Staff Shortage in Nursing
Introduction
Nursing is a dynamic profession that involves caring for sick and disabled people. Nurses play a significant role in the health care system as a connection between patients and doctors. Among the most pressing issues facing our generation is the nursing shortage. The need for healthcare services and nursing staff is steadily increasing despite the supply of nursing staff gradually growing (Drennan & Ross, 2019). Consequently, the supply gap that already exists is widening. The shortage of nurses is a serious issue that has made it harder to meet global healthcare goals, particularly regarding infections and illnesses connected to healthcare. Healthcare executives have encountered persistent difficulties in recruiting and retaining nurses, primarily due to factors like a shortage of professional nurses, decreased funding for institutions, and nursing turnover (Spurlock, 2020). This essay will outline the nursing shortage issue and potential solutions associated with this issue comprehensively.
Reason of staff shortage
According to the World Health Organisation stated by Mar? et al. (2019), 12.9 million nurses will be required by 2035, despite the present scarcity of nurses. "Approximately 194,500 jobs for registered nurses are expected each year," according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics mentioned by Olivieri-Mui, (2023). Even though it seems high, the statistic was estimated before the global epidemic, a time when a large number of medical workers decided to leave their jobs. The demand for nurses to care for older people population is growing, and a high rate of turnover in nurses is one of the main causes of the nursing shortage, based on reports published in the nurse Journal (Xu et al. 2023). The primary factors impacting the shortage of nurses in the workplace, according to Lopez et al. (2022), were inefficient laws, rules, and strategies; insufficient budgeting and human resource planning; insufficient workforce planning and hiring; incompetent execution plans; ongoing changes in government agents; and a lack of leadership administration.
The shortage of nurses in the workforce has been impacted by factors contributing to nurse turnover. According to Turale & Nantsupawat, (2021), staff turnover is caused by excessive workload, dissatisfaction with work, a lack of social support, and a professional vision towards nurses. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a decrease in hospital employment, contributing to the nursing shortage. Olivieri-Mui et al. (2023) revealed that decreasing nurse enrolment and lack of training for new nursing intakes affect the nursing shortage. Nursing programmes nationwide are also suffering as they can no longer handle the volume of applications they receive; nurses cannot teach and support healthcare systems with their overabundance of patients if there is not enough faculty.
According to Mar? et al. (2019), the wave of nurses retiring at an unprecedented rate is another critical leading cause of the nursing shortage. Nursing is a highly stressful and demanding profession. Therefore, nurse burnout and a lack of support drive nurses to leave the field and pursue other healthcare roles. The opportunities for nurses to find employment will not stop, but there will be fewer opportunities for those seeking employment in the nursing field.
Affordable care act on nursing shortage
The number of individuals who can now access healthcare has increased as a result of the Affordable Care Act. The ACA addresses a wide range of health issues, including long-term conditions like dementia (Porat-Dahlerbruch et al. 2022). People are now more aware of preventative healthcare due to health coverage, and this has helped to foster a culture of health. The need for high-quality medical care and preventative measures to stop illnesses and infections linked to health issues has increased as a result of these changes.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded the pool of individuals qualified to receive health care. It has increased non-nurses’ preference for the nursing profession. Since the ACA's implementation, there has been a predicted steady increase in the average salary for registered nurses. There will be more registered nurse’s jobs and opportunities available for nurses, according to the ANA (Porat-Dahlerbruch et al., 2022). Because of the high patient-to-nurse ratio brought on by the nursing shortage, practicing nurses are forced to work long hours.
The solution to the nursing shortage
Healthcare facilities can address the effects of the shortage of nurses in a few different ways. Healthcare systems can help nursing programmes and universities by providing nursing students with training; they can collaborate with nurse staffing agencies to hire nurses from other countries and use new technology to make nursing tasks less tiresome. Unlike travel nurse contracts, which typically involve a 13-week commitment, international nurses are contracted for two- to three-year assignments at a hospital for rates lower than travel nurse rates (Shamsi & Peyravi, 2020). This allows for more excellent stability and retention at the unit level.
Maintaining a steady and adequate supply of nurses is an essential national and hospital priority. Several factors that impact the retention of registered nurses include practice autonomy, respect from managers, workload, participation in decision-making, flexible scheduling, education, and compensation (Turale & Nantsupawat, 2021). Hospitals risk losing knowledgeable and experienced staff if they cannot retain qualified registered nurses. Furthermore, during this transition, hospital productivity will be decreased. High employee turnover rates among registered nurses may also affect nurses' overall morale and job satisfaction. Maintaining certified registered nurses will improve the standard and satisfaction of patient care. In addition, hospitals may consider more affordable approaches to address the nursing shortage, such as hiring more foreign nurses, switching to flex shifts, internal recruitment, and temporary to permanent work. While most healthcare systems are searching for recent nursing graduates to fill their positions, they are also considering internal recruitment growth, improved compensation packages, sign-on bonuses, and external advertising (Drennan & Ross, 2019). The concept of supply and demand in economics is applied to the problem of the nursing shortage. Because there are variables that continually affect the two market forces, it is almost impossible to bring supply and demand into equilibrium. The availability of nurses can be increased, though.
Filling the void left by retiring nurses requires the creation of policies that facilitate the hiring of recent graduates as nurses. Unguided graduates find it difficult to secure nursing positions. To address the nursing shortage, a smooth and efficient transition from college to the workforce is required. Making efficient use of the resources at hand is an economic principle that must be applied in full to nursing care (Spurlock Jr, 2020). The current void created by the nursing shortage might take some time to fill. However, healthcare quality and safety can be improved if all available nurses receive training on how to use resources efficiently. It is possible to meet the needs of healthcare at a reasonable cost. Compared to physicians and doctors, nurses can offer higher-quality,
Conclusion
In conclusion, low-quality care and decreased patient safety have plagued the nursing profession due to the nursing shortage, which has detrimental effects on patients and organizations. Nurses are a doctor's supplementary and complementary staff, so they play a vital role in the healthcare industry. Even for elderly patients receiving care at home, nurses facilitate patients' access to healthcare. The primary factors influencing the scarcity of nurses are supply and demand, both of which are impacted by shifting financial patterns like recessions. The current economic downturn presents a twofold challenge as it has the potential to either augment or diminish the availability of nurses. In addition, medical facilities might be unable to keep their nurses during a downturn, which could result in a shortage.
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