Economic Issue and Its Impact

Nurses play significant roles in healthcare settings. Nurses are responsible for the well-established quality of care at a hospital. In the Villa Health Care Center (VHC), nurses have a crucial role in planning and implementing quality care settings. However, the shortage of nurses leads to unsupportive and biased recovery procedures at VHC. This impacts community members’ primary and emergency room (E.R.) care. Many nurses can continue their duties in a care center without getting frustrated.

Similarly, the shortage of nurses in VHC created irregular job responsibilities and affected the supply and demand for nurses. Therefore, one of my colleagues started depressing and committed a high-dosage medication error in the E.R., and management dismissed her from her duties. The organization has to shut down care settings because of the nurses and population ratio at VHC, which impacted 16.6% of low-income families in Riverside County (USCB, 2021).

The Rationale for Choosing an Economic Issue and Gap

The nurse shortages have impacted my daily routine by creating extra responsibilities. The main reason for selecting this issue is the consequences of the nurse shortage at VHC. It has created dissatisfaction and financial challenges for nurses and the hospital. The hospital has to shut down many care facilities and lose trust. It has impacted the low-income, diverse population, including retired and elderly, because they have to rely on VHC care. About 16% of the population is not getting the required care (USCB, 2021. The number of E.R. visits was reduced due to a shortage of nurses, which caused service difficulties for Riverside County’s 317,261 residents (VHC, n.d.). Additionally, it has created medication errors due to nurse burnout and frustration and contributed to poor counseling for interventions.

Impacts of Economic Issues on Community

The growing population created disparities in health care, quality achievement, and local nursing’s ability to enhance medical services (Smiley et al., 2021). In the case of VHC, the shortage of nurses creates health disparities and contributes to socio-economic difficulties for current nurses and community members. The shortage of nurses creates adverse disease screening problems for 16.6 % of low-income and 7.4 % of disabled minorities living in Riverside County (USCB, 2021). The low-income groups continue to face health disparities in cancer, diabetes, and child healthcare. The diverse population has different backgrounds and ethical concerns, including African Americans, Asians, Native Americans, and Hawaiian. However, the Lack of nurses created communication barriers among those diverse populations. That also created cultural, legal, and social disparities between the hospital and the community. Therefore, the diverse nursing staff will contribute to resolving health disparities among diverse communities. The data show the diverse nursing population increased from 6.0% to 6.7% in 2020 and still required the largest proportion of nurses in healthcare (Smiley et al., 2021). According to the research, approximately 195,400 staff nurses’ employment opportunities are predicted from 2021 until 2031 (Nurse Journal, 2020). 

Findings of Evidence-Based Sources to Address Nursing Shortage 

According to Marć et al. (2018), the Lack of sufficient nursing professionals is a concern that will affect future global health policy and health equalities that cannot be ignored (Marć et al., 2018). A National Medical Association research found that patients often recover when a more interprofessional workforce delivers treatment (Gomez & Bernet, 2019).   Additionally, organizations can highlight technological advancements, risk analysis, and team collaboration. Nurse’s shortages can lead to medication errors, adverse disease outcomes, and death rates. Patients can suffer from increased fatality and error rates in hospitals if the supply-demand of nurses is not equal to the patients. Nurses feel burnout, unsatisfied and frustrated (Perkins, 2021). The ageing population and shift in global demographics have put healthcare professionals and nurses to face new unseen obstacles. The effective provision of necessary healthcare services relies on equal nurse proportion. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there could be a high risk of nurse shortage worldwide, and in 2030, the world could observe 9 million nursing shortages (Cao et al., 2020). The American Nurses Association is stressing policies and surveys to address the nursing shortage, equality in care, and diversity in an organization (American Nurses Association, 2018). Workplace pressures in healthcare settings may lead to burnout, job frustration, and transfer plans. High-resilient nurses manage their situations well and learn from them (Guo et al., 2018). However, the nursing shortage requires an implementation or change plan to increase nurses in a healthcare facility.

Implementation Plan to Address Nurse Shortage

The low frequency of nurses creates fewer care settings for patients. The diverse and minority population, including the aged retired, and those having socio-economic concerns, are more likely to be affected. However, to address the issue, Government and state policies must be changed and implemented to accommodate the supply-demand ratio of nurses. The change strategies will encourage legislation, technology adoption, hiring of new graduates, and equity in the profession by training nursing students and accommodating national and international agencies for local and international hiring.

