NURS 6053 ANALYSIS OF A PERTINENT HEALTHCARE ISSUE Issue & Impact
Nurse practitioners serve as fundamental assets to healthcare service. They serve as the largest section of the health profession (Haddad et al., 2023). However, nurses face many obstacles within the healthcare setting. A major issue faced by nurse practitioners today is the shortage of nurses within the field of healthcare. Nurse-to-patient ratios are versatile based on staff and facility requirements, accommodations, and even coverage. Due to increased demand for nurse practitioners, nurses have had to adapt to unsafe ratios, responsibilities, and practices. This is due to the immediate impact that the past three years have had on the healthcare setting.
Nursing shortages have been a pertinent issue throughout the history of healthcare. However, 2020 exacerbated the issue of nursing shortages due to the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 resulted in a severe impact on the healthcare setting. It demonstrated that without enough registered nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and other clinicians, the U.S. healthcare system cannot function (Costa & Friese, 2022). The pandemic exposed major weaknesses in the healthcare setting and unnerved countless nurse practitioners and other clinicians.
While the pandemic resulted in an increased demand for nurse practitioners and other clinicians, the stressors of the pandemic also resulted in decreased motivation, safety, and job satisfaction for nurses. According to a national survey by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, “66% of respondents reported having considered leaving the profession, a percentage much higher than previously reported rates” (Costa & Friese, 2022). In fact, the literature of nursing shortages has seen a recent increase in scholarly attention since the pandemic began.
Summary of Literature
Nursing shortages are an unprecedented issue within the healthcare sector both nationally and internationally. In the examination of nursing shortages in the United States, it has been made evident that nurse practitioners have been more concerned with their responsibilities and duties in the past three years than other points in history not including natural disasters. Aside from the textbook, two articles on nursing shortages have been reviewed from outside resources. These articles address the issue of nursing shortages in different healthcare organizations. The following is a summary of the two articles from New England Journal of Medicine and the National Library of Medicine.
“Nursing Shortage” by Haddad et al. (2023) describes the advent of nursing shortages in the United States. This article from the National Library of Medicine also provides recent statistics on the prevalence of nurse practitioners in the United States. According to the article, there are approximately 29 million nurses and midwives globally, with 3.9 million nurses and midwives in the United States (Haddad et al., 2023). The article emphasizes the need for more nurses within the next decade, which has been influenced in large part by the discouraged nurses who served as essential personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Costa & Friese’s “Policy Strategies for Addressing Current Threats to the U.S. Nursing Workforce” (2022) explains how the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in decreased motivation for nurses to return to work. Studies in this article have shown that a range of stressors and traumatic experiences, including furloughs, a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), increased violence, excessive workloads, and reduced support services have influence nurses’ apprehension to return to the healthcare setting (Costa & Friese, 2022). This article also emphasizes the increasing demand for nurse practitioners over the next decade.
Summary of Strategies
These articles highlight both the issues inherent with nursing shortages as well as potential strategies for addressing the organizational impact of national nursing shortages. Haddad et al. (2023) address technology and personal empowerment as vital strategies for decreasing the issue of nursing shortages. Costa and Friese (2022) describe state legislation as a necessary strategy for providing nurses with adequate resources and support tools which will encourage nurse practitioners to return to work. The following is a summary of the strategies highlighted respectively in the provided articles.
One of the main resources that has helped nurses navigate challenges throughout the healthcare setting in the past few years are digital databases. These help with data storage and recall of patient information. The introduction of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and other technological advances improve the likelihood of nurses’ willingness to stay in the profession (Haddad et al., 2023). However, these can also impact the nurse practitioner in a negative way. Some seasoned nurses struggle with the technology and remove themselves from the profession at an earlier rate (Haddad et al., 2023).
Another option is increasing employee motivation. Ensuring that nurses feel inspired, empowered, and appreciated for their work is essential to promoting confidence in the workplace. According to Haddad et al. (2023), an environment that empowers and motivates nurses is necessary to rejuvenate and sustain the nursing workforce. However, these methods can only be implemented appropriately through proper political procedure. State legislation that eliminates onerous scope-of-practice regulations for advanced practice providers would enable nurse practitioners, including midwives, to practice independently and could increase access to healthcare (Costa & Friese, 2022).
References
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
