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Comment by Jeremy Howell: Review APA requirements for the proper formatting of your title page.
Student’s Name-
Topic- Nursing Shortages
Course-
Date of Submission- 02 February, 2020
Introduction
Nursing shortages occur when the demand for professional nurses is higher than the supply. It also occurs when the job vacancies are more than the available nurses. Additionally, it can occur when the nurse to patient ratio or the nurse to population ratio is high than the available nurses. Some of the causes of this shortage include few programs for placement of nurses and inadequacy of retention incentives for workers. There are psychological studies that have have been done to determined how nurses feel about their career (Buchan et al., 2015). Some of the complaints that nurses have include difficult working conditions and subordination on matters related to the medical profession. Other factors that lead to nurse dissatisfaction include low pay, shift work, lack of provision of child care, work overloads, and changes in schedule (Timothy, 2016). The purpose of the paper is toThe author of this paper will provide an overview of the issue, show why the issue is of concern to health care economics, show parties involved and identify marker forces that have an impact on the issue. Besides, the paperThe author will also focus on demand and supply in this issuerelated to the nursing shortage, , show how the affordable care actPatient Protection and Affordable Care Act has impacted this issue the nursing shortage, and depict how the nursing shortage affects health disparities are demonstrated in this issue. The paperThe author will also focus on showing how the issue has been improved in the global market and give my recommendation regarding improvements to be made based on the principles of economics. Comment by Jeremy Howell: You will want to clarify this.
Body
Overview of the Issue
One of the major causes of nurse’s shortage is job dissatisfaction. This is due to a lack of confidence in the healthcare system and comprehensive nursing care. Additionally, nurses and managers have conflicting expectations regarding how to regulate costs (Buchan et al., 2015). In the past decades, there is little change that has occurred in government health policy. The nursing shortage affects healthcare in the following ways:
· Increase in workloads for the few nurses that are there. They have to do a lot so that all their duties get discharged. This leads to fatigue and stress.
· There is an increased risk of error, and this compromises the safety of patients. This happens due to tiredness.
· An increase in infections spread to staff and patients. This happens due to a lack of control as a result of few nurses in health facilities.
· High risk of adverse health outcomes such as urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and cardiac arrest.
· High risk for occupational injury.
· A high rate of turnover and, thus, high costs are incurred for the health care system and the employer.
· The perception of unsafe working conditions by nurse increases, and thus efforts for recruitment are hindered both locally and nationally.
The solution to this shortage of nurses is retention and recruitment. Making nursing an attractive profession to the young workers will help in recruitment. Also, improving the work environment will help to improve job satisfaction and thus retain workers. The government should also provide opportunities for nurses to advance their education. It should give nurses diversity programs and scholarships. The nurses should also be allowed to pick their overtime and schedules while bonuses are provided to those who excel (Ball et al., 2015). The fluctuating short term needs can be addressed by the use of float pool and agency nurses. Gloat pool nurses are hired by the health facility and can work in any unit while the staffing organization employs agency nurses, and they work in different hospitals.
Health care economics perspective concern
The shortage of nurses leads to financial difficulties in the health care sector. Health care providers, hospitals, government, as well as societal and educational institutions, experience financial shortages (Twigg et al., 2010). A low number of nurses lead to service delivery to a limited number of patients, and thus little revenue is collected from nursing services.
Parties involved
The government
The mandate of the government is to hire, paying nurses, and construction of training institutions for nurses. The hiring of less than the number required leads to nursing shortages. Also, if the pay is meager, nurses get job dissatisfaction and may quit to look for greener pastures elsewhere. Also, the government is tasked with constructing and equipping training institutions for nurses, such as universities and colleges (Timothy, 2016). If these institutions are in low numbers, there is a reduced number of nurses that get produced each year, and thus shortage occurs in the industry.
Hospitals
Hospitals are mandated with the provision of a conducive environment for nurses to work in. Besides, they also hire nurses to fill in the gaps. If this does not happen, nurses leave due to a lack of satisfaction while a shortage occurs.
Professional bodies for nurses
The professional bodies that register, license, and regulate standards of practice of nurses have a big role to play. They should advocate for better working conditions and pay for nurses.
Training institutions for nurses
The various institutions fur nurses should make the profession attractive for young
workers so that they can approach it with a positive attitude. The institutions should also admit a good number to train so that the shortage in the industry can be reduced.
Market forces
The following are the various market forces that impact the shortage of nurses:
Aging faculty
Some people enter nursing education later in life. Additionally, most of the nurses retire early in life, which leads to a shortage of nurse trainers (Seo & Spetz., 2014). Also, the lack of enough time to serve leads to inadequate training of meaningful communities.
