NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay– Step-By-Step Guide
This guide will demonstrate how to complete the Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay assignment based on general principles of academic writing. Here, we will show you the A, B, Cs of completing an academic paper, irrespective of the instructions. After guiding you through what to do, the guide will leave one or two sample essays at the end to highlight the various sections discussed below.
How to Research and Prepare for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
Whether one passes or fails an academic assignment such as the Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay depends on the preparation done beforehand. The first thing to do once you receive an assignment is to quickly skim through the requirements. Once that is done, start going through the instructions one by one to clearly understand what the instructor wants. The most important thing here is to understand the required format—whether it is APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.
After understanding the requirements of the paper, the next phase is to gather relevant materials. The first place to start the research process is the weekly resources. Go through the resources provided in the instructions to determine which ones fit the assignment. After reviewing the provided resources, use the university library to search for additional resources. After gathering sufficient and necessary resources, you are now ready to start drafting your paper.
How to Write the Introduction for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
The introduction for the Walden University NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay is where you tell the instructor what your paper will encompass. In three to four statements, highlight the important points that will form the basis of your paper. Here, you can include statistics to show the importance of the topic you will be discussing. At the end of the introduction, write a clear purpose statement outlining what exactly will be contained in the paper. This statement will start with “The purpose of this paper…” and then proceed to outline the various sections of the instructions.
How to Write the Body for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
After the introduction, move into the main part of the NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay assignment, which is the body. Given that the paper you will be writing is not experimental, the way you organize the headings and subheadings of your paper is critically important. In some cases, you might have to use more subheadings to properly organize the assignment. The organization will depend on the rubric provided. Carefully examine the rubric, as it will contain all the detailed requirements of the assignment. Sometimes, the rubric will have information that the normal instructions lack.
Another important factor to consider at this point is how to do citations. In-text citations are fundamental as they support the arguments and points you make in the paper. At this point, the resources gathered at the beginning will come in handy. Integrating the ideas of the authors with your own will ensure that you produce a comprehensive paper. Also, follow the given citation format. In most cases, APA 7 is the preferred format for nursing assignments.
How to Write the Conclusion for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
After completing the main sections, write the conclusion of your paper. The conclusion is a summary of the main points you made in your paper. However, you need to rewrite the points and not simply copy and paste them. By restating the points from each subheading, you will provide a nuanced overview of the assignment to the reader.
How to Format the References List for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
The very last part of your paper involves listing the sources used in your paper. These sources should be listed in alphabetical order and double-spaced. Additionally, use a hanging indent for each source that appears in this list. Lastly, only the sources cited within the body of the paper should appear here.
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Sample Answer for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
Cost of medication determines whether the patients will be willing to seek healthcare services from an institution or not. The goal of the quadruple Aim is to reduce the cost of education and increase the access to healthcare services by the population. The cost of medication depends on various factors including the changing economic times and the need to increase the number of healthcare providers in an organization. From the business perspective, institutions operate with the aim of making profits. Therefore, in the call for improving the quality of the healthcare services the patients receive, the healthcare institutions may require to increase their staffs and other equipment necessary for efficient operations. Addition of the resources result in the increased cost which must be transferred to the patients who are the consumers. Therefore, the current study explores the conflicting perspective of the mandatory overtime as a way of meeting the needs of the patients without increasing the cost of medication.
Competing Needs
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The increasing number of patients in the healthcare institution requires an additional human resource. However, conventionally, the
ratio of healthcare providers to the patients have remained low because of the limited resources. Healthcare providers are forced to attend to many patients beyond the standard requirements. Alternatively, the healthcare institution may opt to recruit more staff and this will result in additional costs which may be transferred to what patients pay. Some leaders may opt of make full of their current staffing in responding to the rising costs and change in the payment policies by the federal government.
The introduction of the pay-for-value compensation method meant that healthcare institutions would improve the quality of healthcare services to the patients (Kominski et al., 2017). Besides, the policy aimed at eliminating all the unnecessary health interventions that could otherwise increase the cost of medication. Furthermore, the hospital institutions are forced to utilize their existing staff accordingly to improve both the quality of care and minimize the treatment costs. Nurses and other healthcare providers may be forced to work for long hours since they have to spend lots of time understanding the need of their patients to meet the quality threshold (Bernstrøm et al., 2019). On the other hand, the increasing number of patients also force them to work overtime. Therefore, the need to lower the cost of medication and at the same time maintain the quality exists.
