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Nursing Shortage And Nurse Turnover

Nursing Shortage And Nurse Turnover

Introduction

The ongoing instability in the nursing workforce has raised many questions about the issue of nursing shortage and nurse turnover (Gates & Jones, 2007). A compressive paper below will discuss the issues of nursing shortage and nurse turnover. The paper will also describe how leaders as well as nurse managers and leaders can resolve those problems effectively and the different applicable principles, skills, roles of the leader, and theories of leadership and management.

There are various factors that are contributing to the current nursing shortage and turnover; some of the factors include poor nursing staff retention, poor working conditions, and nurse burn-out due to working short-staffed, a critical nursing faculty shortage, an aging nursing workforce and greater career choices for women.   Additionally, there is inadequate funding from the federal government for nursing education which in turn has created long waitlists and the turning away of applicants for entry.

According to Paller (2012), the nursing shortage in different countries for example the United States tends not to be the only growing problem, but has also become a complex one. Nursing shortage and nurse’s turnover has become the worsening predicament in the health care industry in the United States. Several studies carried out show that in 2020, the problem may get to worsen more than it is today if no measures are taken in resolving the problem.

For a proper functioning of the hospital facilities, each hospital must have their own managers and leaders who will be responsible of day to day of running activities in that organization. The future and the success of the hospitals can only be decided by the long term strategy that is implemented by the leaders and an overall management. Poor management and effective leadership in the hospitals usually put the life of people in danger. It is true that, when there are shortages in nurses, the nursing turnover rate will on the other hand increase this is because most employees prefer working in an environment where they are esteemed as well as less stress at the workplace (Gates & Jones, 2007). For that case, managers and leaders in the hospitals are placing greater emphasis on how to retain the current staffs instead of hiring new staffs given that workplace learning is essential to staffs and managers allowing managers to know how they can handle every individual in the workplace. Nurses are able to perform well and meet the organization goals if only they can see support from the leadership as well as management. Managers should understand their staffs and know what inspire them so as to stick on to their facility. According to Northeastern University, College of Business Administration (2012), provision of a good working environment with great opportunities for the professional growth and support on personal for the staffs encourages workers retention.

A good leader should ensure that they have a well established leadership skill by having a clear plan of what they should do and a vision, they should also have a good understanding on how the vision and plans should be achieved, however vision only cannot be sufficient enough. The managers should therefore share the vision with their subordinates and find ways of acting upon it as they should try to have excellent interpersonal formal as well as informal relationship skills in solving the problems. According to Wong (2003), effective communication between the managers and staffs in organization is significant since it allows the managers to perform their basic functions which involve planning, organizing, controlling as well as leading making them to perform their jobs and responsibilities. Similarly leaders and managers must communicate effectively with their staffs to achieve the set goals since the success of the organization may not be possible without proper communication.

The approach that best fits my personal and professional philosophy of nursing is the critical thinking. Critical thinking displays how an individual has an intellectual skills and ability towards a certain task assigned; it is also an approach that suits an individual personal leadership style. Nursing work requires proper critical thinking that enables one to apply skilful reasoning for guiding action. Critical thinking in nursing provides clinical decision making of systematic thinking which reflects reasoning process to be used so as to ensure safe nursing practices as well as quality care. According to Heaslip (2008), “Critical thinking when developed in the practitioner includes adherence to intellectual standards, proficiency in using reasoning, a commitment to develop and maintain intellectual traits of the mind and habits of thought and the competent use of thinking skills and abilities for sound clinical judgments and safe decision-making”.

The practitioners in nursing who happen to be critical in their thinking in most cases adhere to the intellectual standards given that they try very hard to strive for their clarity, a complete logicality and to be fair while they listen to their clients. Nurses should eliminate illogical thoughts by not being imprecise, unclear and vague when reasoning about the client care. Nurses who are critical thinkers tend to hold all their views as well as reasoning to these standards ( Heaslip, 2008). The approach of critical thinking in the philosophy of nursing suits my personal leadership skills in various ways, firstly it helps me explore the talents and skills that I have in attending to the clients and secondly it makes me achieve the goals set by the organization.

