Nurse Staffing Case Study

Nursing Shortage is a problem we all should be aware of. There are many factors that may lead to a nursing shortage, such as having stressful and unsafe working environments, and our nurses are being overworked. This is a problem we should be aware of because it is affecting the patient care. Nurses would not have enough time to stay with a patient if they have more patients to worry about. Nurses play a big role in our hospitals and communities, “Nurses play significant roles in hospitals, clinics and private practices.

Addisen King Ms. L. Wijntjes ENGL1301.017 12 November 2017 Nursing Profession As a nurse you are expected to care for patients, follow instructions from higher authorities, and help in the recovery of patients. A normal day in the life of a nurse may include wound care, medication distribution, insertion of IV’s, communication with families if not the patient themselves, assist in surgeries, and to care for all patient’s needs. Traits or characteristics of a good nurse are caring, diligence, dedication, responsibility, honesty, patient, organization, flexibility, hardworking, and intelligence. The ESTJs or extraverted, sensing, thinking, judging type are people who like to do things the traditional way or the learned route.

According to Jameton, one of the nurse face a problem and acting according to what she/he pressures is morally right would not create ethical dilemma so that he/she will be more complex. Wilkinson (1987/88) had identified three issues caused ethical dilemma among nurses involving prolonging

Since the beginning of my nursing journey, I have heard about the nursing shortage. It seems unreal to me simply because of how competitive nursing school is and the amount of people that try to become nurses. So why do we have a nursing shortage? “The persistent nursing shortage is challenging the values and beliefs of the nursing profession and causing nurses to ask how they can fulfill their ethical responsibilities to patients when there are an insufficient number and a maldistribution of nurses” (Erlen, 2004, p. 289).

W-6 PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES 1. I chose this competency because as a nurse it is vital to maintain professional boundaries and still be able to provide the therapeutic care without personally getting attached to patients. 2. From the article, I learned that it is ok to be present with your patient, and caring about what they might be going through as you provide necessary care and support, but not to excessively worry about a patient in your personal life/home” (p. 407) 3.

Nurses often face ethical dilemmas and moral distress throughout various levels of direct and indirect patient care. According to Moon and Kim (2015), patients often die in the intensive care unit, and ethical conflicts frequently occur due to a variety of factors, such as verbal abuse, poor communication between health care providers, and increased incidences of end-of-life issues. I think this is a very important subject to think about, especially when these conflicts can significantly impact job satisfaction, burnout, and ultimately threaten the quality of care for patients.

As all know, the incidence of patient falls will be the big thing in every health care centre. I also worry if Madam Y experienced any complications, I might not be able to forgive myself. This critical incident made me feel sad and disappointed in myself. After this incident, I started to blame myself for the fall and this affected my nursing practice until the end of my shift. I still being uncomfortable and not confident on that day while performing my nursing skills and felt sad throughout the day.

The relationship between health care worker and patient must be characterized by privacy, linked to the patient 's need to ease the suffering of quickly.(Macciocchi French, Bush, 2009) .also , To influence patient care from an ethical perspective, nurse needs Knowledge of ethical principles, such as autonomy and beneficence,and to be a major player in the decision-making process regarding patient care ( Parker, F,2007) . A nurse who understands ethical principles, and can use this understanding to influence the health care team to apply these principles, has successfully used power by influencing the action and behaviours of others. (Parker, F.2007)In addition, profession such as nursing, this intends to serve the good of others with a direct impact on the health and lives.

The Nursing Career and Stress and Work-Related Burnout Working in the healthcare field can be overwhelming because of the continuous exposure to stressful events such as illnesses and death. Additionally, healthcare workers may suffer from high work demands such as long working hours, healthcare team relationship issues, and shortage of staff. To contribute with tension, these workers may also be exposed to daily unrelated work problems such as lack of personal time, family and financial issues. Many nurses are often exposed to these stressors and consequently are troubled with job dissatisfaction and burnout because of an imbalance between their work environment and personal life. The nursing profession alone can be very demanding and due

Collaborative nursing is on a rise and nurses are providing patient care in a more team-based environment. Collaboration is defined as “a complex process that builds on communication” (pg. 190). Poor communication and lack of respect between physicians and nurses lead to harmful outcomes for patients. Interprofessional collaboration is the key to achieving success across education, leadership, practice, and better patient outcomes. Often times in the hospital where I work, we huddle with a doctor, social worker, case manager, and charge nurse to review the patient and discuss patient care.

How does this topic affect the general population? Health care in general? The nursing profession historically and to this day has been comprised of mostly women. Male nurses make up only 5.89% of the nursing workforce in Ontario.

A healthcare system should include an interprofessional team that works well together. If everyone in the interprofessional team is not cooperative or passionate about building the group, this may impact a patient’s outcome. The goal of an interprofessional team within a healthcare system is to provide the finest quality of care for their patients. If one or multiple cannot put the effort to work with others, the intended result may be corrupt. It is vital for healthcare interprofessional teams to function as a whole to provide the greatest result.

Reasons for safe staffing ratios From the early beginnings of nursing to present day, safe nurse staffing ratios have been a heated debate. High patient to nurse ratios have been the norm for over a century throughout the United States. As time went on nursing care, technology, cost containments and patient acuity changed drastically further fueling the need for safer staffing levels. Safety in numbers has been the battle cry of nurses across the United States since the 1990’s when cost containment strategies changed the way hospitals managed costs by regulating patient admissions, lengths of stays, patient acuity and training requirements for patient care.

All professions follow a code of ethics. A code of ethics provides legal and ethical guidance to members of a profession. The field of ethics describes how we must treat each other, how we must act, what we must do and why. As professionals, we identify ethical issues that tend to arise within our chosen profession. To consider ethical issues, we need some level of guidance, which is the code of ethics.

- Nurse fatigue is a clinical problem that cannot be overlooked. - Nurse fatigue impedes nursing competency and patient safety. - Long working hour highly associate with nurse fatigue - Nurse fatigue increases medical errors that threaten patients’ safety and outcome; put nurses own health in danger. - Nurse fatigue increase healthcare system cost. - ANA spotted the serious consequences of nurse fatigue and posed a position statement that required nurses and healthcare facilities to work together to reduce nurse fatigue.