Qualitative Research Critique Essay

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2009). New Study Identifies Strategies to Retain Experienced Nurses As Nursing Shortage Looms and Nation's Health Care Needs Grow. In Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/articles-and-news/2009/07/new-study-identifies-strategies-to-retain-experienced-nurses-as-.html

Shortage of nursing staff in the long-term care continues to rise due to a couple of reasons. Many studies have revealed several factors that play a significant role in nursing shortages over the years. These factors include health care organizations downsizing the number of staff on a unit and increasing workloads, prolong work hours, and the people leaving the workforce. These factors have a significant impact on the quality of care in the long-term setting. This paper will compare and contrast the effect of lack of staffing has on the quality of patient care in a long-term settings. Over the years, the toll of the economy has had an impacted on the healthcare system which led to the reduction in the number of nursing staff and increasing the workload.

Hello Dr. Ullom, majority of the long term care facilities are under staffed. There is usually one registered nurse in charge to manage a 240 bed facility, with LPN's  and nursing assistance. I feel that these patients would benefit from having one RN to every six -eight patients with a nursing assistance. Not only would this benefit the patient but the nurse as well. Patient are placed in long term care facility with a certain problem, but ends up with additional condition such as UTI, MRSA, pressure ulcers, and etc. These issues are related to poor care they receive because of unstaffing. I'm not placing blame on the LPN or nursing assistance, but with a RN and low nurse to patient ratio, they will receive better care.

There are many major challenges facing the nursing shortage environment today. One of those challenges includes the facility recruitment of registered nurses and then the facility retention of the registered nurses that they have recruited. Factors to consider would be as to why a registered nurse chose to accept a particular job and will they choose to stay at the facility after being given an employment opportunity. A facility’s reputation, union status, autonomy and salary are among some of the factors that influence recruitment. Factors that influence retention includes the inclusion in decision making, practice

The healthcare industry has long emphasized that staffing issues are a constant concern. It is a worry that influences the safety of both the patient and the nurse. A study reveals that over seventeen percent of new graduate nurses leave their first nursing job within a year, and over thirty-three percent leave within two years (Christine T. Kovner, 2014). Nursing turnover in combination with other important factors will be discussed in greater detail in the following paragraphs.

The American Nurses Association say the shortage is the product of several trends, including: a diminishing pipeline of new students to nursing, a decline in RN/CNA earnings in comparison to other career option, aging nursing workforce and an aging population that will require health care services (Writer, 2016). With the shortage of staff and the baby boomers turning sixty and many already in retirement, healthcare staff members are going to have to pick up more shifts and a tougher workload. Healthcare industries need to focus on recruiting and retaining staff because hiring more nursing staff is expensive in the short term. But having too few staff leads to being burned out. Having the right amount of CNAs and nurses is essential for manageable workload distribution. Facilities need to prevent and protect current employed nursing staff from being overworked and stressing out because good health care workers only quit when they are overwhelmed. Most are afraid that they are not providing the best care anymore and feel like they can not do what they love the most anymore (Cimiotti, 2017).

An identified area in which healthcare managers are failing consistent effectiveness is in the retention of their nursing staff. With the need of nurses shaping the way many healthcare managers look at their staff, often it is the veteran nurse persuaded in staying. While in some settings this is truly beneficial, in others the cliché of nurses eating their young instills fear into new graduates; this fear and the lack of support ultimately leads to their exit (Rush, Adamack, Gordon, & Janke, 2014). With the associated costs of nursing attrition meeting rates of nearly $186,000 per registered nurse, it is imperative we institute nursing residency programs immediately and continually retaining staff and protecting healthcare institutions’ sustainability (Cubit, K.A. & Ryan, B., 2011; Lee, Tzeng, Lin, & Yeh, 2009).

The national nursing shortage is an ever-growing concern and it is essential for health care organizations to confront the looming issue. Possible solutions to the nursing shortage include retaining older nurses who are looking to retire, increasing the amount of students graduating from nursing schools, and drawing nurses who have left the nursing workforce back to the bedside (Hatcher, 2006). Leaders must assess the nursing turnover in their organization and strategize on ways to retain those nurses. Organizations must implement techniques to retain older nurses to help combat the national nursing shortage and prevent a national healthcare disaster (Keller & Burns, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to identify the demographic breakdown of an organization, explain how the organization’s environment is conducive and non-conducive to older workers, and describe tactics to retain older workers.

IntroductionThis article touches up on many main points in Nurse Assisting. Authors talk about manynew ways to implement change in Long Term Care Originations. They talk about teamwork,training, and enhancing work strategies. I definitely agreed with this article, with wanting to be aCNA and depending on where I end up working I think it is good that people are wanting tomake these changes.DevelopmentSome key points in this article were how integrating new recruits to manage heavyworkloads in LTCOs can be hard to manage, the enhancements of informal work strategies, andthe debate on if teamwork is a “deterrent to change” or a “lever for change”. Somethings I foundstriking about this article was the heavy load management. In the article one nurse assistantexplained that during training they are told to take all the time the need, but when you startworking in the organization they are told they have 45 minutes with a resident, but actually haveno more than 15 minutes.

The nursing shortage is an accumulation of multiple factors. The four primary contributions to the shortage include the aging registered nurse workforce, declining nursing school enrollments, the changing work climate, and the poor image of nursing (Love et al., 2006, p. 558). When it comes to the aging workforce, approximately one-third of the nursing workforce was over 50 years of age in 2000 and that fraction has increased to two-fifths in 2014 (Nevidjon and Erickson, 2001). Over half of registered nurses intend to retire between 2011 and 2020

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

I conducted interviews with individuals from the Department of Health and Human services that focused on the aging population, vulnerable adults and their residency in long term care facilities. The DHS has different branches that cater to the needs of older adults as well as regulations and laws aimed at protecting residents in long-term care facilities. The regulations include, the Adult protection statute, and general statutory guidelines for home and community-based services under Medicaid. Minnesota and the federal government share responsibility for enforcing the “Nursing Facility Bill of Rights” which explains the rights afforded to residents of nursing facilities.

Rondeau et al. (2008) reported that lack of awareness pertaining to the significant changes of employee market factors in nursing turnover and vacancy. Effective and efficient nurses retention strategies are some of the ways to handle with turnover in healthcare organizations, not all reasons for turnover are employer

On-the-job factors that result in a strong intention to leave the job include: role ambiguity, role conflict, workload (patient/nurse ratio), control of work, burnout, pay, work environment (supportive and cohesive co-workers), structural empowerment (workplace that provides information, support, resources, and opportunities to learn and grow), specialty area, and ward choice. Off-the-job factors include: age, experience (years on the job), level of education, gender, children, personality characteristics (self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability), work-family conflict (extent that work interferes with family), and community embeddedness (how ingrained they are in their community) (O’Brien-Pallas et al, 2010; Battistelli et al, 2013; Laschinger, 2012).

Although I was not directly able to observe conditions on the floor of the units under my manager I feel as though some of the causes of poor nurse retention consist of: decreased average age of nurses; increased rates of younger individuals relocating; increased technology demands for older nurses; increased turnover rates which leads to increase workload for remaining nurses therefore causing an increased rate of burnout; demand by