Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management
The current and growing shortage of nurses is posing a real threat to the ability of hospitals, long-term care facilities, and others to provide timely access to quality care. Nurse staffing shortages and nurse turn-over contributes to the growing reduction in the number of staffed patient beds available for services, increasing costs, and rising concerns about the quality of care. Health care organizations highly depend on nurse managers and leaders to reverse this trend. This paper discusses the reasons for nursing shortage and turn-over, different approaches to solve this issue, and my personal philosophy about this issue.
Nursing Shortage and Nurse Turn-Over
Nursing shortage is
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The financial cost of losing a single nurse has been calculated as equal to double the annual salary of a single nurse. Various studies reveal that each hospital in America is losing almost $300, 000 per year because of nurse turn-over. Nurse turn-over can negatively impact the health care system in many ways such as poor quality of patient care, increased medication error, hospital acquired infection, prolonged patient stay at hospital, and increased staffing cost. Many factors contribute to nurse turn-over such as workload, absence of career opportunities, poor work recognition, and lack of communication with management about issues (Hunt, 2009).
Strategies for Nursing Shortage and Nurse Turn-Over
Nursing shortage and nursing turn-over cannot be addressed through a single intervention because there are multiple reasons for the shortage and turn-over. Nurse managers and leaders play a major role in solving this problem by different approaches. Many different strategies are available to address these issues and they are described as follows.
Create a Healthy Workplace
The main role of nurse manager is to create a healthy, pleasant, and productive work environment for the staff. A nurse manager should have a variety of skills to deal with diverse group of people to maintain a good work environment. Nurse manager can offer flexible work schedules to the staff because young workers prefer long shift
Nursing shortages have always occurred in cycles. Recently, the shortage has become worse due to the implications of managed care as a way of controlling escalating health care costs. While the shortage did ease some during the recession of 2009, there is still a shortage in some areas of the country (Cherry & Jacob, 2014). Increased student enrollments and government policies have helped with the shortage, but the occupational outlook for nursing jobs is expected to grow faster than any other occupation through 2018. So it is essential that the supply of nurses increases to keep up with the demand. The current shortage is due to several factors. First, new nurses are needed to replace “baby boomers” who will be retiring in the near future. Second, as the population ages, there will be a demand for more healthcare, leading to a demand for more nurses. Third, new advances in patient care will lead to more people in the healthcare system needing more specialized care, and lastly, the affordable care act places a large emphasis on preventive care, leading to more people desiring wellness visits (Cherry & Jacob, 2014). Finally, according to Dall’Ora, Chiara, Griffiths, Peter, Ball, Jane, Simon, Michael Aiken, Linda H. (2015), “shifts lasting 12 hours or longer were associated with a 40 percent greater level of job dissatisfaction and a 31 percent higher risk of planning to quit. Job satisfaction and burnout in the nursing workforce are global
There are many challenges facing today’s nursing leaders and managers. From staffing and scheduling, to budget cuts and reduced reimbursements, today’s nursing leaders must evolve to meet the ever changing health care environment. Constance Schmidt, Chief Nursing Officer at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC), identified retaining experienced registered nurses (RN) as one of the biggest problems she faces as a nursing leader. She went on to state “Nationally, most hospitals have more than 60% of their nurses with at least 5 years of experience. At CRMC, it’s the reverse. We have more than 60% of our nurses with less than 5 years of experience” (personal communication, March 28, 2014). The two largest factors affecting those numbers are the nursing shortage and nursing retention. The first, the nursing shortage, was identified years ago and has been researched countless times. Some projections indicate the number representing the gap between available registered nurses, and the positions needing to be filled, could be over a million before the end of the current decade. The latter, retention of nurses, is a problem in every health care facility in the nation. Nursing turnover results in both a significant financial cost to hospitals, and a significant impact on the community through its effects on patient outcome.
Communication skills sometimes take a backseat to matters of finance and business they are in fact essential to producing desired business results—from achieving physician buy-in for technologies, to convincing staff to embrace change, to building community support for hospital initiatives. Today, more healthcare organizations are recognizing the importance of effective communication and are using innovative methods for improvement—such as "lock-ins," where leaders, managers, and staff employees, work together to plan budgets, and "jamming" or "workouts," which are
While the US has more nurses and physicians than ever before, upcoming retirements and a dysfunctional workplace are creating clinical shortages that can become more severe than the industry can bear (Woods, D. 2009). According to research, half of all nurses working today were born during the baby-boomer years. Therefore, the workforce is aging at a rapid rate. As such, in efforts to prevent a mass exodus from the profession, healthcare organizations leaders are exploring innovative ways to keep experienced nurses (Larson, J, 2009). The average age of registered nurses has risen from 41 in 2002 to 48 in 2006(Bolton-Burnes L. 2007). Even more troubling, in 2006, 45% of hospital-employed RNs
The American healthcare system is severely impacted by the shortage of nursing personnel. According to the American Nurses Association (2014), the nursing shortage has compromised patient safety, patient care and patient health outcomes. The nursing shortage can also cause medical errors, result in fatigue, injury and job dissatisfaction. The nursing shortage has been influenced by several factors. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors that influence nursing shortage in the U.S, present two strategies to address the issue and my personal recommendation.
