Nurse shortages have continued to be a recurring challenge for several health care centers across the United States. The situation is expected worsen as nurses maybe wanted to work extra workers to compensate for the rising number of patients in many healthcare facilities. The situation is further exacerbated by the increasing figure of the aging nursing populace, reduced employment rates and the global trends that explain these types of shortages (Khamisa et al., 2016). This proposal will deal with nursing shortages and reduced job fulfillment by determining how these challenges can be remedied by employing both short- and long-term measures. The idea is to recommend sustainable moves, among workers of an ancillary department of a large 500-bed healthcare facility. Being the manager of the nursing department, I have spearheaded the initiative to implement these changes and make my staff aware of them as a solution to eminent challenges of staff shortages. My department has been greatly affected by the nursing shortage leading to poor job satisfaction levels that constitute an increased turnover level.
Nursing Shortage Needs and Poor Job Satisfaction Rates
The current modern healthcare centers experience challenges in terms of having the appropriate number of nurses and providing answers that tackle crucial aspects of education, healthcare delivery frameworks as well as policies that influence healthcare provision. The nursing shortages being realized in the current healthcare system is not similar to the ones realized in the past. Nonetheless, not much changes have occurred on other factors leading to the shortages of nurses, whereas there have been remarkable disparities in the number of women currently taking nursing courses, age differences in the nursing profession, reduced number of supporting staff, and variations in the trends globally ( Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017) . Furthermore, several changes in patient care contexts lead to reduced length of stay in healthcare institutions, enhancement in ambulatory and addressing acute cases, enhancement in-home care, and presence of skillful and experienced staff members.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In the language of economy, the aspect of demand and supply forces motivates the shortages of nurses. The balance between demand and supply force could probably deteriorate in the coming years, as more workers will probably go for retirement. Earlier energies are focused on short-term measures to keep staff members by giving them bonuses and lucrative premiums (Snavely, 2016). Unfortunately, such measures have not achieved anything better, and majorly they focus on reorganizing the supply of nurses without dealing with raising the number of professionals. The problem of poor job satisfaction continues to exist in healthcare systems.
Even though the recommendations and solutions become more relevant as indicated in various forms of advertisement platforms, they are condemned for not being progressive and effective, thereby failing to counter the shortages and long-standing issues. A good scenario of a cycle of demand and supply occurred when nurses were graduating and seeking placement in Washington DC (Lu, Zhao, & While, 2019) . Nurses who had finished their coursework could relocate to the state, as there was much demand for nurses in the region. Teachers are experiencing a similar case of shortages so that within every state there is scarcity of workers.
Fundamental Areas needed to Improve Conditions in the Department
The key areas that need to be addressed concerning the nursing shortage and poor job satisfaction in healthcare environments should concentrate on the shifting needs of care. These needs involve the challenges and lapses experienced in the past that did not materialize into workable approaches that could manage those situations. The significant difference should be noted between the traditional function of the manager, stakeholders, the work settings as well as home environment ( Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017) . Hence, the place of modern technology is critical in bringing down the build-up of care and redefining the method of care and addressing issues in the work environment. Embracing modern technology will improve communication, collaboration, and teamwork among team members.
It is significant to understand that labor market encounters increased competition. The healthcare centers fight to recruit and retain the best and talented staffs. Through proper communication frameworks and improving teamwork among members, the staff members will appreciate the conditions surrounding them and be retained in the organization. The best conditions to encourage job satisfaction would be giving bonuses to individual employees and groups working towards the goals of the healthcare organization (Snavely, 2016). Better job satisfaction guarantees collaboration among employees. Job satisfaction could be done by offering tuition compensations to motivate nurses to increase their education and gain more expertise. By employing these measures, the healthcare organizations are able to compete successfully with the growing trends in the field.
