One of the most demanding sectors of the United States’ economy is the healthcare field, and this is why it is challenging not only to secure quality nurses but also to retain them for a long time. Typically, the nursing shortage is a state in which the demand for professional nurses is higher than the supply. According to Rosseter (2015), the United States government is anticipated to experience an extreme shortage of RNs. The nursing shortage is further projected to heap on as the Baby Boomers advance in age, and the need for proper health care continues to grow. Moreover, the government will be obligated to produce up to 1.2 million new RNs by the year 2022 in order to fill job vacancies and replace retired nurses (Abhicharttibutra, 2017). The nursing shortage is connected to restriction on work permits, understaffed nursing schools, overall population growth and early retirement of nurses where many nurses retire at the age of forty-three or less. While some events led to the current nursing shortage, several productive measures can be employed to address the issue effectively.
Measures to Address Nursing Shortage
First, hospitals can employ onboarding programs to induce new nurses with a sense of welcome. According to Rosseter, (2015, group, community cohesion and nurses autonomy decreases worker turnover among nurses. Also, nurses who have a sense of community or group cohesion at work tend to register a high level of job satisfaction. In an even where a hospital setting brings in a new nurse and make the nurse feel welcomed through an onboarding program, there is a high probability of the very nurse to retain the job.
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Typically, an effective onboarding program is scheduled to ease fresh employees into the work to make then less dazed in the first few days. Easing new nurses can be done in various ways; for instance, the hospital management can avoid assigning the nurses to patient care immediately they begin working. Moreover, the hospital can offer a platform for new nurses can get to know them initially working nurses as this would boost a sense of community (Abhicharttibutra, 2017. Therefore an onboarding program is an essential step to take in addressing the issue of nursing shortage because nurses who feel part of a community tend to stick to their jobs or even bring along their friends.
Secondly, a healthcare setting can incentivize desired nursing behavior. Incentives can be a moving factor to attract and retain nurses. As such, a healthcare setting can offer incentives to boost the desired behavior from the working nurses. For instance, healthcare management can consider having a point scheme which awards a point for taking extra shifts, learning a new skill or taking severe shifts. The points can be employed in buying extraordinary prizes or used to aid the nurse in increasing their pay over time. Offering incentives for particular employee behavior can make it easy to staff disliked shifts in a manner that makes the workers happy, and this would increase retention.
Thirdly, investing in professional development is critical in addressing the nursing shortage. According to Abhicharttibutra (2017) , healthcare institutes need to commit to a lasting education in nurses. Moreover, nurses would need advanced knowledge and skills as they are promoted to a managerial position and more innovative posts. Typically, a worker would want to remain in an occupation where there is constant learning and skill improvement as this attracts promotion.
Furthermore, it is essential to develop a succession plan. Healthcare institutions can do practical research and acquire accurate estimates of when nurses plan to retire. Cubing nursing shortage in the healthcare systems may involve researching nurse's plans and their retirement dates (Rosseter, 2015). Healthcare systems can find out how many nurses plan to retire and their exact retiring dates. After finding out the retiring dates of working nurses, the healthcare can identify nursing units and the population, which will have staffing holes. The strategy would aid in early preparation to prevent nursing shortage and staffing.
There is a burning need for nursing schools to expand their student’s capacity in order to prevent a future nursing shortage. Nursing students are the future professional nurses, and their population would determine the ration of nursed to that of patients. As such, nursing schools need to perform strategic partnership with other private sectors to aid in expanding student’s capacity. Expanding schools captivity has proved essential in addressing nursing shortage as more and more schools apply this step. For instance, the University of Minnesota declared a partnership with the Minnesota VA healthcare system in 2012 to expand enrollment in the BSM program of the school (Rosseter, 2015)
Also, healthcare systems can offer flexible schedules which accommodate both the professionals and personal needs of nurses. One of the most challenging things nurses often try to archive is maintaining both personal and professional life balance. As such, healthcare management can improve nurse recruitment and retention by offering flexible working schedules for nurses to cater for their professional needs as well as personal commitments. For instance, working mothers who may want to spend time with their kids can be offered different shifts (mom shifts). According to Rosseter (2015), offering professional nurses with the chance to pick part-time shifts, as well as 8 hours and 12-hour shifts can offer free time for the personal needs of the workers. Therefore, more flexibility in working shifts can give nurses a chance to attend to their personal needs, and this makes them happier with their working environment hence high chances of retention.
