Addressing Nursing Staffing Shortages: A Critical Issue for Patient and Nurse Safety

Abstract

English 122 April 18, 2021 A problem faced by the Nursing Community My community is based on my line of work. I work at a nursing home as a receptionist. My job is to welcome visitors or patients, receive and enlighten on inquiries as well as record ongoing day-to-day activities. Also, I help with discharges for the patients. Nursing origins can be traced from as early as halfway through the 19th Century. Professional nursing then commences with a daughter of two rich British parents, Florence Nightingale) (Stanhope 5). Florence, well educated, goes against all social odds and makes a firm decision of becoming a nurse. In terms of size, nurses are considered, within the social-based health provision, to be the largest group for service (Stanhope 3). A nurse works in a variety of roles to help patients at home in a bid of preventing evitable admission to hospitals and expedite well-timed remittance. The problem in my community is the working conditions to which nurses are exposed to. Chiefly, these conditions are poor and often make work almost unbearable for most nurses. The poorness in the conditions of work in the nursing community is what gives birth to other specified problems that nurses face in their day-to-day work inclusive of violence at the place of work, not enough staffing, overtime that is mandatory, and safety on the job, just to give as examples. Therefore, poor working conditions are the main cause of almost all other problems facing the nursing community, and its rectification can be the potential solution to almost all nursing-related problems. Inadequate recruitment, a problem faced by the nursing community is a result of poor conditions of work. Therefore, one of the characteristics showing that the working conditions of a nurse are poor is when the workplace has inadequately recruited staff. Inadequate recruitment of staff is common in many occupations. When it occurs in these other professions, it is usually a small inconvenience to the workers, which may at times be manageable. However, the issue of inadequate staffing in the nursing profession can result in a big mantle to carry for nurses. “Inappropriate staffing levels can not only threaten patient health and safety, and lead to the greater complexity of care, but also impact on RNs’ health and safety by increasing nurse pressure, fatigue, injury rate, and ability to provide safe care” (ANA 13). The above is a statement from the American Nurses Association (ANA) explaining how important an appropriate level of staffing is to any nursing community. It is in their explanations that consequences such as the harm to the patient’s health as well as the continuous complexity of care are at stake due to inadequate levels of staffing. Also, the association addresses the impact of inadequate recruitment on the health and workability of registered nurses, claiming implications such as the rate of injury, fatigue, pressure as well as the ability to provide safe care. Therefore, if this environment is changed, the nursing community is equally saved. Another predicament gone through by the nursing community is overtime that is compulsory, and is a result of poor workplace conditions. Overtime involves working additional hours, other than the normal designated hours of work, either for additional pay or as staff practice. Chiefly, this is a practice that leaves most of the nurses involved fatigued, yet these are personnel expected to give optimum service to a critical type of people - patients, day in day out. Therefore, that implies the environment set for work in the nursing community is poor, expecting a bigger workload to be completed in reliance on a depleted force. There have been reports across the nation by several nurses concerning the issue of overtime. In addressing the matter, the American Nurses Association states, “This dangerous staffing practice, in part due to a nursing shortage, is harming patient care, fostering medical errors, and driving nurses away from the bedside” (ANA 14). Following the implication of the statement, the association is on the lookout for correcting this matter. The workplace environment should therefore be made suitable for the nursing community as the imposition of overtime hinders collaboration between workers. Safety on the job, similarly another problem faced by the nursing community is as an outcome of poor conditions of the workplace. To create a safe environment for work, several factors have to be combined. In a bid to create an environment that is safe for work, the American Nurses Association came up with initiatives that included handling of patients safely, as well as needles. Exclusively, these two safety measurements were to ensure reduction of back injuries while handling patients as well as needlestick injuries during work by nursing staff. The American Nurses Association states that “While the majority of sharps injuries involve nursing staff, laboratory staff, physicians, housekeepers, and other health care workers can also be at risk and need protection” (ANA 13). The statement implies that there are nurses as well as related staff that fall victim to injuries due to an inappropriate