As nurses we’re faced with ethical dilemmas daily. We must not confuse ethics and the actual laws surrounding this profession. Although ethics and the law are very similar and paths overlap, they are not the same. Ethical dilemmas occur quite frequently in the healthcare field, which makes healthcare professionals more aware of how to respond to such events. Ethical issues put all healthcare professionals in the mindset of doing what is best for the patient. A national healthcare issue that is currently on a higher trend seems to be the nursing shortage in the work field. Overwhelming patient assignments ultimately lead to disgruntled staff affecting the overall working environment. The shortage in nursing many organizations are facing seem to have multiple effects on quality improvement or indicators such as customer service scores, increased amount of workloads and a decrease in the quality of care rendered (Buerhaus, Skinner, Auerbach, & Staiger, 2017). As safety is the number one goal inpatient care, polices over time have been revamped to ensure safer working environments for the shortage of nurses ultimately reducing medication errors as well as nurse burnout. Moreover, whereas patient needs dictate that hospitals shpuld hire more nurses, the financial performances of these hospitals is also a factor. Thus, nurisng shorateg is being affected by the need to provide quality healtt care services vis-à-vis the need to maintain heallty financial performances by health care facilities. Evidence suggests that hospitals have chosen the latter need hence the existence of nursing shortage.
Policies and Practices to Adress Nursing Shortage
At a leadership level, leaders must find the common balance to retain nurses by any means necessary while also understanding the demands placed on staff with unbearable patient acuities. Finding such balances demand strict policies to be put in place even if they are state-regulated. Within my organizations, we have strict policies for the different levels of care to determine the patient/nurse ratio (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017). With the higher demands of needs for the care the patient may require they are put on different units, which also sets the bar for the nurse-patient ratio. A patient at a medical-surgical level of care does not and may not require the same care as a patient at an intensive care unit. For each level, there are guidelines our hospital follows, which will tell providers, managers, and patient flow coordinators the needs of the patient and the appropriate floors. This is done to ensure the acuity levels are not too intense for that unit, especially for the nurse-patient ratio on that unit. Along with setting limits regarding the units and patient level of care, there are also patient acuity tools utilized. Patient acuity tools have been proven useful with the formulation of proper nurse to patient ratios as well dispersing workloads. The purposes for nursing tools as such “increase nurse satisfaction with their patient assignment.”
Composing policies is done at many organizations and is forever changing. With established policies, the healthcare field is able to have standards in place to protect staff. Furrther, by enforcing these policies, nurses are protected from things such as assuming care of patients in what may be unsafe working environments. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is the safeguard for nurses and guides the policymakers within organizations for safe conditions. According to the ANA, federal regulations have been in placed to support nursing staff for safer working environments implying that facilities have an adequate amount of staff for patient care. The goal of policies and laws as such are necessary for the ensuring safety of the patient as well as safe workloads (Ferrer et al., 2014). Currently, there are a few states with staffing laws which is remarkable because by law that nurse is protected. The main strengths of staffing laws are that they help in enhancing the number of nurses employed annually in the healthcare sector, hence reducing patient-nurse ration in addition to protecting the rights of nurses for better healthcare (Yang, Hung, & Chen, 2015). However, the main obstacle towards this policy is that some states have failed to implement staffing laws, which makes it very hard to track down the hiring frequency and the total number of nurses in that state. As a result, the quality of healthcare tends to be affected negatively. Within such states, items such as patient acuity tools are used to help with facilitating fair-shared assignments amongst staff.