America is one of the most affluent countries in the world, but is also a nation that has a healthcare industry that is in much turmoil. One of the more pivotal influences of this turmoil is nurse turnover rate. Nurse turnover does not have a universal meaning, consequently making it difficult to associate turnover rates in healthcare facilities and geographical areas. In all actuality, “"Nurse turnover" is an undesirable trend for healthcare employers. It 's expensive, it 's disruptive, and it threatens the quality of care and patient safety” (Kovner, Brewer, Fatehi, and Jun (2014). All throughout America healthcare organizations demand a steady, extremely trained and completely engaged nursing staff to provide efficient levels of patient care. However, a budding shortage of experienced nurses has led the United States healthcare industry to a continual increase in the turnover rate among registered nurses. As a matter of fact, “Hospitals are experiencing an estimated 16.5% turnover rate of registered nurses (RNs), increased from 14.7% in 2012” (Yarbrough, Martin, and Alfred, 2014). Turnover costs of these leaving nurses are as much as a universal problem throughout the healthcare industry, occurring at staggering prices. According to Yarbrough, Martin, and Alfred (2014) “Estimates of RN turnover costs range from US$44,380 to US$63,400 per nurse—an estimated US$4.21 to US$6.02 million financial loss per year for hospitals.” This ascending trend in turnover rates is a clear
The nursing shortage in healthcare has been a highlighted issue for many years. With the ever-growing health care system, hospitals and healthcare facilities often find themselves searching for ways to acquire new nurses and retain their very own. Throughout the years, the number one solution to this problem remains the same: decreasing nurse turnover, and increasing nurse retention. This paper discusses the causes of high nurse turnover rate, the negative effects on health care, and ways to improve the turnover rate.
The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the root causes and factors related to nurse turn over and find evidence-based solutions to decrease nurse turnover. This is a critical issue that can cripple healthcare organizations (HCO) and is complicating the nursing shortage in the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (2018), registered nurse (RN) job forecast summary projects a 15% growth rate from 2016 to 2026. The increase in demand for registered nurses is due to many factors, such as an aging population, shorter hospital stays, increase demand for long-term care, outpatient, and homecare needs, and changes in government healthcare reform is providing greater access to healthcare (U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics, 2018).
Many healthcare organizations worldwide are striving to achieve magnet designation. Having the magnet title is essential because it recognizes healthcare organizations that act as a “magnet” for excellence by establishing a work environment that identifies, rewards, and promotes professional nursing (ANCC Magnet Designation, 2012). A magnet hospital is considered to be one where nursing provides excellent patient care, where nurses have a high level of job satisfaction, and where there is a low staff
It is likely that most people have heard about the nursing shortage for years now, and perhaps they believe it’s been fixed. However, the nursing profession is experiencing a reoccurring deficiency. According to Brian Hansen, (2002), there was a nation wide shortage in 2001 of 126,000 full-time registered nurses, but the shortage will surge to 808,000 by 2020 if something isn't done. This pattern is a persisting cycle of high vacancies followed by layoffs and a high over supply of registered nurses. Various factors contribute to the lack of nurses within the health care facilities, but today’s shortages are a little different. Many feel that this scarcity is severe and long-drawn-out. The four major issues contributing to
Nurses are crucial in providing quality care in the health care industry. It is imperative to maintain the proper staffing ratio to ensure that nurses can maintain high quality care for their patients. Studies have shown that the increasing workload of nurses can be linked to increased patient deaths, medical errors, hospital-acquired infections, longer hospital stays, and many other complications. (National Nurses United n.d. ) Leaders and managers play a vital role in developing
With the ongoing changes in the healthcare field, nursing workforce retention presents itself as one of the greatest challenges facing healthcare systems today. According to the American Nursing Association, nursing turnover is a multi-faceted issue which impacts the financial stability of the facility, the quality of patient care and has a direct affect on the other members of the nursing staff (ANA, 2014). The cost to replace a nurse in a healthcare facility ranges between $62,100 to $67,100 (ANA, 2014). The rising problem with nursing retention will intensify the nursing shortage, which has been projected to affect the entire nation, not just isolated areas of the country, gradually increasing in its scope from 2009 to 2030 (Rosseter,
There are nursing shortages all over the US and something needs to be done about it. Nurses become overworked and stressed out. If there were more nurses it can lead to a better outcome for the nurses and patients. This paper will discuss a broad overview of the patient outcomes, data to prove we need more nurses, nursing issues that specifically impact the patient outcomes, and how to collect data on the lack of nurses.
The nursing shortage negatively impacts the quality of care for patients due to the high patient-to-nurse ratios; causing more burnout, more infections/diseases, higher re-admission rates, job dissatisfaction and higher risks for medication and safety errors. Minimum staffing regulations, ongoing, long-term workforce planning, implementation strategies for retaining nurses, technological advancements to increase the nursing workforce, and advocacy for increasing the nursing education funding are all measures that can be taken to help resolve the nursing shortage crisis.
Nursing care delivery is defined as the way task allocation, responsibility, and authority are organized to achieve patient care. Tiedeman and Lookinland (2004) suggested that systems of nursing care delivery are a reflection of social values, management ideology, and economic considerations. (Tiedeman&Lookinland, 2004) According to Fewer (2006), the quality of nursing care delivery systems affects continuity of care, the relationship between nurse and patient, morale, nurse job satisfaction and educational preparation.(Fewer, 2006) Nurses are essential human resources to provide medical services with professional knowledge and skills in the healthcare setting. However, the registered nurse turnover rate has increased in recent years resulting