REVIEW OF CURRENT HEALTHCARE ISSUES NURS 6053
REVIEW OF CURRENT HEALTHCARE ISSUES NURS 6053
REVIEW OF CURRENT HEALTHCARE ISSUES NURS 6053
Reducing Stress on Healthcare
According to the ANA The balance of safety and efficacy and the perception of personal risk versus overall benefit are at the core of acceptability of immunization practices. The known and potential benefits of a COVID-19 vaccine must outweigh the known and potential risks. ANA strongly recommends that registered nurses be vaccinated against COVID-19. All health care personnel (HCP), including registered nurses (RNs), should be vaccinated according to current recommendations for immunization of HCP by the CDC and Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
Having Trouble Meeting Your Deadline?
Get your assignment on REVIEW OF CURRENT HEALTHCARE ISSUES NURS 6053 completed on time. avoid delay and – ORDER NOW
ANA also believes that it is imperative for everyone to receive immunizations for vaccine-preventable diseases as vaccines are critical to infectious disease control and prevention. Moreover, nurses have a professional and ethical obligation to model the same health care standards they prescribe to their patients. There is now significant clinical evidence on the safety and effectiveness with approved COVID-19 vaccines being administered under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization process.
Struggling to Meet Your Deadline?
Get your assignment on REVIEW OF CURRENT HEALTHCARE ISSUES NURS 6053 done on time by medical experts. Don’t wait – ORDER NOW!
Annals of Internal Medicine stated We need to be more aggressive about respiratory hygiene and placing restrictions on patients, visitors, and health care workers with even mild symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection. Potential policies to consider include the following: 1) screening all visitors for any respiratory symptoms that may be related to a virus, including fever, myalgias, pharyngitis, rhinorrhea, and cough, and excluding them from visiting until they are better; 2) restricting health care workers from working if they have any upper respiratory tract symptoms, even in the absence of fever; and 3) screening all patients, testing for all respiratory viruses (including SARS-CoV-2) in those with positive screening results regardless of illness severity, and using precautions (single rooms, contact precautions, droplet precautions, and eye protection) for patients with respiratory syndromes for the duration of their symptoms regardless of viral test results. A collateral benefit is that if a patient is subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19, staff who used these precautions will be considered minimally exposed and will be able to continue working.
Conclusion
Laureate education (2015) states, that one thing that individuals and leaders can do to be prepared for healthcare challenges of the future is to develop cultural competency, gain skills to view multiple perspectives, and develop greater understanding the survival side of any healthcare organization. Having Beyond the immediate needs in responding to COVID-19, the pulse survey documents hospitals’ perspectives about longer-term opportunities for improvement to address challenges that existed before, and were exacerbated by, the pandemic. These include reducing disparities in access to health care and in health outcomes; building and maintaining a more robust health care workforce; and strengthening the resiliency of our health care system to respond to pandemics and other public health emergencies and disasters.
References
ANA Board of Directors September 2020 www.NursingWorld.org/COVID19Vaccines/
Annals of Internal Medicine https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-0751
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Daily updates of totals by week and state. Retrieved June 2, 2020 from, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm
Vahedian-Azimi, A., Hajiesmaeili, M., Kangasniemi, M., Fornes-Vives, J., Hunsucker, R. L., Rahimibashar, F., … Miller, A. C. (2017). Effects of Stress on Critical Care Nurses: A National Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, 34(4), 311–322. doi: 10.1177/0885066617696853
Review of Current Healthcare Issues
If you were to ask 10 people what they believe to be the most significant issue facing healthcare today, you might get 10 different answers. Escalating costs? Regulation? Technology disruption?
These and many other topics are worthy of discussion. Not surprisingly, much has been said in the research, within the profession, and in the news about these topics. Whether they are issues of finance, quality, workload, or outcomes, there is no shortage of changes to be addressed.
In this Discussion, you examine a national healthcare issue and consider how that issue may impact your work setting. You also analyze how your organization has responded to this issue.
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and select one current national healthcare issue/stressor to focus on.
- Reflect on the current national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and think about how this issue/stressor may be addressed in your work setting.
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post a description of the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for analysis, and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor may impact your work setting. Then, describe how your health system work setting has responded to the healthcare issue/stressor, including a description of what changes may have been implemented. Be specific and provide examples.
I also chose to discuss the healthcare issue of a nurse staffing shortage. Indeed, it is not a secrete that there is a huge shortage of staff in the healthcare field that is anticipated to grow in coming years. For example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that between 2020 and 2030, 275,000 additional nurses would be needed (Haddad et al., 2022). Therefore, there is a high demand for nurse staff and a low supply continues to increase the risk of staff shortages in healthcare.
