Assignment: Network Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Assignment: Network Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Assignment: Network Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Among the responsibilities of nurses in the care setting is to offer safe and acceptable patient care. However, offering safe and appropriate care is never straightforward as various obstacles face such efforts. The implication is that these obstacles have to be addressed by applying various strategies that can help in effectively removing them. One of such problems is the heavy workload (Molero et al., 2018). The heavy workload in the care setting has been associated with various adverse impacts such as nurse burnout, high turnover, medical errors, and poor patient services (Sturm et al., 2019). Therefore, this paper aims to explore heavy workload as a healthcare issue. Therefore, the issue will be described and its impacts on the organization. In addition, a brief summary of two articles that address the issues will be given and how other entities address the issue. Besides, this paper will summarize the strategies used in the literature materials to address the impact of the issue and how such strategies might positively or negatively impact the organization.

Heavy Workload and Its Impact

The heavy nursing workload is among the common healthcare problems usually caused by a shortage of nursing staff. Heavy workload occurs when the hours that a nurse has to work caring for patients exceed the ideal duration that they can serve to effectively offer quality patient care. Whenever there is a high workload, various adverse impacts can result (Sturm et al., 2019). For instance, there are increased incidences of patients’ death in some cases due to poor care. In addition, recent data also shows that when there is a heavy workload, the nurse spends less time observing and taking care of the individual patients as they have to strive and offer the same care services to other patients as well within the same time period.

Indeed, the heavy workload was at some duration associated with a 20% increase in medical errors, which negatively impacted the organization, the staff, and the patients.  Heavy workload also leads to higher incidences of nurse turnover as the current staff may experience nurse burnout; hence they try to seek lighter duties in other organizations. The end result is that the organization has to spend more money in recruiting new staff to fill the vacant positions.

Summary of Articles on Heavy Workload

Holland et al. (2019) conducted a study that focused on examining the connection between nurse workload, nurse well-being, and intention to leave the occupation. These researchers used an online survey as the methodology where they prompted close to three thousand responses from various participants to get their view of the high nurse workload. From the analysis performed on the responses, the researchers realized that a high workload is closely connected with the nursing staff’s desire to leave the nursing occupation. Such a desire to quit the nursing profession was also shown to be mediated by the work-life balance satisfaction among the nurses (Holland et al., 2019). The analysis also indicated that the use of organizational supports as offered through a high involvement work practice are key in mitigating the intentions by the nurses to quit the profession due to heavy workload. Therefore, human resource management strategies should be aligned to offer such support since the aspects are within their control.

Another literature that addresses the issue of heavy workload is an article authored by MacPhee et al. (2017). This study explored the relationship between various workload factors and the nurse and patient outcomes. The researchers employed a cross-sectional correlational study of four hundred and seventy-two acute nurses working in Canada. Some of the workload factors explored include patient dependency and patient acuity, perceptions of heavy workloads, compromised standards and pending pieces of work, medication errors resulting from nurses’ actions, urinary tract infections, and patient falls.

The researchers noted that task-level interruptions and heavy workloads substantially impact the nurse and patient outcomes from the analysis. In addition, pending tasks were shown to mediate between the patient and nurse outcomes and heavy workloads and between the patient and nurse outcomes and interruptions (MacPhee et al., 2017). Besides, the researchers also noted that the compromised professional nursing standard mediates the correlation between nurse outcomes and heavy workloads and between nurse outcomes and interruptions. The researchers suggest that administrators need to collaborate with the nurses to foster the process of identifying work environment strategies to address the effects of workload.

Various organizations have employed different strategies to address the heavy workload. One of the strategies is that the organization focuses on planning, implementing, and evaluating staffing and workload practices at various levels, such as tactical, logistical, and strategic. Such a step helps in having staff that can facilitate the delivery of ethical, culturally sensitive, competent, and safe patient care (Muabbar & Alsharqi, 2021). The other use methods include using a strategic nursing staffing process by aligning the budget with the required staffing levels that meet the patient needs.

Summary of Strategies Used To Address the Organizational Impact of Heavy Workload

From the articles summarized, the researcher suggested various strategies that can be used in addressing the organization’s impact of high workload. One of the strategies is the use of a high involvement work practice to mitigate the impact. The other strategy is the use of collaboration between the administrators and the nursing staff to formulate strategies that can substantially address the problem within the context (MacPhee et al., 2017). These suggestions can also be effective in our organization as appropriate use of the strategies is likely to lead to the desired improvements. On the other hand, these strategies may impact our organization negatively. For example, aligning the budget to the staffing needs may mean that the funds will have to be taken off other important projects, impacting negatively on the organization.

Conclusion

High workload as a healthcare problem is a major problem that adversely impacts patients, nursing staff, and the hospitals. Therefore, efforts should be focused on lowering it down or addressing the adverse impacts. This write-up has therefore explored the high workload among the nurses. In addition, two research articles addressing the issue have also been explored, and the findings presented and discussed.

References

Holland, P., Tham, T. L., Sheehan, C., & Cooper, B. (2019). The impact of perceived workload on nurse satisfaction with work-life balance and intention to leave the occupation. Applied nursing research, 49, 70-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2019.06.001.

MacPhee, M., Dahinten, V. S., & Havaei, F. (2017). The impact of heavy perceived nurse workloads on patient and nurse outcomes. Administrative Sciences, 7(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7010007.

Molero, M. D. M., Pérez-Fuentes, M. D. C., & Gázquez, J. J. (2018). Analysis of the mediating role of self-efficacy and self-esteem on the effect of workload on burnout’s influence on nurses’ plans to work longer. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2605. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02605

Muabbar, H., & Alsharqi, O. (2021). The impact of short-term solutions of nursing shortage on nursing outcome, nurse perceived quality of care, and patient safety. American Journal of Nursing Research, 9(2), 35-44. https://doi.org/10.12691/ajnr-9-2-1

Sturm, H., Rieger, M. A., Martus, P., Ueding, E., Wagner, A., Holderried, M., … & WorkSafeMed Consortium. (2019). Do perceived working conditions and patient safety culture correlate with objective workload and patient outcomes? A cross-sectional explorative study from a German university hospital. PLoS One, 14(1), e0209487. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209487

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Assignment: Network Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Question Description

I need an explanation for this Nursing question to help me study.

I will add an additional 10 hours to the time as an extension once I match with a tutor.

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.

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 (4-5 pages):

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following:

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.
nurs6053_assignme

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.