Events which provoked the Shortage of Nurses
To begin with, one of the situations which catapulted the shortage of nurses is the fluctuating enrolment of nursing scholars for the past three decades. The critical factor for fluctuating enrolment was the increase of managed care in the early 1990s, which consequently lead to several RNs layoffs by the end of the decade (Egenes, 2017). The RNs layoffs made nursing as a career a somewhat less sustainable choice for scholars who desired professional occupation after the completion of their course. According to Zolnierek (2010), it was at this period that many organizations cut back on the number of nursing faculties they employed, therefore, making them not ready for the d emand required by the Affordable Care Act.
Also, the current nursing shortage is linked to job discontent. The upsurge of managed care made infirmaries systems enthusiastic about stemming the rising cost of healthcare services ( Egenes, 2017). The effect of the scenario was nurses working under increasingly difficult conditions. According to Zolnierek (2010), the hassle of treating problematic and ill patients attracted anxiety and job abrasion, and by 2003 the scarcity of Registered Nurses was projected at 130,000 or 6% of the full-time workforce. Furthermore, nursing became an unpopular career for the womenfolk who had primarily embraced nursing occupation to cater to their needs and that of their families. With time, most women turned to other occupations which had desirable remunerations and better working conditions.
My Role as a Nurse in the event of Nursing Shortage Crisis
According to the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), the scarcity of nursing is set to rise, which will render up to a million positions vacant by the year 2022. As healthcare delivery systems undergo variations and shortages, I will concentrate on reactive care as well as attending the heath needs of hale and hearty people to avert future illness. In addition, educational necessities and skill are prone to change with an attempt to keep up with the continuous changes in skills and technical know-how in the nursing field. Therefore, in the event of a nursing shortage crisis, I would put much effort into my roles as a retiring community nurse and equally take part in other nursing field practices such as the travel nurse. Generally, as a current nurse, I am inundated to needs to take advantage of the projected shortage of nurses through embracing different nursing opportunities to assist in covering the nursing demand.
Legislature Roles in Contributing to Safe Staffing
Typically, safe staffing can help to avert nurse burnouts, therefore, leading to better patient care. Also, safe staffing prevents the healthcare setting from feeling the adverse effects of nursing scarcity. A legislative scope is a state in which the state organization can employ specific approaches which could be helpful in terms of improving the quality of health care services. The Professional Health Care Union and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have come up with a convention which can limit the nurse-patient ratios in the acute setting as well as the long-term facilities.
Moreover, Bill A00921 states that “key care facilities and nursing homes to implement specific direct-care-nurse-to-patient ratio in all nursing units and to maintain staffing records during all shifts” (Zolnierek, 2010) . The bill is structured to reduce the rates of injuries and hospital-acquired diseases and infection like the urinary tract infections, which are often the result of a shortage of nurses. Besides, legislative organizations have the role in increasing career opportunities to nurses through passing and applying rules which may recognize and raise the needs of nurses.
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.
Egenes, K. J. (2017). History of nursing. Issues and trends in nursing: Essential knowledge for today and tomorrow , 1-26.
Rosseter, R. (2015). Nursing faculty shortage fact sheet. American Association of Colleges of Nursing .
Zolnierek, C. D., & Steckel, C. M. (2010). Negotiating safety when staffing falls short. Critical Care Nursing Clinics , 22 (2), 261-269.