Nurses comprise the largest staff members in the field of healthcare. Hence, this issue could impact the healthcare working settings by reducing the quality of care. For example, it leads to an increased workload for the available staff, resulting in an increase in nurses’ burnout. In return, this leads to a high turnover of nurse staff members, resulting to poor delivery of care as available staff do not meet the needs of patients. For example, Acdis.org (2022) showed that the nurse turnover rate in 2021 increased by 8.4% of the nurse population. Hence, this results in an increase in nurses’ vacancy rate in healthcare.
Education and age are additional social determinants of health that lead to the issue of a nurse staffing shortage. As you have expressed, the US population will be over 65 years in the coming decade. Hence, this shows that the available nurses will age and leave their workplaces. In return, this increases the risk of nurse shortage since there are a few numbers of new nurses to replace them (Haddad et al., 2022). On the other hand, education contributes to this issue, whereby there is a high demand for skilled registered nurses in healthcare (Haddad et al., 2022). Hence, addressing these factors is crucial when solving this issue.
There are significant ways to address the issue of a nurse staffing shortage. For example, healthcare organizations should promote nurse recruitment campaigns to attract more candidates and encourage them to pursue nursing (Wolters Kluwer, 2021). For example, this can be done by using social media, creating nurse ambassadors, compensating nurses accordingly, emphasizing career development for nursing, and adverting in different nursing outlets. In return, this will reduce the national supply shortage for nurse staff.
References
Acdis.org. (2022). News: New survey shows increasing costs of nurse turnover in 2022 | ACDIS. https://acdis.org/articles/news-new-survey-shows-increasing-costs-nurse-turnover-2022#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20turnover%20rate,can%20save%20%244%2C203%2C000%20on%20average.
Haddad, L. M., Pavan Annamaraju, & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2022, February 22). Nursing shortage. Nih.gov; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/
Wolters Kluwer. (2021, December). Ten recruiting strategies to attract nurses. Wolterskluwer.com. https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/ten-recruiting-strategies-to-attract-nurses#
By Day 6 of Week 1
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days who chose a different national healthcare issue/stressor than you selected. Explain how their chosen national healthcare issue/stressor may also impact your work setting and what (if anything) is being done to address the national healthcare issue/stressor.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
Nurses work in different settings with varying work demands, support mechanisms, and approaches to work. Regardless of these differences, healthcare stressors are part of everyday work. These stressors are usually workplace challenges widespread in the United States that hamper nurses’ ability to deliver timely and effective care (Rose et al., 2021). The nursing shortage is a prevalent national stressor with far-reaching effects on patient care. It is characterized by higher demand for nurses than the current supply.
The effects of the nursing shortage witnessed in other organizations may be experienced in my work setting. As Shah et al. (2021) explained, the nursing shortage is a leading cause of burnout among nurses. It increases the nurse-patient ratio implying that nurses are overworked and may lack time for self-care and other activities that enhance commitment to work. Shah et al. (2021) further observed that nurses experiencing burnout are more likely to commit medical errors than nurses working within the standard nurse-patient ratios. Errors risk patient safety and damage patients’ trust in healthcare providers. Burnout triggers turnover and increases an organization’s management costs since replacing nurses is costly.
To avert the damaging effects of the nursing shortage, healthcare organizations should implement robust strategies, both staff-centered and organization-wide. My healthcare setting has responded to the nursing shortage through continuous supervision of staff, motivation programs, and formulating policies that prevent work overload. As Lee and Lee (2022) noted, nurse motivation is critical to creating a positive work atmosphere and retaining nurses. The same perspective guides the management when developing and implementing motivation programs. Regarding the changes that may have been implemented, nurses need mental strength to cope with the increasing workload. As a result, the management should invest more in coping programs and organize appropriate training initiatives to improve nurses’ resilience.
References
Lee, J. Y., & Lee, M. H. (2022). Structural model of retention intention of nurses in small-and medium-sized hospitals: Based on Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene theory. Healthcare, 10(3), 502. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10030502
Rose, S., Hartnett, J., & Pillai, S. (2021). Healthcare worker’s emotions, perceived stressors and coping mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS One, 16(7), e0254252. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254252
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
Hello,
Great post. The growing expense of healthcare is undeniably a significant health concern. It greatly affects hospitals and healthcare facilities, especially for uninsured people. The fact that uninsured people often wait to seek medical treatment until their symptoms become severe drives up healthcare expenditures and significantly impacts patient outcomes (Cheng & Witvorapong, 2019). I appreciate that the work environment engages with uninsured individuals to determine why they lack insurance and then assists them in locating resources to solve the underlying problems.