Several trends should be examined while dealing with nursing shortages that continue to reoccur over time. To begin with, as far as remuneration is a factor of job satisfaction, it should also be considered to eliminate the issues of shortages as most employees today are comparing their time and money. According to Khamisa et al. (2016), the balance between professional and personal roles can increase collaboration by facilitating employees to engage both at work and home. The employees should also build their skills and expertise so that they can be offered a favorable working condition to work. They should also be given sufficient time to engage in informal teams that match their roles, as a matter of enhancing collaboration.
Another area that needs improvement could be in meeting the different needs of employees regardless of their ages and inclinations. Such a move will make nurses thrive in autonomy, which are highly valued by the generation X employees, who also loved less bureaucracy on them. Poor job satisfaction can be tackled by incorporating working in independence so that they can concentrate and be responsible by themselves. On the other hand, nursing shortages can also be eliminated by employing collaborative management that makes the teams more functional as the influence of hierarchy will be highly reduced. The employees become autonomous to concentrate since only one manager leads them.
Poor job satisfaction among workers is expressed by experiencing job-related stress, low morale, low productivity, and increased employee turnover. The study by Abhicharttibutra et al. (2017) revealed that employees that had reduced job satisfaction could undergo many other challenges that would impact the organization negatively. Happy employees may not experience stress because of work-related factors. Happiness among the employees is achieved through instilling the right communication along the hierarchy. Poor morale may illicit pathetic moral concerns that may not be appreciated by other employees. The effect of this will reflect among the employees leading to low productivity. Therefore, through collaboration and boosting the morale of employees, productivity may be increased. Nurses may continue to work in a healthcare place if they find fulfillment in their tasks (Lu, Zhao, & While, 2019) . Lastly, reduced job satisfaction that is a consequence of high employees’ turnover will give way for employees leaving their jobs. Of course, this will increase the situation of employee shortages. This could be quite unfortunate for hospitals that desired to retain their staff members. Thus, managers are motivated to locate new methods of heightening job satisfaction.
Techniques to Foster Inclusion and Improve Communication and Collaboration
The first technique will be to reinforce motivation of workers. When workers feel valued by being compensated well, they will easily coordinate and collaborate to pursue the goals of the organization. Adequate compensation and offering a favorable working environment is instrumental in fostering collaboration and communication among employees (Lu, Zhao, & While, 2019) . Models of process theories and endogenous theories can be used to boost the morale of nurses by addressing variables like attitudes as well as expectancies. Another approach would be to focus on internal processes that are directed towards improving the conditions and performances of the employees (Snavely, 2016). Efforts to compensate workers’ expectations should be encouraged as well as rewarding of better performances of the nurses. Managers should endeavor to push for intentional goals and allow nurses to communicate easily their needs and demands to their leaders. The intentional goals should be founded on performances of the employees while establishing their dedication to the goals.
In conclusion, as a manager, there is a need to recognize that the behaviors and culture of the organization are learned and modeled daily. Again, this is dependent on the perceptions, approaches and goals that are promoted in the healthcare setting. As a result, this influences emotional responses and skills that can be fortified through practice. Staff shortages and low job satisfaction can be resolved by ensuring collaborative management, which boosts the roles of teams by excluding the aspect of the hierarchy. Through this, communication, collaboration, and teamwork are encouraged among the nurses. The arrangement makes nurses and employees have the autonomy to engage in teams with only the manager overseeing their activities. As the manager, I am convinced that this proposal will be a sure roadmap for resolving staff shortages and low job satisfaction.
References
Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum, O. A., & Srisuphan, W. (2017). Analysis of a government policy to address nursing shortage and nursing education quality. International nursing review , 64 (1), 22-32.
Khamisa, N., Peltzer, K., Ilic, D., & Oldenburg, B. (2016). Work related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses: A follow‐up study . International journal of nursing practice , 22 (6), 538-545.
Lu, H., Zhao, Y., & While, A. (2019). Job satisfaction among hospital nurses: A literature review . International journal of nursing studies .
Snavely, T. M. (2016). A brief economic analysis of the looming nursing shortage in the United States. Nursing Economics , 34 (2), 98-101.