Ethical Considerations
One ethical issue when dealing with policies aimed at solving nursing shortage the laws on aging nurses and retirement. Healthcare facilities are faced with the hard decision of how to reduce the nursing shortage when the majority of nurses will be retiring in a few years. Many healthcare organizations have come up with strategies to work with nursing schools in the country where students will get absorbed after studying. It is however difficult for health institutions as they want to retain experienced nurses (Ferrer et al., 2014). Some of the policies that should address the nursing shortage should look at how the nurses are hired and the intervals of hiring to prevent the massive exit of nurses due to retirement such as the staffing laws. Aging nurses have the experience and expertise to provide quality health services. Experience in nursing will help in observing the principle of doing no harm. Experienced nurses will do little or no harm to patients. It is therefore important to consider the nursing principle of nonmaleficence when addressing the issue of nursing shortage in the country. Additionally, offering subsidized funds for students and nursing faculties will also help in solving the nursing shortage (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017). This will help in increasing the enrollment of more students into nursing. Loan programs with no interest will also be initiated in nursing schools for registered nurses who want to enroll in advanced nursing courses. Consequently, increasing using wages will also attract more students to nursing school, which will, in turn, increase the number of nurses in the entire state
Recommendations
Given the community gap in understanding the nursing profession, improving the image of nursing in the country, by encouraging nurses to frequently communicate with the press on positive nursing aspects will help to attract more students to take up nursing courses hence curbing the nursing shortage. Consequently, nurses should be encouraged to mentor students and lure the younger generation into taking up nurses courses. It is also necessary to launch nursing professionals’ advertising campaigns through social media platform, which will support the profession. It is also important for the supervisors in health care facilities to be encouraged to offer physical and psychological support to the workers. The supervisors should also be trained frequently to improve their supervisory skills. The knowledge imparted to them during the training will include treatment of the staff favorably, being friendly to the staff and encouraging team building (Nantsupawat et al., 2017). Positive impacts of nurses will be acknowledged through recognition. A chance for the nurses to voice their view and take part in policy-making activity will be in cooperated in all healthcare facilities. As such, the nursing working environment will be friendly hence retaining most nurses in their jobs and attracting young students towards joining the profession in future. A good example is a work that has been accomplished by the America Nursing Association in protecting the rights of nurses and enhancing ethical observation in the nursing profession which has greatly led to an increase in the number of nurses in the country (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017). The organization has also initiated several training programs and scholarships which has attracted more young generation to study nursing which will completely abolish the issue of nursing shortage in future.
References
Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum, O.-A., & Srisuphan, W. (2017). Analysis of a government policy to address nursing shortage and nursing education quality. International Nursing Review, 64(1), 22-32.
Buerhaus, P. I., Skinner, L. E., Auerbach, D. I., & Staiger, D. O. (2017). Four Challenges Facing the Nursing Workforce in the United States. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 8(2), 40-46.
Ferrer, J., Boelle, P. Y., Salomon, J., Miliani, K., L’Hériteau, F., Astagneau, P., & Temime, L. (2014). Management of nurse shortage and its impact on pathogen dissemination in the intensive care unit. Epidemics, 9, 62-9.
Nantsupawat, A., Kunaviktikul, W., Nantsupawat, R., Wichaikhum, O.-A., Thienthong, H., & Poghosyan, L. (2017). Effects of nurse work environment on job dissatisfaction, burnout, intention to leave. International Nursing Review, 64(1), 91-98.
Yang, P.-H., Hung, C.-H., & Chen, Y.-C. (2015). The impact of three nursing staffing models on nursing outcomes. Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Sample Answer 2 for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
Competing needs in healthcare organizations affect their abilities to deal with national health issues or stressors that compromise the quality of care delivery. Employees and leaders compete in healthcare settings based on the need to attain better quality provision and ensure that patients get value for their money, particularly through implementing evidence-based models like value-based care. Nurse burnout is a national health issue because of the adverse effects on nurses, patients, and the entire health care system (Chen et al., 2021). As such, healthcare organizations should evaluate their policies and practices to address nurse burnout while maintaining quality care and ethical standards. The purpose of this assignment is to discuss nurse burnout as a national health issue and the competing needs that hinder organizations from overcoming it. The paper critiques organizational policies on tackling the issue and recommends strategies to balance the competing needs while addressing ethical weaknesses of the current policy.
Competing Needs Leading to Nurse Burnout
Nurses encounter demanding workloads because of low nurse-to-patient ratios, high patient acuity, limited resources and time that reduces charting shorts or breaks, and increased patient needs and assignments. The two critical competing needs identified in this situation include the attainment of proper or appropriate staffing ratios and the need to offer quality care (Chen et al., 2021). Staffing ratios allow organizations to increase their bottom line since private health facilities focus on profit maximization. However, meeting these needs is a challenge for the health care organization that I work for because of the existing nursing shortage. Nurse turnover contributes to a substantial shortage, with figures showing that it will reach close to 400,000 by 2025 (Brown, 2018). Due to the shortage, burnout is bound to surge, exacerbated by the increasing demand for care and the emergence of infectious diseases like the current COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the organization’s leadership needs to develop interventions to address and manage these competing needs of adequate staffing ratio and patient quality care.
