Critical Issues in Nursing
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The current health care system is faced with several challenges for which the health workers have to prepare for . Nursing, in particular, is more affected since the personnel employed as nurses do spend substantive amount of time with the patients. This greatly impacts on the healing process of a patient, thus affecting their experience. Nurses, therefore, need to be aware of the factors within their work environment that affects the patient experience. This helps in improving the overall quality of nursing care. This paper discusses the shortage of nurses as one of the issues that have greatly affected the nursing sector.
Nurses form a critical part of the healthcare workforce across the globe. The World Health Organization estimates that there are over 29 million nurses worldwide, with a majority being midwives, whose number is approximated to be 3.9 million. Since the healthcare field relies heavily on nurses, the number of nurses globally has always elicited debate among various scholars. They have never agreed on the specific number of nurses that can be deemed adequate. This has led to the shortage of nurses within the health care sector. Furthermore, this has greatly affected the experience of both nurses and patients within the healthcare sector.
The public sector health care system has suffered greatly as opposed to the private sector health care system. This resulted from more nurses shunning public health facilities characterized by lower pay for private health facilities, which attract higher pays. The decline of nurses in public health centers has led to an increase in nurse patient ratio. This further affects patient mortality leading to more deaths in public health facilities than those in private health centers. The problem of overcrowding is also another experienced within the health sectors as a result of nurse shortage. Emergency rooms become overcrowded with patients who mostly outnumber the available nurses. This leads to longer hospitalization durations for patients who would have been hospitalized for shorter duration in a normal scenario.
The long hospitalization periods sometimes lead to patients undergoing additional procedures which come at a cost. Some of the procedures have resulted into permanent disabilities or even death of the patients. The overcrowding has led to nurses being overwhelmed at work within the health centers. This has led to high rates of burn outs of the existing nurses due to the increased workload they have. Either, the increased workload has greatly affected the efficiency and accuracy of the nurses thus hampering their duties. With the reduced efficiency and effectiveness comes slow rate of services which affects the patients. Patients have to wait for longer periods within the emergency rooms for their first consultations with a doctor.
There is also the problem of errors in medical procedures that faces the nurses within the health sectors. When nurses get overwhelmed at work they are prone to fatigue within their work places. This greatly reduces the levels of concentration of the nurses which affects their output. A nurse with a lower concentration at work is prone to make errors in his or her line of duty. A recent survey showed that majority admitted to have committed an error in their line of duty. These errors range from nurses mixing medicines in wrong rations to them giving various medications to the wrong patients. Some of these errors have led to fatalities that are irreversible and sometimes lead to death of the patients. These fatalities brought about by the nurses’ errors sometimes lead to controversies pitting the hospital management and the patient’s relatives. Some of them have ended up in courts which are an additional burden to both parties involved as both have to bear the legal costs involved in the whole process.
There are a number of measures that have been undertaken in a bid to address the shortage of nurses’ problem. These measures have not fully addressed the issue surrounding the shortage of nurses and more still needs to be done. Increasing the salaries of nurses within the public health sector and payment of bonuses is one measure that has been used in addressing the problem. This is aimed at discouraging nurses from migrating to the private sector where the salaries are higher. Another strategy the stakeholders can use to address the problem of shortage of nurses of by creating diversity within the sector. This can be achieved through expanding the conventional scope nurses are sort from. The underrepresented population can be sort out to narrow the gap which goes a long way in creating diversity within the nursing profession.
Stakeholders also need to provide better training for nurses especially those already registered. Since overworking of nurses denies them the opportunity to get proper training, this measure will ensure that they get the opportunity to grow their knowledge within their area of work. This will be advantageous to the registered nurses who might seek better growth in their fields elsewhere. Statistics show that the professional development does create a sense of loyalty among the nurses reducing the rate of nurse turnover. Health facilities can also employ nurses on a seasonal basis to address the shortage. The number of patients should dictate the number of nurses that these health facilities can employ at any given time. Seasonal hiring can also be used to address the shortage created by natural attrition of retirement of nurses.
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