Short Investigation Report
The healthcare industry is dealing with several issues: the nursing shortage and nursing turnover. These are issues that have a significant impact on the quality of healthcare provision. If they are not fixed, they can cause many problems that make it hard for the healthcare system to work as it should. The primary way to describe the nursing shortage is that more places need registered nurses than those available. Nursing turnover has also impacted several healthcare facilities across the country. It has had an impact on the performance and profitability of healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations need to have a nursing force that is highly qualified, committed, and stable if they want to give good care to their patients. Losing a single nurse is usually very expensive, and replacing the same nurse can cost up to twice the nurse’s annual salary. Several associated healthcare issues have been reported as a result of nursing shortages and nursing turnover, including low quality of patient care, a lack of patient care, increased staff compensation costs and even increased absenteeism (Hunt, 2009). This report focuses on understanding the facts behind the causes of nursing turnover in America, its effects on the healthcare industry, and methods for reducing it.
The issue of nursing shortages and nursing turnover exists in many healthcare organizations throughout the United States. Nurses play an essential role in healthcare delivery, and their shortage or turnover has a variety of consequences, including financial feasibility and poor patient care quality. Healthcare organizations are constantly challenged with retaining and attracting enough qualified nurses to ensure a patient-centred approach to care delivery is achieved (Hunt, 2009). The nursing shortage is accurate, and it is fundamentally different from what has previously occurred. The increasing presence of few nurses entering the nursing force despite the more significant number of patients indicates a nurse shortage. The supply of qualified and well-trained nurses does not meet the needs of the growing population, and this problem may persist for some time.
Nursing turnover has been a significant issue affecting the performance and profitability of most healthcare organizations in the United States. As previously stated, healthcare organizations require a stable, fully committed, and highly qualified workforce capable of providing high levels of care to patients. The loss of a single nurse may necessitate the replacement of many more. The bottom line suffers when an organization loses some of its most qualified and talented nurses.
Many healthcare organizations in the United States are protesting the rising nurse turnover rate. As a result, the organizations have experienced low or decreased patient care quality, increased staffing costs, increased staff compensation costs, and absenteeism and accident costs (Hunt, 2009). To understand the reasons for the high rate of nurse turnover, it is necessary to understand why nurses choose to work for other healthcare organizations.
Nurse turnover is a problem caused by various factors in the healthcare industry. As nursing becomes one of the fastest-growing professions in the United States, the shockingly high rate of nurse turnover, which ranges from 34.7 to 42.6%, indicates that the fundamental nature of the job causes so many stressors in the lives of nurses (Nevidjon& Erickson, 2001). It is important to note that nurses are typically the patient’s first line of defence and, thus, are critical for their recovery, treatment, and care. Understanding the sources of dissatisfaction is critical to addressing this issue.
Several authors have written about the nursing shortage and nursing turnover problem. According to Rosseter (2014), the nursing field, which is generally regarded as a specialized field, is expected to experience significant growth in the coming years. Registered nurses are one of the most well-known occupations in the United States. According to Rosseter (2014), the number of registered nurses will increase by about 19%. Even though it has been demonstrated that employment opportunities in the nursing sector will grow, a significant shortage of nursing practitioners is expected to cause several issues in patient care delivery.
In the future, the United States is expected to face a shortage of registered nurses. This is primarily due to the Baby Boomer generation’s need for healthcare. According to Nevidjon and Erickson (2001), many American schools are attempting to expand their capacity to meet the increasing needs for care provision in light of the ongoing healthcare reform.
From my perspective, there is no doubt that the nursing shortage and nursing turnover issues are critical and must be addressed. Nursing turnover is typically caused by factors such as nurse overwork, poor working conditions, a lack of collaboration and trust among the nursing force, and a lack of or poor career development opportunities. I believe it is the leadership of healthcare organizations’ responsibility to take active measures to implement policies that will ensure that this sector maintains its image and vision; otherwise, the future of nursing will be jeopardized. I firmly believe concrete steps must be taken to address this issue through appropriate leadership.
Newly certified nurses, in particular, are more likely to be sceptical of their ability to provide adequate patient care. As a result, the difficulty of patient care quickly overwhelms them. They are responsible for clinical protocols and knowledge, and on a typical shift, a nurse will interact with more than 35 types of technology. Healthcare organizations must establish in-hospital residency programs to assist in resolving the issue of nurse housing.
Management is in charge of organizing, planning, and coordinating activities within the healthcare organization. Leadership in the healthcare sector must also step up their game. To help reduce the problem of a nurse shortage, leaders must inspire potential nurses to practice nursing and help curb the growing nursing shortage. The nursing profession should be made to appear appealing and appealing. At the same time, nurses should be given good working conditions with excellent benefits and compensation and encouraged to participate in career development activities to improve their skills in providing patient care.
As previously stated, better scheduling support is required to ensure that patient responsibility is shared equally among the nurses. The level of patient care required for each patient can be assessed using feedback tools. Furthermore, providing excellent compensation, benefits, and in-house residency programs can help retain nurses affected by the severity of their profession and ensure that they do not leave the industry. Most importantly, continuing education and career advancement programs will keep nurses engaged.
Finally, it is noted with great concern that the issue of nursing shortages and nursing turnover is becoming increasingly dangerous in the healthcare sector. The number of registered nurses is primarily lower than the number of patients requiring medical attention. As a result, one nurse may have difficulty attending to so many patients in a single day. Because nurses are overworked, the workload is not conducive to quality healthcare delivery. Nursing turnover continues to plague many healthcare organizations, and these issues must be addressed immediately to ensure quality care delivery. Improving nurse shortage and retention benefits nurses, patient care, a healthcare institution’s bottom line, and family and patient satisfaction.
