The nursing shortage has become a problem not only in the United States but also in the global healthcare system. Various reasons have been attributed to this shortage of and the subsequent nurse turnover chief among them being a higher percentage of older nurses who are getting to retirements and the decreasing interest in the nursing profession (Rivera, 2009). The leadership and management of the nursing practice can equally not be exonerated from this nursing shortage and turnover problem. This paper examines the problem of the nursing shortage as well as the potential solutions from the perspective of leadership and management. It seeks to determine the most viable solution to the problem of nursing shortage from the approach of leadership and management in nursing.
Leaders and managers in the nursing practice can adopt several solutions in solving the problem. For example, the nursing profession should be made more attractive to the public (Krail, 2015). From this perspective, nursing leaders ought to champion for the welfare of the nurses. In most healthcare facilities, nurses are overworked with long working hours and numerous responsibilities. Nursing leaders should strive to reduce the working hours of the nurses in order to give nurses rest. Since the nursing practice requires nurses to work overnight, such nurses should be given adequate time to rest after overnight work. While this may seem strenuous with the current shortage of nurses, it has a long-term benefit to the practice in that it makes the practice more attractive to the public and hence attracts more nurses in the long run (Rivera, 2009). Moreover, nursing development strategies within healthcare facilities should be developed. Mentorship programs for new nurses by the experienced nurses and leaders within the nursing sector could help improve nursing retention and hence solve the problem of nursing shortage in healthcare facilities.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Secondly, I would expect nursing managers to allocate more resources to the nursing section. The increase in resources should go towards increasing the salaries and allowances of nurses. Moreover, the nursing managers should provide schedule resources for improving the working conditions of nurses such as the provision of adequate personal protective equipment when dealing with patients (Rivera, 2009). Resources must further be allocated towards the process of recruiting more and new nurses to all facilities of healthcare. Prioritizing such initiatives in management will serve to retain nurses in healthcare facilities over a longer period and hence reduce nurses turn over.
Moreover, this initiative will attract more nurses to a given healthcare facility and hence bridge the problem of the shortage of nurses in that hospital (Krail, 2015). These management initiatives are similar to the leadership initiatives described above in that they have a long-term effect of attracting people into the nursing profession. The major difference between the two initiatives is that the management initiative will require resources while little to no resources are required in the leadership initiative described above.
The approach that is best suited for my personal and professional philosophy of nursing include nursing mentorship and training and resource allocation towards good working condition for nurses. My nursing philosophy places significant emphasis on continuous training of new nurses on good nursing practices. I endeavor to develop the capacity of nurses through on job training and offering mentorship to the new nurses. The motivation for this training and mentorship is to enhance the capacity of nurses about emerging nursing techniques and scenarios. Through such mentorship, I endeavor to ensure that the nurses enjoy their roles as nurses and can realize tangible results from their nursing practice. As such, this approach to training and mentorship is well aligned to my philosophy of nursing because it promotes nursing mentorship and continuous training and views such initiatives as motivational to nurses in themselves.
Secondly, resource allocation towards the welfare of nurses is equally an initiative that is well aligned with my personal and professional philosophy of nursing. My philosophy of nursing leadership places significant emphasis on creating an enabling environment in which nurses can carry out their practice. As a leader within the nursing practice, I seek to champion for an enabling environment that can support nurses in their practice of nursing and overall welfare. As such, the management intervention of allocating adequate resources to the welfare of nursing is aligned with my personal and professional philosophy of nursing. The initiative will ensure that the nurses have adequate resources to carry out their practice of nursing practice. It ensures that they are well protected from any occupational hazard within their workplace. Moreover, this initiative is committed to a good remuneration for the nurses (Rivera, 2009). As outlined in my philosophy, this initiative will keep nurses in their respective healthcare facilities over a long time and hence reduce the nurse turnover.
My leadership style has a great orientation to the servant leadership theory. The initiatives described above are largely aligned with this leadership style. First, it prioritizes the needs of the people and seeks to solve their problems. The solution suggested above is largely oriented towards solving the current issues that nurses are facing in different healthcare facilities across the globe. As already noted, nurses are facing reduced mentorship, low pay and poor working conditions. The commitment to address such issues in nursing leadership is a significant sign of serving them and hence characteristic of servant leadership (Krail, 2015). Secondly, it seeks to share power with the people being led. A servant leader shares power through consultations with the people. In this case, improving the welfare of the nurses requires consultations with the nurses to establish the things that affect them. As such, this largely characterizes the servant leadership style that I like.
The implementation of this proposed initiative will require funding. The facility should consider various sources of funding. The first should come from governments. Governments should seek to provide funds required to implement this approach in solving the problem of shortage of nurses and high nurse turnover. Secondly, non-governmental organizations such as World Health Organizations can consider funding the initiatives among developing countries. Lastly, healthcare organizations can equally pass this cost to their customers by including this cost in the overall cost of healthcare as charged by the healthcare facility (Krail, 2015). The above-described funding will be sufficient in funding the proposed solution and hence solving the problem in question.
In summary, the problem of nurse shortage and low nurse turnover is not unique to America but is experienced across the globe. The suggested solutions include welfare improvement, championing for the needs of the nurses, allocating adequate resources to the welfare of nurses including good remunerations as well as nursing mentorship and continuous training. The recommended initiatives would be to nursing mentorship and training and resource allocation towards good working condition for nurses. This initiative is well in line with my personal and professional nursing philosophy. The implementation of this intervention could be funded by governmental agencies as well as non-governmental agencies such as world health organization.
References
Krail, K. (2015). Retaining the retiring nurse Keeping the nursing shortage at bay. Nurse Leader, 3 (2): 33-36.
Rivera, A. M. (2009). Keeping the Focus on Shortening the Nursing Shortage. Nurse Leader, 7 (4): 46-50.
