Among the biggest challenges in health care include the shortage of human resources, especially nurses. Lack of enough nurses has been a growing healthcare problem as health facilities find it hard to recruit and retain nurses. Available data indicate that most hospitals in the U.S today continue to deal with the shortage of nurses. The nursing professionals are the largest group of health workers consisting of 60 % of the employees. The continued lack of cripples healthcare operation and continues to increase the workload for the active nurses ( Nickitas , Middaugh & Aries , 2016 ). This paper aims at discussing factors that led to the current nursing crisis, ways of addressing the crisis, and personal reflection of my role as a healthcare employee in the changing healthcare environment and nursing shortage.
Addressing the challenge of Nursing Crisis
The healthcare department, with the help of hospitals, can solve the problem in multiple ways. Hospitals can use attachment and internship programs to fish for the best nurses. Every health organization should have an internship program annually where a third of the graduate interns are absorbed by the facility where they serve as interns. Such applications will help young practitioners to transit from school into practice while learning from experienced nurses.
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Hospitals should have a program to replace retiring nurses. The application should be set in motion two years before the retirement of a nurse. The retiring nurse should be the godfather to the replacement in that by the time one is retiring. There is someone to take over. Such a program will ensure best practice is retained and making recruitment easy while ensuring that the number of nurses does not decline. The program aims to convert the current nurses into recruiters.
Maintain the numbers through progressive research. Health facilities should and must retain the actual number of the current nurses, those who are about to go on leave, those who are about to retire and so forth. Such amounts are retained through surveys. It is easy to develop a succession plan when the names are known. Proper communication between nurses and management can help maintain these numbers.
Health facilities should have programs that promote long term training and development of nurses. Like any other profession, nurses want to be developed in managerial and innovative positions. This can be done by continuous training of employees to broaden the scope of skills, knowledge, and experience. Nurses are likely to stay in an organization where the employer invests in their practice.
Factors That Led To the Current Nursing Crisis
The problem of insufficient nurses has been forthcoming for a long time. It is because it was not caused by a single factor but events that eventually led to a fall in the number of nurses working in the hospitals. Available data by 2018 indicated that the Healthcare sector was in a nursing shortage of 1.1 million Registered Nurses (RNs).
The growing demand for nurses in the past few decades has led to a shortage of nurses ( Nickitas , Middaugh & Aries , 2016 ). Globally, there is an increased demand for nurses. In the U.S, the growing demand can be attributed to factors such as rising hospitals especially the private sector.
A large number of aging nurses compared to the low numbers of young practitioners. In the U.S, a large population of the nurses is aging and thus a large number retiring. The continued series of retiring nurses has led to the decline of the practitioners. In the 1990s, there was an increased pressure for health care to treat more people, quickly and at a lower cost and complaints by the nurses discouraged the young generation from joining the profession ( Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2019) . As a result, the number of people entering the profession is small compared to the aging group, thus creating a gap.
There is a declining enrollment of nurses because of changing standards of enrolling for the nursing profession. Initially, College diploma was enough for one to enroll as a nursing practitioner, and with time, professionals would upgrade by acquiring experience and acquiring higher education such as degree courses and masters in nursing. However, the standard by the Nursing body in the U.S require all nurses to have a degree ( Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2019) . Now to enroll, one is needed to have a baccalaureate degree, which has caused a decline in enrollments. The presence of a diminishing pipeline of nursing students has created a shortage of nurses.
Increased demand for specialized nurses and health acuity has gradually led to an increase in demand for nurses. Specialized nurses are in high demand as most health facilities are increasingly becoming units of intensive care with activities such as respiratory assistance and cardiac monitoring ( Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2019) . The modern-day nursing profession is highly specialized, which has increased the demand for nurses.
Steep population growth in several states also has led to the need for increased healthcare facilities ( Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2019) . Each new facility put up requires doctors, nurses, and other health workers to serve the growing population. Large cities like New York has a large population, and that need a large group of healthcare providers to serve such a population. The need for nurses in these areas has created a massive gap in the available nurses, and the nurses demanded.
My Role as a Healthcare Employee in the Changing Healthcare Environment and Nursing Shortage
As a nurse, there is a role for me to play in the midst of the existing shortage of nurses in the country. As a health employee, a flexible working schedule is essential. With a flexible schedule, I can also come to work when there are emergencies to help.
I can help by working overtime just for 4 hours a day. The current standard is that a nurse is supposed to work for 6-8 hours a day. However, with the current shortage in human resources in nursing, I can help by working overtime for a maximum of four hours on days when I am supposed to work in a shift of 6 hours and two hours in days that I work on a transformation of eight hours.
I can play a role in airing my voice and the voices of other nurses on how to address the current crisis. As an individual, I can offer my views on how the health sector and the learning institutions can address the current nurse shortage crisis. As an active nurse, I have ideas of how the current crisis can be resolved, and thus, I can communicate my ideas to superiors.
As a nurse, I can promote the career development of interns by acting as a godfather or godmother. Such a move is to have students practitioners learn the activities carried out by nurses. Helping the young is creating confidence and also building on their skills and knowledge for them to become competent nurses. The move can help develop responsible nurses for the future.
It is encouraging the millennial generation to the nursing profession. As a nurse, I have a responsibility to inspire young people to join the business because some of the challenges, such as poor working environments that existed previously have been made better. I can achieve this by holding career days in schools and also encouraging the young people in my community, primarily through social media.
Encouraging other nurses to do more than they are required. Acting as a role model to my fellow nurses in working overtime can assist those who work with me to work overtime as a way of addressing the challenge directly. Also encouraging the nurses to do more than require will help cover most responsibilities that would be covered by a different team.
Legislature’s Role in Safe Staff during Nursing Crisis
The role of the legislature is to create laws that guide the various sectors in the economy. Thus, in this case, the legislature's responsibility is to develop laws that can help with guiding staffing in nursing. The assembly can, therefore, create a law that requires the health facilities to maintain the minimum nurse staffing level. It is a legislation that will need all the hospitals to have an official minimum nurse-patient ratio ( Nickitas , Middaugh & Aries , 2016 ). Such a law will prevent the current shortage from growing into a big problem in the future.
The legislature can also develop a policy that requires each health facility to have a minimum number of healthcare providers during peak hours ( Nickitas , Middaugh & Aries , 2016 ). Currently, the nurses are overworked during peak hours when the number of patients is high. In most hospitals, the employees know when to expect a large patient population, and at such time, it would be essential to have a large number of nurses helping in different sections. It is a way of avoiding overworking the current nursing population.
The legislature can also create a law that requires a health facility to employ a minimum number of employees per annum ( Nickitas , Middaugh & Aries , 2016 ). The law would help address the short term challenges that exist when an employee retires or resigns or go on leave because of illness or other reasons. The law can help eliminate the short-term nursing shortage and in the long-term address, the current national nursing shortage crisis.
References
Haddad, L. M., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2019). Nursing shortage. In StatPearls [Internet] . StatPearls Publishing.
Nickitas , D.M., Middaugh , D. J., & Aries , N. ( 2016 ). Policy and politics for nurses and other health professionals: advocacy and action. Burlington, Massachusetts.