References

Paller, D. A. (2012). Rx for the Nursing Shortage. Gallup Business Journal. Retrieved November 6, 2012, from http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/13603/nursing-shortage.aspx

Northeastern University, College of Business Administration. (2012). Northeastern University, College of Business Administration. Retrieved November 6, 2012, from web.archive.org/web/20080211140854/http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/skills/writovv.htm

Gates, M., & Jones, C. B. (2007). The Costs and Benefits of Nurse Turnover: A Business Case for Nurse Retention. American Nurses Association. Retrieved November 7, 2012, from http://www.nursingworld.org/mainmenucategories/anamarketplace/anaperiodicals/ojin/tableofcontents/volume122007/no3sept07/nurseretention.aspx

Heaslip, P. (2008). Critical Thinking and Nursing. Critical Thinking. Retrieved November 7, 2012, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-and-nursing/834

Wong, A. S. (2003). Verbal Communication Model. Retrieved November 7, 2012, from http://www.vtaide.com/lifeskills/verbalC.htm

Why I Chose to Pursue Nursing Degree

Nursing Program Application Essay

Why I Chose to Pursue Nursing Degree

My desire to pursue a nursing degree stems from my inborn empathy, the need to be helpful to others, and a clear vision of what I can do to improve people’s well-being. From an incredibly tender age, I knew I wanted to be part of the medical professionals to render quality healthcare and touch many people’s lives globally. I want to pursue a nursing degree to develop myself and develop a set of skills for serving the patient population. I also want to become a nurse since this will mark the start of my long and successful career in serving in the most challenging and rewarding medical career that grows continually with its endless opportunities in practice. Also, with the increasing co-morbid conditions, there is an increased demand for disease prevention, health awareness, and promotion. I want to become a nurse and join the medical staff dealing with the same. I want to be remembered as one of the medical professionals who worked tirelessly and did their best to improve patient outcomes during these challenging times. I believe a nursing degree program will be a crucial underpinning to realizing my ambitions.

Furthermore, I want to pursue a nursing program since I want to take on the challenges that come with the nursing job. While I know nursing is a challenging career, I firmly believe I possess the ability to significantly contribute to the stability and success of healthcare institutions and patients by helping them during their vulnerable times. I am a passionate, compassionate, persistent, and emotionally stable individual. I believe these values will serve me incredibly well in the nursing profession. I also wish to become a nurse due to the amazing rewards of this profession. One of the enormous benefits of selecting nursing as a specialty is the wide range of occupations available under the various categories of the nursing profession.

Why I would Like to Participate in the Baptism Health Nurse Scholars Program (BHNSP)

I wish to participate in the BHNSP so as to partake in clinical experiences with Baptism Health facilities. This experience will improve my skills to serve the patient population better and improve the patient quality of life. Through the experience, I will learn skills such as the ability to monitor and recognize changes in patient signs and symptoms and intervene in emergent circumstances, differentiate between abnormal and normal physical conditions, insights into analyzing the situation, foreseeing pathophysiological problems, and detecting status changes. Also, participating in the BHNSP will allow me to improve my knowledge and skills in managing and caring for patients with critical health conditions. Furthermore, I wish to participate in the baptism health nurse scholars’ program to be able to access free tutoring and lectures each month. This will allow me to focus on a specific subject and gain experience with a different kind of learning to potentially gain new skills and reach new confidence levels. Lastly, I wish to participate in the BHNSP so as to secure an employment opportunity with the Baptist Health facilities to help me reach the lives of as many people as possible and achieve my career goal of positively impacting lives.

Nursing Processes Assessment

Nursing Processes

Student’s Name

Institution

Nursing Process

Nurses use a scientific procedure called the nursing process to ensure patients get quality medical care (Capernito, 2005). The process entails a five-step progression as discussed below.

