Nurse shortage essay

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Nursing

Document 1

A common occurrence in global nurse staffing dynamic has been the movement of nurses from less economically empowered countries such as Africa and Asia for better-paying nursing jobs in the USA. This brain drain has contributed to worsening nursing shortages in such countries while still not being sufficient to fill in the shortage gaps in the developed countries. The department of labor and statistics in a 2012 report projection of employment growth opportunities which indicated a precedented rise in the need for registered nurses by 26% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). The increased demand for nurses has been attributed to many factors such as a retiring baby-boomer generation, increased demand for nursing services in the country due to a rise in the older person populations and the increased prevalence of communicable and non-communicable chronic illnesses in the country.

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Nursing shortages have also been attributed to a reduction in the ability of the available training avenues to absorb the high numbers of candidates willing to join the nursing profession due to an inadequacy of faculty. Shortage of staffing also affects the nurses' job satisfaction and their motivation to work in the patient care areas. Shortages of nursing staff in high patient acuity departments such as the intensive care unit, surgical care among others, increase the nurses level of intervention which is often overwhelming. Increased pressure to deliver quality care in such patient care settings increases the nurse’s workload and job dissatisfaction. Job dissatisfaction among nurse’s lead to an increased turnover from hospitals which increases the financial costs of hiring.

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The financial costs of nurse shortages are high. Sherwood & Shaffer, 2014). The United States has been no exception in its quest to improve its nursing staffing to cover the deficits it currently is faced with. A common approach has been the recruitment of foreign nurses into the US workforce to add to the already strained nursing workforce in the country. The United States government has used the immigration policy to manage the nurse shortages in the USA over the years. In the cold-war era, the American Nurses Association sponsored a migration of nurses from other countries Into the USA to cater for the growing demand from hospitals. The shortfall can be partially attributed to the increased shift in the scope of nursing practice and the allowance by States for impendent nurse practices.

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The advanced nurse practitioners and allowance by most states for independent practice, has fueled an increase in nurses pursuing an education at a master's level as well as entry into the nursing profession from other professions. Nurse practitioners compliment the primary health practitioners. Increased numbers of practitioners limit the number of nurses available to practice the bed-side nursing care which further increases the nursing shortfalls. Foreign nurses who are recruited into the USA workforce to fill in the shortages have been established to have a higher likelihood of continuing their education hence likely to move out of the hospital practice, reverting the essence of their recruitment into the workforce (Cortes & Pan, 2014). A majority of the nursing staff coming into the USA are from countries such as sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia.

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The subcontinent is highly burdened by disease, inequalities in access to health and a huge deficit of health care workers to cover the needs of such vulnerable populations (Spetz, Gates & Jones, 2014). The recruitment of foreign-trained nurses into the United States nursing workforce hence derives the ethical issues as to whether it is right to drain the health care service delivery systems in such countries (Delucas, 2013). The movement of nurses from lower-income countries has sparked international debates centered on brain drain which deprives the countries of such important human resource. The recruitment of the foreign nurses into the USA despite having possible negative implications on the nursing workforces in developing countries, it has been established that in absence of a possible immigration, a majority of the nurses would not have opted to take up nursing as a career in their mother countries.

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Policies on staffing ratios such as one passed in California will enhance the maintenance of quality patient care outcomes while encouraging nurses to join the profession as it addresses the issues of nursing role strain and job dissatisfaction and reduces staff turnover. Other approaches towards developing local capacities to address the nursing shortages in the USA include developing more capacity in the existing nursing associations and organizations to lobby for the establishment of accessible and expansion of nurse-training opportunities in for nurses to practice at different levels. The expansion of such opportunities for training and development is essential to ensuring that training of nurses and their recruitment into the nursing job market to address the nursing shortages in the country. There is need to develop the nursing curriculum into a more concept-based curriculum that prepares nurses for the practice of nursing and provides them with the skills and the abilities to actively train other nurses in practice as well.

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Concept-based curriculum will also develop stronger capacities for the native nurses to practice and deal with real patient based scenarios in care. Important to also point is the changing demographics in the country such as the increasing need for elderly care, chronic care, non-communicable diseases which shift the patient needs and consequently the abilities of the existing nursing workforce. Nursing organizations and associations are critical to the delivery of quality care and in enhancing positive policies that address the issues that affect nursing practice and delivery of quality and professional nursing services. Nursing organizations such as the AACN, the ANA as well as the National Council of State Boards (NCSBN) have an essential role to play in the management of the curriculum development for nurses and in promoting the capacity preparation for all nurses in practice.

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The organizations have the mandate and the responsibility to establish synergy aimed at providing robust systems of management that aim at developing the curriculums and practice of nurses in the USA. Other areas of nurse shortage aim to address the curriculum that is offered as well as the regulation of the foreign recruited nurses. Retrieved 8 March 2018, from http://www. aacnnursing. org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Nursing-Faculty-Shortage AHRQ. Hospital Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care | AHRQ Archive. Archive. doi. org/10. 2139/ssrn. 2512428 Cortes, P. , & Pan, J. doi. org/10. 1177/0969733013486798 D. Sherwood, G. , & Shaffer, F. , Nogle, J. , & Weech-Maldonado, R. The effects of nurse staffing on hospital financial performance. Health Care Management Review, 38(2), 146-155. http://dx. , & Kaestner, R. Are Foreign-Trained Nurses Perfect Substitutes for U. S. -Trained Nurses?.

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