Nursing Shortages: A Challenge for Health Facilities - Essay Sample

Introduction

Nursing shortages are a challenge affecting many health facilities where the health facilities don't have the required number of nurses needed to take care of the patients. In such a situation the managers managing the healthcare facility are forced to come up with different strategies to address the challenge. Where the healthcare institution has enough number of nurses, the patients are treated well because the patients get enough attention from the nurses that are available for the healthcare institution. The managers are responsible for ensuring that the patients get the best services by having enough nurses at their health facility.

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Various theories of management guide the managers on how they do their work, the theories related to the shortage of nurses in health care centers include the scientific theory of management developed by Fredrick Taylor (Taylor 2014). The theory argues that institutions need to be more productive by using data, observing and evaluating the organizational processes. The nurse leader needs to use the theory in determining the number of nurses who are treated per day. Using the data the nurse manager can decide if there are any inefficiencies and come up with an appropriate strategy to fix the challenge (Taylor 2014). Where the number of patients treated and patient satisfaction is less the manager needs to come up with strategies to fix the gap. The nurse turnover of the healthcare center should meet the goal set by the organization.

There are principles of management that the nurse managers should use in order to come up with strategies of making activities at the health facility effective (Liebler & McConnell, 2016). The nursing working for the organization should liaison among themselves and come up with strategies to fill the gap of the shortage of nurses that exist. The managers have the role of ensuring that the organizations that they manage. The managers should come up with ways of solving the challenges faced by the organizations that they lead.

Nursing leaders and managers play a very significant role in the nursing profession; hence the reason why their skills are required (Force 2005). The role of nurse managers includes but are not limited to ensuring that the health care facilities deliver quality services. To effectively carry out this role the nurse managers and leaders should apply the suitable approaches. The nursing leaders and managers have to apply employee retention approaches. Although the nursing leadership and nursing management roles differ, there is a connection between the two.

The role of the nurse manager has the authority to delegate roles to the subordinate who will ensure that the objectives of the organization are met (Force 2005). These roles are delegated to the nurse leader who is the subordinate to the nurse manager. Additionally, the nurse manager should come up with problem-solving strategies, budget, organize and ensure that the approaches are implemented. To solve the problem of the nursing shortage and nurse turnover the nursing manager is expected to come up with the strategies of reducing employee turnover. With evidence-based approaches and all required resources the nursing manager is expected to be hands-on and be seen on the nursing unit. To ensure that nurses are motivated the nurse manager is expected to offer adequate reimbursement and benefit plans.

On the other hand, the nurse leader helps in the implementation of various strategies (Force 2005). The nurse leader directly interacts with the staff so they can influence the nurse turnover. They have the power to influence the nurses through communication, explaining the vision of the nurses, consensus, and inspiring, motivating and building a trust relationship with the nurses. The nurse leaders help the nurse managers in implementing the strategies of employee retention because they are flexible and adaptive.

The leadership that is to be applied is that which promotes teamwork to ensure that patients get quality services. The best leadership style is one that embraces teaching, team building and vision communication (Toofany 2007). Through transformational nurse leader style, the nurses will be encouraged to further their education to acquire skills that are required in solving nursing challenges. Through this style, the employees will be motivated to do their best and always remain positive and focused.

The federal government need to come up with ways of making more pupils to join colleges and do nursing (Liebler & McConnell, 2016). The strategy that the government can use is allocating more resources to help the students who want to do nursing, but they lack the resources. The students will be given students loans and scholarships to do nursing, and hence more nurses get into the job market. The federal government can also build more institutions where nursing courses can be offered to more students.

Conclusion

In conclusion, nursing shortages and nursing turnover is an issue that many health care facilities face. The management, therefore, has the responsibility of collaborating to solve the problem. Through proper nursing management and nurse leadership the challenge can be effectively addressed. The government also has a role to play as they need to come up with a policy that ensures employees are well motivated and that there are adequate well-trained nurses. Although nursing managers and nurse leaders have different roles, they all work towards the achievement of health care objectives.

Reference

Force, M. V. (2005). The relationship between effective nurse managers and nursing retention. Journal of nursing administration, 35(7), 336-341.

Liebler, G., & McConnell, C. R. (2016). Management principles for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Taylor, F. W. (2014). Scientific management. Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134466245

Toofany, S. (2007). Team building and leadership: The key to recruitment and retention. Nursing Management, 14(1).