Assessment

A dynamic and systematic way is used in this phase during collection of data regarding the patient. The data collected from the patient analyzes the spiritual, psychological, sociological and physiological position of the patient (Gardner, 2003).The data collection has several steps to be followed. Such are interviews, finding out a lot of the history of the patient and history of the family of the patient, examination and observation of the patient generally. This helps determine both the manifestation and the physical causes of the patient’s disease. The interaction of the patient with a nurse will assist the nurse know what the patient suffers from. Such manifestations will be portrayed through lack of eating due to loss of appetite, withdrawal from both the staff and family members (Gardner, 2003).

Diagnosis

The second phase entails an agreement between the patient and a nurse to conduct a judgment that is clinical on the health condition of the patient. Reflection of the diagnosis on a patient will show all the sufferings a patient goes through. For instance, all causes of pain that arises as a result of pain (Gardner, 2003). Such may include family conflicts, nutrition that is poor and anxiety. Improvements in health and any kind of syndrome development are assessed through diagnosis (Gardner, 2003).

Intervention

It involves implementing the plan in the nursing care that will help reduce the effect of illness the patient has (Capernito, 2005). Intervention may be in the form of medication or treatment or physical therapy in support of the patient. It is more of counseling to a patient that is on a short term basis that will help the patient be in the state he was in before the casualty. Nurses perform intervention treatment to help patients reach the medical set goals that would aid in their quick recovery.It is for a nurse to have the knowledge of the procedure that is best for the patient to recover. A nurse educates a patient on the importance and side effects of not taking the medication. Nursing intervention is classified into three categories that include dependence, interdependence, and independence (Gardner, 2003).

Planning

A plan of action is developed ones the patient and the nurse reach an agreement when the diagnosis process is complete (Capernito, 2005). Achievable and measurable long term and short term objectives are set by the nurse. The patient moves from always sleeping on a bed to sitting in a chair and also having a walk. He might start eating much frequently than before. Classification of Nursing Outcome is always used in this phase by nurses to assess the progress of the patient. Terms that are standardized and a set of measurements are relied on to check on the patient’s health progress (Gardner, 2003).

Outcome

The result phase is all about the effects of the nursing process. The patient’s health status is evaluated as per the indications of the day by day progress. Outcomes for a patient are always documented so as to follow a patient in some stipulated period of time. It is always based on the intervention of the nursing process and developed to be used in any kind of an environment setting. Basically, patient’s health status is described in the outcome process. Moreover, their usefulness is relevant in other disciplines during the evaluation process (Capernito, 2005).

Allie’s Pre-Surgery Preparation

The nurse must ensure that Allie understands the importance and the process of operation as it is key to the role of nursing. This will help Allie get prepared both psychologically and to assist reduce anxiety as he gets ready for the surgery process (Capernito, 2005).

A band for identity will be placed on Allie’s arm with information printed on it as per the requirement by the National Patient safety Agency. All the assessments pertaining to risk are indicated as required by the local policy. The nurse will record Allie’s health status such as blood pressure, content of the glucose in the blood, his respiration among others.

A definitive observation unit is where patients are moved to from care (Capernito, 2005). It entails highly trained nurses and medical staff with medical facilities to provide intensive care to patients who are extremely sick.

The nurse would console Allie and her parent by offering counseling to them to minimize the anxiety and give them some hope. He will as well tell them after surgery effects and duration expected for recovery (Gardner, 2003).

The nurse will use his knowledge and thinking ability to assess Allie’s recovery process. Both the oral and physical therapy will be given to the patient to help her recover speedy. Allie should be told the importance and side effects of medication and how long she will be under medication. Her parents are the best advisors to be by her side during this difficult time (Gardner, 2003).

To prevent boredom, ones Allie is on the right track to recovery, lots of bed rest will be useless. As a matter of fact, lots of physical therapies will help her health status improve. Walking around and stories of encouragement will be vital to her recovery (Capernito, 2005).

Taking of Allie’s photos by the nurse during her admission and after she is discharged would be an encouragement to Allie and her parents. Gifts to early and always checking on her progress will be a positive recovery impact on Allie’s family.

References

Carpenito-Moyet, . (n.d.). Nursing process made easy. Lippincott Williams & wilkins, 2005.

Gardner, P. (2003). Nursing process in action. Australia: Thomson, Delmar Learning