NURS 6052 Week 2 Assignment Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
NURS 6052 Week 2 Assignment Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
From a general perspective, healthcare provision involves identifying health problems affecting the populace and developing practical intervention measures. As this happens, policies are made to streamline care delivery as healthcare providers keep learning to improve outcomes. The overall mandate of care providers is to enhance patient safety while striving to optimize quality always. However, everything does not occur smoothly as envisioned since many healthcare stressors affect care delivery and prevent healthcare providers from meeting the set goals. This paper assesses the impacts of nursing shortage as a pertinent healthcare issue at the organizational level and summarizes evidence-based interventions applied by other organizations.
The Nursing Shortage Problem
In practice, healthcare providers should be kept free from exhaustion. The care providers to patient ratio should be manageable such that healthcare providers are not physically and mentally drained. Nursing shortage occurs when the number of patients is high to the extent that care providers cannot provide satisfactory services. The problem creates an environment where care providers are highly dissatisfied and ready to leave (Chang et al., 2017). In response, it has been the cause of 25% nurse turnover in the organization, with 10% of the care providers leaving the profession entirely. This data shows a lack of motivation to continue offering healthcare services irrespective of other measures such as rewards the organization applies to inspire employees.
Undeniably, this proportion of turnover is high and implies two things. Firstly, the organization will continue using massive resources to replace the lost workforce. Doing so leads to a scenario where some areas are underserved since resources are used wrongly. Secondly, turnover increases the healthcare burden to the employees left serving. Since the ones left behind are overworked, they are easily frustrated and can quit too. Eventually, a cycle where patients are underserved and dissatisfied ensues. Such instances reduce the overall quality of care and make it challenging to achieve the set objectives.
Summary of Articles
Nursing shortage causes dissatisfaction, which increases the turnover rate. In this case, nurses are overwhelmed, and the reasons to remain in practice decrease progressively. In response, different organizations apply varying and sometimes interrelated strategies to increase healthcare workers’ satisfaction. The primary role of the strategies used is to inspire healthcare providers and give them more reasons to serve. Indeed, motivation makes them embrace crucial healthcare principles, such as empathy and compassion. It is right to deduce that nursing outcomes can improve if such methods were used universally.
The first article I reviewed examines the relationship between career development and healthcare outcomes. According to Price and Reichert (2017), providing healthcare workers with meaningful training and developmental opportunities make them more engaged. The main reason for investing in development is to reduce the cost associated with recruiting a new workforce. Some of the costs that training and development help to avoid include interviewing, onboarding, and orientation costs. Moreover, if given a chance to attain the highest education possible, healthcare providers feel more satisfied and can stay within the organization for a long time.
The other article that I reviewed examined the connection between healthcare workers’ engagement and health outcomes. As Bokhour et al. (2018) posited, healthcare organizations should always align employee and organizational goals. This consideration is based on the premise that healthcare workers are passionate about helping others when they join the practice, but their mindsets change depending on how healthcare organizations treat them. Given this, as Bokhour et al. (2018) insisted, healthcare workers should be set up for success by providing them with the necessary resources and skill development opportunities. Organizations should always recognize the role of workers and consider their personal goals as they develop their goals.
Strategies to Address Organizational Impact
A high turnover rate is detrimental to the achievement of healthcare goals. Situations prompting turnover at whichever level should be avoided by all means. According to Ayanwale (2019), reward systems can be integrated into healthcare practice to reduce turnover. Like other employees, healthcare providers should be highly motivated to work by recognizing their efforts where they excel. For instance, they should be given off days if they meet their weekly targets. Opportunities for promotion should be fair and based on effort. If such practices are persistent, healthcare workers will remain satisfied and remain committed to serving in an organization. Although reward systems are positively impacting, it is crucial to be careful about their sustenance since they can be expensive.
The other way of preventing turnover is by involving healthcare workers in policymaking. Here, as Safari et al. (2020) suggested, organizations must consider employees’ input when making decisions. The main advantage of recognizing employees’ input is that organizational leaders can know where they might be falling short. The feedback they receive from employees helps them to adapt and deliver better results. Eventually, the entire practice makes employees feel valued and wanted. Such a culture prevents turnover as the level of satisfaction is high, but it can be disastrous since healthcare workers may feel entitled to contribute to everything.
In conclusion, nursing shortage is a real problem in healthcare provision. It hampers the delivery of quality care and risks patients’ safety since patients are underserved. As discussed, the problem can be addressed by addressing issues that cause employee turnover. Such strategies include career development plans for healthcare providers, reward systems, and involving healthcare workers in policymaking.
Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.
Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.
In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.
To Prepare:
Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (3-4 Pages):
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Develop a 3- to 4-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples.
Looking Ahead
The paper you develop in Module 1 will be revisited and revised in Module 2. Review the Assignment instructions for Module 2 to prepare for your revised paper.
By Day 7 of Week 2
Submit your paper.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK2Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
Click the Week 2 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 2 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK2Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback.
