Clinical Application Project – Nursing Shortages

Clinical Application Project – Nursing Shortages

Nurses are essential in healthcare, and they are the largest part of the healthcare profession. There are twenty-nine million nurses globally, with 3.9 million nurses present in the United States. In the organization where I did my clinical placement, there was a significant shortage of nurses. This was attributed to a high turnover of nurses. In one year, this organization had a turnover of 100 nurses. The reasons for this high turnover was due to job dissatisfaction and burnout. This project is pertinent to this hospital since it is not unique to them. There is a shortage of nurses in all facilities in the United States. This issue is pertinent since nurses are an important part of the healthcare team, and their shortages will compromise the quality of care offered to patients. This project will benefit this organization since they will be aware of the reasons for perennial nurse shortages and ways of addressing them.

Literature Review: Issue

Haddad et al. (2020) state that the nursing profession keeps facing shortages because of a lack of potential educators, inequitable workforce distribution, and high turnover. This leads to nurse shortages, which seriously affect the quality of healthcare services. Some of the causes of nursing shortages include the ageing population. The US has the highest number of citizens older than sixty-five years in their history. An ageing population leads to an increase in demand for healthcare services. They also have more comorbidities, and treating this condition can lead to a strain on the workforce (Haddad et al., 2020)

Similar to the ageing population, there is also an ageing workforce. An estimated one million registered nurses are aged fifty years and above (Haddad et al., 2020). The nursing schools are having shortages, and hence, there is limited training of nurses, leading to shortages. Another cause of nurse shortages is burnout, which leads to a high turnover rate. Haddad et al. (2020) note that most nurses are females, and most leave their jobs during their childbearing years, leading to nursing shortages. Different regions in the US have an inequitable distribution of the working force. Some regions have a surplus with low growth potential, while others have a shortage with higher growth potential. Another cause of nurse shortages  Another cause of nurse shortages of nurses is violence in healthcare organizations. These forms of violence include physical and emotional abuse, which affects job satisfaction (Haddad et al., 2020). Nurses also take emotional and physical abuse from the patient, such as in psychiatry and emergency disturbance. A study done in Poland indicates that nurses are the most vulnerable healthcare professionals who experience violence in verbal abuse (Haddad et al., 2020).

Tamata et al. (2021) note that the nursing profession is essential in delivering healthcare services globally. The global shortage of nurses has negatively impacted nurses’ performance in providing quality healthcare services to the population. The authors note that nursing shortages cause stress to other nurses, causing them to leave their jobs. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2035, the demand for nursing will reach 12.9 million (Tamata et al., 2021). The nursing shortages have negatively impacted patient outcomes, increasing workload and thus decreasing the quality of nursing care. Tamata et al. (2020) note that the causes of nurse shortages, according to nurses, include heavy workload, lack of workforce, unusual working hours, lack of support from the organization leaders, lack of advancement opportunities in the nursing career, perceived risks, physical abuse, mental risks, medical risks, and social risks.

Literature Review: Solution

Buchan et al. (2015) note that enactment of policies is necessary for solving perennial nursing shortages. The authors note that policy formulators should consider longer-term trends such as demands for care, funding, advancements in healthcare, projection of future supply of registered and the growing need for productive and effective nurses in the labour market. Healthcare organizations should also strengthen existing policies that improve retention, expand the recruitment base, and target returners, which will enhance patient care (Buchan et al., 2015). Improving retention by reducing turnover and retaining nurses with more kills in employment will positively impact care and increase economic returns for healthcare organizations. The government and private healthcare organizations can raise the retirement age to seventy, which will keep the skilled nurses in employment for a long time to mentor other novice nurses (Buchan et al., 2015). Policies must also be enacted to reduce the workloads of these nurses and offer them flexible working schedules.