Policies/ Practices to Impact Nurse Burnout
The organization has not instituted sufficient policies to address the current issue. However, practices like innovative approaches through staff scheduling exist, but these are standard interventions that do not substantially affect the issue. Having sufficient staffing numbers can reduce stress among employees, lower the prevalence of burnout associated with overburdened working, and create a better work-life balance for nurses. In their study, Kelly and Poor (2018) observed that enhancing employee well-being and ensuring improved patient care requires organizations to have an effective work-life balance. Through this approach, nurses become more engaged, compassionate, healthier, and well-positioned to offer quality care since they are well-rested.
Lowering the nurse-to-patient ratios is one of the most effective ways to address the problem of nurse burnout. The approach allows nurses to have more time for patients and provide holistic care. The organization also implements hourly rounding, enhancing the patient perception of nurses’ responsiveness in units where such may be a challenge. Hourly rounding also reduces patient falls, uses call lights, and enhances patient satisfaction levels and scores (Garcia; Brosinski & Riddell, 2020). Implementing an hourly rounding program is essential for identifying the “most cost-effectiv eapproach.” The implication is that if a facility integrates these strategies and enhances the quality of care without necessarily raising the cost of care or doing budget cuts, it can address the issue of nurse burnout.
Policy Critique
Ethical considerations are essential for effective care delivery, especially in healthcare organizations when dealing with employee issues like nurse burnout. Leaders in organizations need to balance profits and welfare of healthcare workers to alleviate other issues like nursing shortage which increases the susceptibility to adverse conditions like medication errors (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018). Ethical awareness implores organizational leaders to consider the overall good of these practices to nurses and their welfare against profits (Milliken, 2018). Purposeful and systematic hourly rounding offers several benefits that include improved patient satisfaction, patient safety, and quality of care. Nurses can recognize any adverse patient event fast and employ corrective interventions (Hutchinson et al., 2018). Patient safety is a core aspect of human dignity, and providers should take all measures to protect patients. Implementation of hourly rounding is based on ethical principles related to the professional code of conduct as advanced by the American Nurses Association (ANA). Ethical considerations implore nurses and the facility administration to embed hourly rounding to enhance patient dignity through harm reduction and attending to all their needs timely.
Recommendation
The need to address nurse burnout and the competing aspects of quality and appropriate nursing ratios implores the organization to adopt evidence-based practice policies. Among these is the Quadruple Aim framework. The model focuses on enhancing patient experience, lowering the cost of care, improving the health of populations, and enhancing the welfare of healthcare workers, especially nurses. The framework allows organizations to focus on patients, nurses, and even the management (Jacobs et al., 2018). Therefore, implementing this approach would offer a host of benefits to tackling the issue of nurse burnout in the facility by addressing nursing ratios and quality of care.
The facility can implement the model through a systematic approach by focusing on current operations and processes to ascertain that they lead to enhanced efficiency. The approach entails evaluating areas where the organization is not performing well (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018). The facility can use change models like Lewin’s change process to identify salient aspects to transform in the current practice of hourly rounding. The facility should integrate these components by identifying and using employees as change agents to make the case of enhanced effectiveness. The Quadruple Aim will help the organization enhance quality, address nurse burnout and improve nurses’ welfare.
Conclusion
Competing needs impact the ability of organizations to deliver quality care. Needs like the quality of care and attainment of appropriate patient ratios compete. They require healthcare facilities and their leadership to use effective interventions that result in quality care provision. The use of hourly rounding has ethical considerations based on its benefits and rationale. Implementing the Quadruple Aim framework will enable the facility to address the issue of nurse burnout while tackling the two competing needs of nurse staffing ratios and quality of care.
