Interprof Org & leadership
In healthcare, many obstacles may influence the way we practice or change the workflow within
healthcare organizations. As of recent, adequate staffing has been problematic as many organizations
look to find solutions to offset the nursing deficit by creating ways to safely care for their patients. Just
prior to COVID-19 the need for nurses was evident and efforts to fill the gap were based on hiring agency
nurses to partake in job duties that needed filling. Nursing shortages occurred due to economic
downturns, waves of retiring nurses, and increased healthcare demand (American Nurses Association,
2018). As the need for skilled nurses rises, a competing need is for adequate staffing of skilled, qualified
nurses in a variety of specialties. Before the implementation of policy in healthcare, there must be a
sufficient number of staff members to carry out whatever is being organized.
The national healthcare issue/ stressor I previously selected was staffing shortages in healthcare,
particularly nurses. With staffing shortages, a specific competing need would be quality of care. for
example, without proper staffing and the quality of nursing performing the task, it would be relatively
difficult to meet the needs being required. Another competing need is when a patient requires a
treatment plan that consists of a special skill and there’s fewer nurses who possess those skills. For
example, if there’s a demand for ICU nurses and there’s only a high level of med-surg nurses available
then the medical treatment plan would not be met due to a limited number of skilled nurses who are
qualified to complete the task. Fueled by employee burnout, and the aging population states across the
county are facing common problems as it relates to staffing shortages (Haines, 2022).
The impacts of nursing shortages in the workforce in hospitals include medication errors, a
decrease in quality of care, and an increase in burnout rates (Tamata & Mohammadnezhad, 2023).
Instituting a policy on safe staffing ratios would increase the value of quality care given. For example,
when there are adequate staffing ratios, there are fewer incidences of medication errors, there would be
better patient outcomes and fewer burnout being reported by nurses who left the field due to a lack of
clinical support.
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