NUR 308 Concepts Of Professional Nursing Practice
Question
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate leadership in nursing by using an exemplar to illustrate a change project related to a professional nursing practice issue.
To complete this project, the following steps should be completed:
- A title slide.
- A definition of the professional nursing practice issue.
- A synthesis of the current literature you reviewed on the issue.
- A brief introduction to the change you are proposing.
- Anticipated barriers and facilitators to the proposed change.
- Identified champions for the change.
- Evaluation of the change.
- Final thoughts.
Answer
Problem of Nurse Shortage
Definition of Nursing Shortage
According to the study of Littlejohn et al (2012), nurse shortage can be defined as the problem or the situation, under which the demand of the nursing professionals (such as the Registered Nurses) exceeds the supply and this problem is evaluated on the national or global context.
Nurse shortage is also considered as the human resource issue, which means shortage of the workforce in comparison to the demand (Kingma, 2018).
Another definition of nurse shortage is associated with the demand of professional capacity of the nurses, the lack of such capacity can also be considered as nurse shortage (Kingma, 2018).
Current Findings
The current findings inform that the problem of nurse shortage is a very critical problem in the healthcare system of the United States.
Nurse shortage problem can reach to shortage of one million nurses by the year 2020.
Major reasons of nurse shortage the United States is lack of qualified faculty, lack of resources for nursing schools, rapidly aging population of registered nurses, ineffective and inexperienced nurses and low wages with excessive workload.
Nurse burnout is also a major problem due to excessive workload, increasing demand of patients and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases (McHugh & Ma, 2014).
Synthesis of Findings
Study conducted by Cox, Willis, & Coustasse (2014) identified that increasing age of the existing registered nurse is leading them towards the retirement age, which is a significant reason of nurse shortage in the United States. The similar findings have been identified in the study of McHugh & Ma (2014) that the nurse turnover rate increases with the increasing age of existing workforce and increasing workload.
Another finding of the literature is informed by Peterson (2017) is that there is a lack of resources and qualified faculty in the nursing schools, due to which new enrollments could not be received. Similar findings have also been presented by the study of MacLean et al (2014), which states that shortage of the nursing faculty is the major reason of nursing shortage in primary healthcare system of the country.
Synthesis of Literature
The study conducted by Nardi & Gyurko (2013), has also informed that the problem of shortage of the qualified and experienced faculty for preparing the future workforce is a significant problem in the developed countries. The lack of qualified faculty results in the lack of qualified and effective workforce that could be placed in the primary healthcare system.
The new ideas that the studies present is about bringing the change in organizational culture to improve the work environment, as the work environment have significant impact on the working capacity and motivation of nurses to continue working (Nantsupawat et al, 2017). Also, enhancing and improving the organizational leadership and leadership approaches can help in staff retention.
The new ideas that the studies present is about bringing the change in organizational culture to improve the work environment, as the work environment have significant impact on the working capacity and motivation of nurses to continue working (Nantsupawat et al, 2017). Also, enhancing and improving the organizational leadership and leadership approaches can help in staff retention.
Introduction to Proposed Change
The proposed change is to bring changes in the organizational culture and organizational leadership.
Evidences have informed that effective work environment, work culture and supportive environment can help in workforce retention (Peterson, 2017).
Enhancing the organizational support for nurses, increasing wages and providing incentives can motivate nurses to continue working with organization.
Anticipated Barriers and Facilitators
The two Barriers are:
The perception and attitude of the nurses towards change.
Lack of qualified nurses in the system.
Two Facilitators are:
Change can result in reducing the problem of high turnover.
Change can enhance the quality of nursing care by reducing workload.
Champions of Change
The champions of the change will be the people involved in the project.
The organizational management, staff and healthcare professionals will be the champions who will play a significant role in identifying the need of change and implementing change.
Evaluation of Change
The evaluation of change will be done through the changes that have occurred within organization.
The perception and thoughts of the staff will be evaluated to understand that how the change have resulted in improving their experience.
Lastly change will be evaluated through analyzing the level of staff retention.
Final Thought
The problem of nurse shortage in the primary healthcare system of the country can be a major problem, because it is associated with the quality of care delivered to the patients, patient’s satisfaction, and also on patient’s outcome.
Therefore, it is significant that this problem is solved through multiple strategies, as the problem being multi-factorial, a single strategy would not be effective.
Thus, the various strategies should be applied on the organizational basis, such as effective leadership development, improving capabilities of existing workforce, increasing wages and incentives, enhancing recruitment of qualified nursing faculty and developing positive organizational culture.
References
Cox, P., Willis, W. K., & Coustasse, A. (2014). The American epidemic: The US nursing shortage and turnover problem. Paper presented at BHAA 2014, Chicago, IL. Retrieved from: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.co.in/&httpsredir=1&article=1125&context=mgmt_faculty
Kingma, M. (2018). Nurses on the move: Migration and the global health care economy. Cornell University Press.
Littlejohn, L., Campbell, J., Collins-McNeil, J., & Khayile, T. (2012). Nursing shortage: A comparative analysis. International Journal of Nursing, 1(1), 22-27.
McHugh, M. D., & Ma, C. (2014). Wage, work environment, and staffing: effects on nurse outcomes. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 15(3-4), 72-80.
MacLean, L., Hassmiller, S., Shaffer, F., Rohrbaugh, K., Collier, T., & Fairman, J. (2014). Scale, causes, and implications of the primary care nursing shortage. Annual Review of Public Health, 35, 443-457.
Nantsupawat, A., Kunaviktikul, W., Nantsupawat, R., Wichaikhum, O. A., Thienthong, H., & Poghosyan, L. (2017). Effects of nurse work environment on job dissatisfaction, burnout, intention to leave. International nursing review, 64(1), 91-98.
Nardi, D. A., & Gyurko, C. C. (2013). The global nursing faculty shortage: Status and solutions for change. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45(3), 317-326.
Peterson, J. K. M. (2017). Strategies for Managing the Shortages of Registered Nurses. Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration. Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5118&context=dissertations
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