References
Brown, S. (2018). The Impact of Resiliency on Nurse Burnout: An Integrative Literature
Review. MEDSURG Nursing, 27(6), 349–378.doi:10.1097/JTN.000000
Brosinski, C., & Riddell, A. (2020). Incorporating hourly rounding to increase emergency
department patient satisfaction: A quality improvement approach. Journal of emergency nursing, 46(4), 511-517.DOI: 10.1016/j.jen.2019.08.004.
Chen, R., Sun, C., Chen, J. J., Jen, H. J., Kang, X. L., Kao, C. C., & Chou, K. R. (2021). A
large‐scale survey on trauma, burnout, and posttraumatic growth among nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 30(1), 102-116.DOI: 10.1111/inm.12796.
Garcia, M. G., Dutton, H., Samuel, K., & Marusich, J. (2021). Purposeful hourly rounding to
decrease peripheral intravenous infiltrations and extravasations in pediatrics. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 61, 59-66.DOI: 10.1016/j.pedn.2021.03.009.
Hutchinson, M., Jackson, D., & Wilson, S. (2018). Technical rationality and the decentering of
patients and care delivery: A critique of ‘unavoidable’ in the context of patient harm. Nursing Inquiry, 25(2), e12225.DOI: 10.1111/nin.12225.
Jacobs, B., McGovern, J., Heinmiller, J., & Drenkard, K. (2018). Engaging Employees in Well-
Being: Moving from the Triple Aim to the Quadruple Aim. Nursing Administration Quarterly,(3), 231.DOI: 10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000303.
Kadivar, M., Manookian, A., Asghari, F., Niknafs, N., Okazi, A., & Zarvani, A. (2017). Ethical
and legal aspects of patient’s safety: a clinical case report. Journal of Medical Ethics & Historyof Medicine, 10(15), 1–5.
Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical nursing care versus cost containment: Considerations to
enhance RN practice. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 6.
doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01-Man06
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing &healthcare:
A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
Chapter 1, “Making the Case for Evidence-Based Practice and Cultivating a Spirit of Inquiry”(pp. 7–32).
Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical Awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: Online Journal of
Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 1. doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man0
Sample Answer 3 for NURS 6053 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay
The healthcare system encounters a host of pertinent issues that require interventions to improve the quality of care offered to patients and reduce costs. The Quadruple Aim framework focuses on ensuring quality access to care that leads to better patient experience, improvement of population health, reduced costs and enhancing the work life of healthcare providers (Arnetz et al., 2020). However, a pertinent healthcare issue that can impact this framework and public health in general as well as care delivery is personnel shortages, especially nursing shortage. The purpose of this paper is to discuss nursing shortage as a pertinent health issue and its impact on the organization.
Nursing Shortage and Impact on the Organization
Nurse staffing shortage is a critical issue that requires interventions because of its effects. Organizations and evidence from federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Nurses Association assert that there will be a significant increase in nursing jobs over the next five years compared to any occupation or profession. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that over 176,000 openings will be available for nurses in healthcare due to newly created roles as a result of advanced education and the need to address physician shortage, nurses leaving the profession and those retiring because of their age (Broome et al., 2022). The BLS assert that the nursing shortage will continue to bite the healthcare delivery as more Americans with diverse needs get access to care due to reforms through legislations at both state and federal levels.
Nursing shortage has serious implications on the organizations, especially in critical care situations and the need to deliver quality patient-centered interventions. The increased number of patients per nurse means poor quality of care due to strain and associated fatigue. Nurse shortage is a leading cause of burnout and nurse turnover. For instance, figures from the organization’s leaders show that over ten nurses left the facility in the last two years due to working on long shifts. Data also indicates a rise trend of missed nursing care in the facility due to the shortage (Tamata et al., 2023). The implication is that nursing shortage in any facility leads to increased cost of care and high turnover rates. Having limited nurse of nurses also leads to increased risk of patients to adverse events like medication errors and falls which the organization cannot get reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As such, the entity loses funds when patients miss care or experience adverse events that preventable like falls, healthcare associated infections, and medication errors.
Summary of Studies on Nursing Shortage
In her article, Bourgault (2022) focuses on the issue of nursing shortage and work expectation for nurses caring for patients in critical care conditions. The article asserts that the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at its height during the Omicron wave, demonstrated the crisis of nursing shortage due to thousands of missed nursing care moments. Further, the article highlights the long hours that nurses are working, increased workload and patient acuity while others have to endure with mandatory overtime while also nursing health issues like COVID-19. The paper also highlights the unsafe conditions for nurses and other health care workers without protective personal equipment despite the heightened risk of infections. The implication is that the article highlights the current state of nursing shortage and need for innovative approaches to handle the situation. The article explores the need for policies to help organizations manage safe nurse-to-patient ratios.