Low pay
Some of the nurses pay is not up to their expectations, and thus they chose to quit and go to look for better opportunities elsewhere. This has had a huge blow to several hospitals in terms of staff shortage (Noelene et al., 2010). Heavy workload has been left to the few who remain, which leads to stress.
Fluctuating enrollment in training institutions
The number of students who are being admitted to study nursing has been reducing. These institutions need to step up and increase the intake of students to address the shortage.
Job dissatisfaction
Job dissatisfaction occurs when expectations are not met. Some of the nurse practitioners expect higher pay than what is offered or better working conditions than the ones offered (Ball et al., 2015). That is what makes them quit wok and go to work elsewhere.
Illustration of demand
The demand for nurses is high as compared to the nurses available. Thus, the shortage has resulted, which has greatly affected the delivery of nursing services.
Illustration of supply
The supply for nurses is low as compared to demand. This is shown by the nurse to patient ratio and then the availability of nursing education trainers.
Impact of affordable healthcare act
Passage of the affordable care act led to an increase in the number of Americans who were insured. Only around 9.2% were left uninsured. Before the passage of the affordable care act, about 15% of Americans were not insured. The increase in the number of insured Americans led to high demand for health services offered by various health care professionals, including nurses (Buchan net al, 2015). The high demand for health care professionals exceeds the available ones, and thus there is a shortage of nurses. The shortage is expected to worsen when the remaining 9.2% of Americans get insured.
Demonstration of health disparities Comment by Jeremy Howell: You don’t really discuss what a healthcare disparity is. You may want to conduct some additional research in this area.
Disease burden has increased due to nursing shortages. Some of the conditions that nurses attend to are making patients suffer. These include conditions like pneumonia.
Improvement of the issue in other global markets
Addressing the issue of nurse shortage requires the hiring of more nurse practitioners. Also, the conditions of work should be improved to avoid work overload and thus reduce depression among nurses (Glasper, 2013). Training institutions are admitting more nursing students to prevent a shortage in the industry. The other thing is that the nurses pay is being increased so that nurses can have job satisfaction.\
Recommendations to make improve the situation based on economic principles
I recommendThe author is this paper recommends hiring more registered nurses to enhance the delivery of nursing services to more patients. This will lead to earning more revenue from such services since more patients are served.
Conclusion
The nursing shortage has greatly affected healthcare delivery, and it is then high time solutions are sought. This is an issue of concern from a healthcare economics point of view because it results in financial shortages in healthcare facilities. The parties involved in this issue include the government, healthcare facilities, and professional bodies for nurses and training institutions. The market forces that impact this issue include low pay for nurses, job dissatisfaction, and poor working conditions. The demand for nurses is higher than supply. Affordable care act has led to high demand for nurses and thus leading to a shortage. Demonstration of health disparities is done in this issue because a lot of patients are suffering from various conditions due to a limited number of nurses to serve them. In other global markets improvement of this issue has been done through the provision of higher salaries and better working conditions for nurses. I recommended the hiring of more registered nurses so that the income of hospitals is increased by offering nursing services to more patients.
References Comment by Jeremy Howell: Review APA formatting for proper requirements of reference page formatting. Your references are not quite formatted correctly.
Ball K, Doyle D & Nichole I.(2015). Nursing shortages in the OR: Solutions for new models of education. AORN journal. 101(1):115-136.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2014.03.015
Buchan J, Duffield C & Jordan A.(2015). ‘Solving’ nurses shortages: Do we need an agenda? Journal of nursing management. 23(5).
https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12315
Glasper A.(2013).Will nursing shortages threaten the integrity and functioning of the NHS? 25(8).
https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2016.25.8.458
Noelene H, Jennifer S & Linda H.(2010). Nursing double degrees: A higher education initiative in times of nursing shortages. Retrieved from
https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=053192428366047;res=IELAPA
Seo S & Spetz J. (2014). Demand for temporary agency nurses and nursing g shortages. The journal of healthcare organization, provision, and financing.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0046958013516583
Timothy M.(2016). A brief economic analysis of the looming nursing shortage I the United States. 34(2).Retrieved from
https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA452050018&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=07461739&p=AONE&sw=w
Twigg D, Duffield c, Thompson P.L & Rapley P. (2010). The impact of nurses on patient morbidity and mortality- the end for a policy change in response nto the nursing shortage. Retrieved from
http://www.publish.csiro.au/AH/AH08668