Mousazadeh et al. (2019) note that improving human resources is critical in enhancing job satisfaction. Nursing education is vital since it enables the staff to develop and grow as professionals and become satisfied with their jobs. This will improve nursing retention and hence minimize the shortages. Organizational commitment influences nurses’ job satisfaction since it enables the nurses to be loyal and committed to the goals and objectives of their healthcare organization. Mousazadeh et al. (2019) suggest that organizational resources such as favourable working conditions and recreational facilities such as entertainment activities will help improve job satisfaction, which will enhance nurse retention and thus reduce the nurse shortages that healthcare organizations are facing in the United States and even globally. The other solution for addressing nursing shortages is ensuring adequate staffing, proper equipment, and effective managerial methods (Mousazadeh et al., 2019).

The intervention that has been selected for this healthcare organization to solve the nursing shortages is by improving organizational resources (Mousazadeh et al., 2019). This will involve improving the equipment, hiring more nurses, and creating recreational facilities.

Implementation

The project aims to improve the organization resources for this healthcare organization. This will involve buying more medical equipment, improving the existing ones, and hiring more nurses to reduce workload and thus improve retention. The final part of the project will involve creating a recreational facility with music and lounges in which nurses can relax and take their lunch.

The project will be concluded in one year. It will be implemented in two phases. The first phase will involve the implementation of solutions that are easy to accomplish. In liaison with the human resource department, hire more nurses to help remove the workload from the nurses who are already employed. This will be done immediately. The chief nurse will liaise with the finance and procurement department to purchase new medical equipment that will improve service delivery and improve job satisfaction. This will occur within six months. The final phase will involve creating a recreational lounge for nurses to rest and relax during shift breaks. This will occur in the final six months.

This project will improve nurses’ job satisfaction. This will improve their retention, reduce the high nurse turnover in this organization and thus reduce nurse shortages. The evaluation of the success of this project will be through the analysis of the nurses’ turnover. In case there is a high turnover, then this will mean that the project has failed. However, if there is a low turnover of nurses, this will indicate the project’s success.

References

Buchan, J., Duffield, C., & Jordan, A. (2015). ‘Solving’ nursing shortages: Do we need a new agenda? Journal of Nursing Management, 23(5), 543-545. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12315

Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2020, December 14). Nursing shortage. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

Mousazadeh, S., Yektatalab, S., Momennasab, M., & Parvizy, S. (2019). Job satisfaction challenges of nurses in the intensive care unit: A qualitative study. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 12, 233-242. https://doi.org/10.2147/rmhp.s218112

Tamata, A. T., Mohammadnezhad, M., & Tamani, L. (2021). Registered nurses’ perceptions on the factors affecting nursing shortage in the Republic of Vanuatu Hospitals: A qualitative study. Plos one, 16(5), e0251890. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251890

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Clinical Application Project – Nursing Shortages

CAP Instructions

Description:  The Clinical Application Project (CAP) is an opportunity for the student to identify an issue, topic, or challenge that is relevant to their clinical placement. The student will examine the research related to their topic and investigate the literature regarding a potential solution for, or intervention to improve, the issue. The student then creates a final project, intervention, or solution to their identified topic.

Step-by-step directions:
1. Identify a problem, issue, concern, or area for improvement relevant to your clinical setting. Nursing shortages
2. Educate yourself about the importance of your topic to nursing and your particular clinical placement. Whenever possible, you will want to include facts, statistics, etc. relevant to you
3. Critically analyze the literature related to the area of concern.
4. Identify possible solutions to the selected area of concern based on the evidence in the literature.
5. Review each for its strengths, weaknesses, and feasibility.
6. Select one solution.
7. Engage in the necessary work for this quality improvement project (e.g., develop a new form and identify approvals required for its use). Although students may not have enough time to actually implement their entire project or quality improvement activity, the final work product should clearly outline the plan for implementation, including a timeline.

Students will provide evidence of their work by submitting the product of their (e.g., educational program outline, instructional pamphlet, nursing form, pocket resource, new policy, patient or family-focused education, etc.)