The second article by Griffiths et al. (2018) identifies the association between nurse staffing and adverse patient events or outcomes, including mortality. The article asserts that by measuring the number and level of missed care, healthcare organizations can determine the adequacy of their nursing staff and develop innovative interventions to address the situation. The findings from the study indicate that low staffing levels lead to increased prevalence of missed care that result into poor patient outcomes.
Organizations Handling Nurse Staffing Shortage
Organizations are employing innovative approaches to deal with the nurse staffing shortage. These include a collaborative approach to ensure that nurses and their leaders can develop innovative approaches to improving care as opposed to all patients coming for physical visits. For instance, the integration of technologies like telehealth and telemedicine can help organizations address the issue. Nurses are on demand because of increased access to care through health care reforms and partly due to an aging population (Spurlock Jr., 2020). Therefore, organizations need effective leadership to inspire nurses to offer better solutions to care provision. Good working conditions as incentives for nurses in any facility are essential to addressing the nurse shortage. More fundamentally, reducing the turnover rates is also an effective strategy to address the issue. Flexible work schedule and shifts can also help alleviate the issue.
Strategies Used to Address Nursing Shortage
The articles are categorical that stakeholders can address the healthcare issue of nursing shortage through a raft of strategies. These include policies that focus on improving the work conditions and organizational efforts to enhance a collaborative approach among healthcare workers. Secondly, the use of technologies like telehealth and telemedicine can help nurses offer care remotely and reduce the current workload burden (Broome et al., 2021). The strategies are impactful to organizations positively since they are evidence-based practice and will lead to quality patient outcomes. These strategies will ensure that the facility has sufficient number of staff to cater to patients based on their needs. However, they require sufficient resources allocated by the management to attain their goals.
Conclusion
Nursing shortage is a serious healthcare issue that needs stakeholders, especially organizational managers and leaders to address to enhance quality patient outcomes. The articles used in this study demonstrate the need for nurses as innovative care providers to develop EBP interventions to improve care outcomes for patients. Policy interventions and other approaches will be important in addressing nursing shortage as a serious healthcare issue.
Developing Organizational Policies and Practices
As healthcare organizations continue inventing interventions for addressing the nursing shortage, competing needs affect policy formulation and practice immensely. Competing needs represent organizational priorities that must be addressed concurrently. Among many competing needs, organizational resources affected the nursing shortage significantly. According to Hamlin (2023), a nursing shortage in organizations intensifies when organizations cannot replace the aging workforce or adopt innovative approaches to meet the increasing patient visits due to chronic illnesses. Adequately-resourced organizations are better positioned to address these challenges hence preventing a nursing shortage. The other competing need is workforce needs. As healthcare organizations adjust their procedures and implement innovative care delivery approaches, staffing needs should be prioritized. The implication is that new interventions to optimize health outcomes should not burden the current workforce. An additional workload can cause burnout, resulting in nurse turnover (Shah et al., 2021). As a result, a balance between the organization’s and staff’s needs is crucial when making decisions regarding the nursing shortage.
Policy to Influence the Nursing Shortage
Policies and practices vary in relevance and practicality in addressing healthcare issues. The nursing shortage can be effectively addressed by implementing technologies such as telehealth and telemedicine. Broom et al. (2021) observed that telehealth and telemedicine could help nurses to provide patient care remotely and reduce the current workload burden. Remote care reduces physical visits to healthcare providers and ensures patients receive timely care.
Ethical Considerations, Strengths, and Challenges
Besides competing needs, healthcare practitioners should be aware of barriers and facilitators of technology implementation in care. Ethical considerations associated with telehealth/telemedicine include equity of access, data protection, and confidentiality (Solimini et al., 2021). Since technology is not evenly distributed and affordable, it would be challenging to provide equitable care through telehealth/telemedicine. Primary strengths of the intervention include quick patient care delivery, a reduced workload, and reduced infections by minimizing physical interactions in healthcare settings. Challenges include implementation setbacks such as patients’ technology literacy, nurses’ attitude toward technology, and security issues.