Your post emphasizes the socioeconomic determinants of health that influence healthcare expenses, such as access to affordable housing, healthy food, decent education, and work prospects. I agree that tackling these obstacles might significantly reduce healthcare expenditures and improve patient outcomes (Williams, 2020). The reaction of the workplace to address underlying problems with assistance is laudable and should be promoted in all healthcare settings.
Finally, I agree that the quality of care must be assessed independently of the cost of treatment. Implementing clinical practice standards that emphasize value evaluations and cost-effectiveness would guarantee that patients get great treatment at an affordable price.
References
Cheng, C. H., & Witvorapong, N. (2019). Health care policy uncertainty, real health expenditures and health care inflation in the USA. Empirical Economics, 60(4), 2083-2103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-019-01818-x
The perennial nursing shortage is a national healthcare issue of concern. Statistics at national and international levels show that the shortage of healthcare worker (HCWs) is profound and affects effective and quality service delivery. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that the nursing shortage could hit 12.9 million by 2035 (Marc et al., 2018). Nursing shortage creates unsafe working environment and increases fatigue, high turnover rates, and make nurses susceptible to medication administration errors. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation as the demand for healthcare services has increased, leading to more strain and burden on nurses, especially those working in critical care settings and others with elderly patient populations with chronic and terminal conditions.
Nursing shortage has impacted my work setting negatively as we enhance efforts to provide care to a patient diversity coming to the facility. Low staff retention, reduced levels of patient’s satisfaction, and a rise in hospital acquired infections are some of the negative effects of nursing shortage in our facility. When patient workload exceeds the available shift nurses, patients experience low levels of satisfaction. Unsafe staffing ratios contribute to burnout and high turnover rates (Alenezi et al., 2018). Further, increased length of stay happens due to higher nurse-to-patient ratios lead to more complications and a rise of hospital acquired infections.
Many healthcare settings are struggling in responding to nursing shortage because of the few options available (Marshall & Broome, 2017). Our facility is now leveraging technologies like telehealth to enhance access and quality for patients with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension who require constant monitoring. While studies show that nursing supply may exceed demand in the near future, using technologies and innovative models like increased training and flexibility can help organizations mitigate the adverse effects of nursing shortage.
References
Alenezi, A. M., Aboshaiqah, A., & Baker, O. (2018). Work‐related stress among nursing staff
working in government hospitals and primary health care centers. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 24(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/ijn.12676
Marc, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzynska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2018). A
nursing shortage – a prospect of global and local policies. International Nursing Review, 66(1), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12473.
Marshall, E. S., & Broome, M. E. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert
clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer
Rising healthcare costs and the increasing number of Americans that cannot afford health insurance are national healthcare issues affecting our profession and the healthcare system. Not only does this issue affect those uninsured but also those insured as Montero et al. (2022) mention that “about one-third of insured adults worry about affording their monthly health insurance premium, and 44% worry about affording their deductible before health insurance kicks in” (para. 6). The alarming number of Americans facing anxiety over the cost of insurance and healthcare bills leads to another problem: not seeking care until the illness or disease is so severe it requires an emergency room visit or hospitalization.
While working in the inpatient department of a hospital makes it challenging to address uninsured patients before they are admitted for severe problems, we can make an effort to help them going forward. Social workers are a huge benefit to the healthcare system, as their communication with patients and community connections can drastically change patient outcomes during and after hospitalization. Nurses and social workers must work collaboratively to ensure the best options are offered to meet the patient’s home, medical, and financial needs. Social workers often must have difficult conversations with patients to better the patient’s health and lifestyle (GBMC Healthcare, 2022).
At my facility, the patient population is no different. We aim to ensure a social worker is assigned to assess every patient in the hospital. The social worker makes recommendations based on the patients’ needs and educates the patient on the importance of acquiring insurance, ensuring a safe home environment, and offering assistance for financial or transportation needs so that healthcare professionals can continue proper medical care. Maintaining quality interprofessional communication between the nurse and social worker could be the difference in patient outcomes and whether they seek preventative care in the future.
References
Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) Healthcare. (December 5, 2022). What Does a Hospital Social Worker Actually Do? https://www.gbmc.org/what-is-a-clinical-social-worker-tory
Montero, A., Kearney, A., Hamel, L., & Brodie, M. (July 14, 2022). Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs. Kaiser Family Foundation. https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/americans-challenges-with-health-care-costs/