Nursing Shortage And Nurse Turnover

Introduction

The ongoing instability in the nursing workforce has raised many questions about the issue of nursing shortage and nurse turnover (Gates & Jones, 2007). A compressive paper below will discuss the issues of nursing shortage and nurse turnover. The paper will also describe how leaders as well as nurse managers and leaders can resolve those problems effectively and the different applicable principles, skills, roles of the leader, and theories of leadership and management.

There are various factors that are contributing to the current nursing shortage and turnover; some of the factors include poor nursing staff retention, poor working conditions, and nurse burn-out due to working short-staffed, a critical nursing faculty shortage, an aging nursing workforce and greater career choices for women.   Additionally, there is inadequate funding from the federal government for nursing education which in turn has created long waitlists and the turning away of applicants for entry.

According to Paller (2012), the nursing shortage in different countries for example the United States tends not to be the only growing problem, but has also become a complex one. Nursing shortage and nurse’s turnover has become the worsening predicament in the health care industry in the United States. Several studies carried out show that in 2020, the problem may get to worsen more than it is today if no measures are taken in resolving the problem.

For a proper functioning of the hospital facilities, each hospital must have their own managers and leaders who will be responsible of day to day of running activities in that organization. The future and the success of the hospitals can only be decided by the long term strategy that is implemented by the leaders and an overall management. Poor management and effective leadership in the hospitals usually put the life of people in danger. It is true that, when there are shortages in nurses, the nursing turnover rate will on the other hand increase this is because most employees prefer working in an environment where they are esteemed as well as less stress at the workplace (Gates & Jones, 2007). For that case, managers and leaders in the hospitals are placing greater emphasis on how to retain the current staffs instead of hiring new staffs given that workplace learning is essential to staffs and managers allowing managers to know how they can handle every individual in the workplace. Nurses are able to perform well and meet the organization goals if only they can see support from the leadership as well as management. Managers should understand their staffs and know what inspire them so as to stick on to their facility. According to Northeastern University, College of Business Administration (2012), provision of a good working environment with great opportunities for the professional growth and support on personal for the staffs encourages workers retention.

A good leader should ensure that they have a well established leadership skill by having a clear plan of what they should do and a vision, they should also have a good understanding on how the vision and plans should be achieved, however vision only cannot be sufficient enough. The managers should therefore share the vision with their subordinates and find ways of acting upon it as they should try to have excellent interpersonal formal as well as informal relationship skills in solving the problems. According to Wong (2003), effective communication between the managers and staffs in organization is significant since it allows the managers to perform their basic functions which involve planning, organizing, controlling as well as leading making them to perform their jobs and responsibilities. Similarly leaders and managers must communicate effectively with their staffs to achieve the set goals since the success of the organization may not be possible without proper communication.

The approach that best fits my personal and professional philosophy of nursing is the critical thinking. Critical thinking displays how an individual has an intellectual skills and ability towards a certain task assigned; it is also an approach that suits an individual personal leadership style. Nursing work requires proper critical thinking that enables one to apply skilful reasoning for guiding action. Critical thinking in nursing provides clinical decision making of systematic thinking which reflects reasoning process to be used so as to ensure safe nursing practices as well as quality care. According to Heaslip (2008), “Critical thinking when developed in the practitioner includes adherence to intellectual standards, proficiency in using reasoning, a commitment to develop and maintain intellectual traits of the mind and habits of thought and the competent use of thinking skills and abilities for sound clinical judgments and safe decision-making”.

The practitioners in nursing who happen to be critical in their thinking in most cases adhere to the intellectual standards given that they try very hard to strive for their clarity, a complete logicality and to be fair while they listen to their clients. Nurses should eliminate illogical thoughts by not being imprecise, unclear and vague when reasoning about the client care. Nurses who are critical thinkers tend to hold all their views as well as reasoning to these standards ( Heaslip, 2008). The approach of critical thinking in the philosophy of nursing suits my personal leadership skills in various ways, firstly it helps me explore the talents and skills that I have in attending to the clients and secondly it makes me achieve the goals set by the organization.

References

Paller, D. A. (2012). Rx for the Nursing Shortage. Gallup Business Journal. Retrieved November 6, 2012, from http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/13603/nursing-shortage.aspx

Northeastern University, College of Business Administration. (2012). Northeastern University, College of Business Administration. Retrieved November 6, 2012, from web.archive.org/web/20080211140854/http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/skills/writovv.htm

Gates, M., & Jones, C. B. (2007). The Costs and Benefits of Nurse Turnover: A Business Case for Nurse Retention. American Nurses Association. Retrieved November 7, 2012, from http://www.nursingworld.org/mainmenucategories/anamarketplace/anaperiodicals/ojin/tableofcontents/volume122007/no3sept07/nurseretention.aspx

Heaslip, P. (2008). Critical Thinking and Nursing. Critical Thinking. Retrieved November 7, 2012, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-and-nursing/834

Wong, A. S. (2003). Verbal Communication Model. Retrieved November 7, 2012, from http://www.vtaide.com/lifeskills/verbalC.htm