Other Practice Changes
As healthcare organizations continue implementing telehealth, interventions to prevent nurse burnout should be prioritized. As Shah et al. (2021) conjectured, a nursing shortage is a leading cause of nurse burnout since it increases nurses’ workload. Given that, practice changes like leadership support, collaborative care, and opportunities for social interaction should be implemented. These interventions will increase nurses’ satisfaction with their job and enable them to participate in patient care actively and passionately. Burnout prevention will further reduce costs associated with nurse turnover.
Conclusion
The nursing shortage is a composite healthcare issue that should be addressed competently and comprehensively. As healthcare organizations implement different policies and practices, competing needs should guide them in decision-making. Telehealth/telemedicine can help nurses to provide patient care remotely and reduce the current workload. However, its implementers should be aware of its ethical limitations, such as privacy and the inability to offer equitable care.
References
Arnetz, B. B., Goetz, C. M., Arnetz, J. E., Sudan, S., vanSchagen, J., Piersma, K., & Reyelts, F.
(2020). Enhancing healthcare efficiency to achieve the Quadruple Aim: An exploratory study. BMC research notes, 13(1), 1-6. DOI: 10.1186/s13104-020-05199-8
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert
clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Bourgault, A. M. (2022). The nursing shortage and work expectations are in critical condition: Is
anyone listening? Critical Care Nurse, 42(2), 8-11. https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2022909
Griffiths, P., Recio-Saucedo, A., Dall’Orca, C. Briggs, J., Maruotti, A., Meredith, P. & Missed
Care Study Group (2018). The association between nurse staffing and omissions in nursing care: A systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 74(7), 1474-1487. DOI: 10.1111/jan.13564.
Hamlin, K. (2023). Why is there a nursing shortage? NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/articles/why-is-there-a-nursing-shortage/
Shah, M. K., Gandrakota, N., Cimiotti, J. P., Ghose, N., Moore, M., & Ali, M. K. (2021). Prevalence of and factors associated with nurse burnout in the US. JAMA Network Open, 4(2), e2036469-e2036469. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.36469
Solimini, R., Busardò, F. P., Gibelli, F., Sirignano, A., & Ricci, G. (2021). Ethical and legal challenges of telemedicine in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania), 57(12), 1314. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57121314
Spurlock Jr, D. (2020). The nursing shortage and the future of nursing education is in our hands.
Journal of Nursing Education, 59(6), 303-304. DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20200520-01.
Tamata, A. T., & Mohammadnezhad, M. (2023). A systematic review study on the factors
affecting shortage of nursing workforce in the hospitals. Nursing Open, 10(3), 1247-1257. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1434
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Developing Organizational Policies and Practices
Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly.
Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice.
Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization.
Resources
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
To Prepare:
- Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
- Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
- Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.
The Assignment (1-2 pages):
Developing Organizational Policies and Practices
Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages:
- Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
- Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
- Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
- Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
- Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
- Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback.
By Day 7 of Week 3
Submit your revised paper.
submission information
Before submitting your final assignment, you can check your draft for authenticity. To check your draft, access the Turnitin Drafts from the Start Here area.
- To submit your completed assignment, save your Assignment as WK3Assgn_LastName_Firstinitial
- Then, click on Start Assignment near the top of the page.
- Next, click on Upload File and select Submit Assignment for review.
Rubric
Criteria | Ratings | Pts | ||||
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Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. For this assignment, in 1-2 pages, address the following: · Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor. |
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· Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor. · Critique the policy for ethical considerations and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics. |
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· Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples. |
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Resource Synthesis |
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Written Expression and Formatting—Paragraph Development and Organization:Paragraphs make clear points that support well-developed ideas, flow logically, and demonstrate continuity of ideas. Sentences are carefully focused—neither long and rambling nor short and lacking substance. A clear and comprehensive purpose statement and introduction is provided, which delineates all required criteria. |
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Written Expression and Formatting—English Writing Standards: Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation. |
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Written Expression and Formatting: The paper follows correct APA format for title page, headings, font, spacing, margins, indentations, page numbers, running head, parenthetical/in-text citations, and reference list. |
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Total Points: 100
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