environment for work. However, in as much as there is an advocate for a change, there is also an implication that the environment wherein nurses work is poor and exposes them to blood-borne infections as well as needle injuries. Therein, if the association’s initiative manages to create a conducive environment for work, this then would be the ultimate insurance of safety for the nursing community at large. Characteristically another problem faced by the nursing community, violence at the workplace, is a result of poor conditions of the workplace. Violence as well as abuse take different forms at the workplace. Violence towards nurses is often caused by non-staff members which may include patients or their families. Descriptively, this may be in the form of physical, psychological, or emotional hurt (Buerhaus 42). Abuse, on the other hand, is mostly initiated to the nursing staff by other workers in the hospital. Studies report that in the United States of America, 57 percent of nurses in 2011 reported receiving threats at their place of work, whereas 17 percent confirmed being assaulted physically (Stanhope 4). Significantly, these cases of violence have been acknowledged by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration while several warnings towards such a tendency have been initiated to the community at large. As stated by the American Nurses Association, “No staff nurse should have to deal with violence in the workplace, whether from staff, patients, or visitors” (ANA 15). Subsequently, they deeply condemn such deeds in association with other various organizations such as the OSHA in a focus to eliminate incidences of violence via regulating terms as well as education. However, if working conditions are not left loose towards initiating astringent relationships between nurses and their patients or family members as well as workmates, such incidences would be rare for occurrence. Occupational Stress, another predicament faced by the community of Nursing is an outcome of inappropriate working environments for nurses. Occupational stress is a chronic condition that causes one to be stressed psychologically concerning their job (Rosenthal 3). When a nurse is undergoing occupational stress, their functionality becomes low. Furthermore, considering these personnel deal with the critical type of people in the society health-wise, their attitude and emotions towards them are supposed to not only be at par professionally but also in a normal real-life situation. The cause of the stress is the environment in which they work, which is considered to be unpredictable as well as fast-paced. Nursing is considered to be a stressful occupation, and studies show that nurses have a higher level of occupational stress as compared to different occupations. As stated by Margo, “Self-care remains vital for nurses to ease the detrimental effects of stress in the constantly and rapidly changing health care environment and to prevent progression of those effects to burnout, which can have devastating consequences for nurses and those under their care” (Halm 153). By this statement, nurses are urged to focus on the improvement of not only patients but also their self-care. Conversely, I strongly believe that improvement of their workplace environment would largely aid in reducing causes of occupational stress or any other illnesses. Conclusion In conclusion, these poor working conditions make it almost impossible for nurses to work at optimum levels. Not to be rigid, these optimum levels in the nursing community are important to achieve for various reasons. As I have stated several times earlier, nurses deal with a critical segment of personnel - people who are sick, vulnerable, or emotionally wrecked and require special attention as well as care. Therefore, nurses need to be at par in terms of attitude and a conducive working environment to accommodate these sets of people professionally. As chiefly indicated and proven, almost all problems facing the nursing community, ranging from inadequate recruitment, compulsory overtime, job safety, occupational stress, and workplace violence originate from a common situation - an unconducive working environment. Therefore, if this entity is dealt with properly by the American Nursing Association and other concerned boards to ensure nurses have the most conducive environment for work concerning the problems enlisted, then the nursing community would be seen as taking positive strides towards achieving better health care services. Works Cited ANA, American Nurses Association. "Nursing informatics: Scope and standards of practice." (2015). Buerhaus, Peter I., et al. "Four challenges facing the nursing workforce in the United States." Journal of Nursing Regulation 8.2 (2017): 40-46. Halm, Margo. "The influence of appropriate staffing and healthy work environments on patient and nurse outcomes." American Journal of Critical Care 28.2 (2019): 152-156. Rosenthal, Talma, and Ariela Alter. "Occupational stress and hypertension." Journal of the American Society of Hypertension 6.1 (2012): 2-22. Stanhope, Marcia, and Jeanette Lancaster. Foundations of nursing in the community: Community-oriented practice. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2013. Essay Word count – 1520 words