost everyday. Nurses who have not worked in the medical field before may have to work hours way beyond their comfort zone and be expected to become accustomed to the hours. Nurses working in these environments are more likely to making mistakes and medical errors. An unfavorable outcome is that patient quality can suffer, resulting in a range of preventable complications, including medication errors, emergency room overcrowding, and more frightening, increased mortality rates. This trend may potentially threaten to damage quality medical care.
The importance of nurses in health care and the impact they have on their patients’ mental health is something that is usually being unconsidered in both the healthcare industry and in society in
State-mandated nurse-to-patient ratios remains a controversial topic in healthcare. Sufficient nurse staffing is key to ensure adequate patient care, while scarce staffing effects patients’ safety and puts nurses at risk for burnout. Determining nurse-to-patient ratios in nursing facilities remains a challenge for the nursing profession. There are many factors to consider when determining staffing methods, such as cost, nurses’ satisfaction, patient outcomes and safety. Mandating ratios is one attempt at ensuring nurses’ workloads do not exceed what is needed for adequate patient care and safety.
What was once thought of as a profession driven by compassion and the desire to help those in need has now become filled with weary burnt out nurses who have lost sight of their purpose. Stress has caused them to distance themselves from the principles nursing is built upon. Our health care system needs to be revamped to improve the quality of care being administered. Nurses can be proactive and take steps to avoid burning out but, our health care administrators have to take matters into their hands because they have the capacity to initiate change. They must realize the gravity of the situation and take an offensive position to make a stand against the crisis of nursing
Professional Association Membership Professional nursing organizations, such as the American Nurses Association (ANA), are dedicated to supporting the field of nursing and advocating for nurses all across America. The ANA is committed to recognizing and advocating on important issues that impact nurses. Some of the issues that the ANA advocates for include safe work environments, better pay, better benefits, and better nurse-patient ratios. The ANA represents approximately 4 million nurses as they work to empower them, support them, and protect them. Furthermore, membership in the ANA is not limited strictly to individuals.
Moreover, several studies have been conducted to examine the effects of low nurse staffing on patients hospitalization experiences, as well as its effect on nurse careers in the long run. A recent study by Frith, Anderson, Tseng, and Fong (2012) to explore the relationship between nurse staffing and medication errors, demonstrated that medication errors were higher in a cardiac care unit and non-cardiac care unit when staffing levels were lower. In addition, Frith et al. (2012) pointed out that medication errors increase by 18% for every 20% decrease in nurse staffing below the average due to failure to follow medication administration protocol As mentioned earlier, nurses perform the last and the most important step of medication administration. Thus, having adequate time to assess each patient efficiently and following the medication rights is critical to provide safe patient care and prevent errors.
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.
Anyones mental health who works in the healthcare system needs to be greatly paid attention to considering how it could affect their work ethic. In the article, “Nurses, Here's How to Cope with Your Long Hours.” CMS-Next POC ,www .monster.com /career-advice/article/nurses-how-to-cope-long-hours-0716,” It is told how nurses can find a way to deal with the long hours they have to work. Having ways to cope with the long hours of work could give nurses a way to make it through and to minimize the possibility of nurses not being able to fully carry out their jobs.
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
Alyssa DeMarco NYIT: Department of Nursing Short-Staffed, Workplace Violence and Mandatory Overtime: An IOM Nursing Issues Paper I view nursing as a process of continuous growth and pursuit of knowledge to provide competent compassionate care. Registered Nursing Professionals try to deliver the highest level of patient care to ensure satisfaction; however, they face many challenges and issues that hinder their ability to properly deliver client care. There are various issues in nursing that needs to be addressed and this paper will focus on three: nursing workforce shortage, nursing violence and mandatory overtime hours. These issues have a direct effect on patient care and this paper aims to discuss the impact they have on the nursing field.
Nursing, and everything that it entails, cannot be easily described in just one simple word or phrase. It goes beyond the meaning of a profession and the stereotypical definition of treating the ill. Nursing is the “protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, 2010, p. 1). Therefore, it is a career that requires dedication, passion, critical thinking, and knowledge. It demands commitment and an understanding of its core values and concepts, as well as the nurse’s own personal philosophy and principles.
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.
9. PROFESSIONAL AUTONOMY IN NURSING Nursing has come a long way from being the hand maidens of the physician to having control over nursing knowledge and practice. It now has two essential ingredients of accountability and autonomy. There is more demand from the nurses now than in the past when all they were expected to do was just to provide comfort and care.
Short staffing decreases the quality of care provided to each patient, as nurses develop burnout with increase workload. Implementing helpful measures can decrease nurse burnout and the affect it has on patient outcomes. For example, PCSN (patient care support nurses) are a useful resource to provide when nursing staff is low. Nurses can also benefit from applying time management measures during their shifts, such as prioritizing and delegating. The impacts of short staffing may be minimal on patient care if these the proper measures are implemented.
I thought about nursing burnout through watching the video by speaker Madelyn Blaire. Burnout is categorized as physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. Burnout can lead to dulled emotions and detachment. I wonder why nurses are burning out.
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.
Nurses fatigue is growing problem nurse face each day in the healthcare environment, and he can be caused by long hours, sleep deprivation, and possibly by accepting extra assignments can be dangerous for both nurses and patient. These inadequacies can result in major implications for the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care which can lead to fatalities. (American Nurses Association, 2014). In my experience, being fatigued from working much 12-hour shifts consecutively was very difficult as I felt extremely tired, resulting in lack of focus, missing important details during the handing over the process with impaired cognitive functioning. This I found was detrimental to the patients and myself as it impedes quality and has a deleterious effect on patient safety.