Efficient Legislation

Nursing hiring to decrease the burden on healthcare through legislation will aid States in ensuring nurses’ working conditions and change policies for assisting nurse to patients ratio. It will ensure the nurses provide quality care without getting frustrated. The Government passed the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act to allow legislation for international nurses (Durbin, 2021).

Technology Adoption

There are solutions to help organizations hire new healthcare workers. However, there are also ways to help the present nurse team do their tasks more effectively. Many health systems are relying on technology to make nursing jobs less tiring. Integrating different apps to reduce paperwork for the nurses, which consuming their hours. It will assist VHC in enhancing the capabilities of nurses to enhance the working experience and patient-centred care.   

Hiring New Nurse Graduates

Colleges and University students are a source of facilities for clinical placement, and they are training their students through nursing programs (BSN, MSN) to assist many healthcare settings. After completing their required practical learning or training, these young nurses can close the shortage and prepare for the profession.

Equity in Profession and International Hiring 

Policymakers should create reasonable strategies to ensure equal rights for diverse nursing. The strategy will help new and young nurses develop an interest in the profession to reduce the nurse shortage. International Hiring will also reduce the tendency for nurse shortages in the USA. These nurses have lots of experience working in an international organization which will reduce the knowledge among new nurses.  

Outcomes of Proposed Implementation Plan

To minimize the impact of the nurse shortage on their organization, hospitals are often required to cut their workforce and need overtime. However, focusing on long-term solutions, the organization’s focus on legislation and supporting curriculum can also help address the nurse shortage. The legislation procedure will encounter required changes and make policies for the supportive evidence to ensure the supply-demand of nurses in healthcare settings. The University’s nursing programs will generate a skilled workforce to minimize the shortage of nurses in a healthcare organization. Experienced international nurses and professionals will also bridge the knowledge gap and will be able to get new knowledge and expertise. Technology adoption, including telehealth, will also bridge the workforce overtime at the organization. The nursing staff will be able to continue their work without new hiring using specialized apps for managing the patient paperwork.  

Economic Benefits for Patients and the Organization

The VHC will be able to adopt technology changes that will assist in reducing paperwork costs and overtime costs of the nurses. Similarly, changes will benefit the organization and develop financial changes to prevent future problems. It will enable nursing to provide effective duties, indirectly increasing the patient’s trust and loyalty to get a cure in the organization. Specifically, high trust will increase turnover or return on investments. Therefore, patients’ financial burden will decrease, and they will have to reduce travel expenditures to find other care facilities.      

Conclusion

Nurse’s shortage can lead to medication errors, adverse disease outcomes, and death rates. Patients can suffer from increased fatality and error rates in hospitals if the supply-demand of nurses is not equal to the patients. VHC will encourage legislation, technology adoption, hiring of new graduates, and equity in the profession by training nursing students and accommodating national and international agencies for local and international hiring.

References

American Nurses Association. (2018). American Nurses Association. ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/ana/ 

Cao, T., Huang, X., Wang, L., Li, B., Dong, X., Lu, H., Wan, Q., & Shang, S. (2020). Effects of organizational justice, work engagement and nurses’ perception of care quality on turnover intention among newly licensed registered nurses: A structural equation modeling approach. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(13-14), 2626–2637. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15285 

Durbin, R. J. (2021, March 25). S.1024 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act. Congress. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1024 

Gomez, L. E., & Bernet, P. (2019). Diversity improves performance and outcomes. Journal of the National Medical Association, 111(4), 383–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnma.2019.01.006 

Guo, Y., Plummer, V., Lam, L., Wang, Y., Cross, W., & Zhang, J. (2018). The effects of resilience and turnover intention on nurses’ burnout: Findings from a comparative cross-sectional study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(3-4), 499–508. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14637 

Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, 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 

Noone, J., Najjar, R., Quintana, A. D., Koithan, M. S., & Vaughn, S. (2020). Nursing workforce diversity: Promising educational practices. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2020.02.011 

Nurse Journal. (2020, June 3). The U.S. nursing shortage: A state-by-state breakdown. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/articles/the-us-nursing-shortage-state-by-state-breakdown/ 

Perkins, A. (2021). The nursing shortage: Consequences and solutions. Nursing Made Incredibly Easy!, 19(5), 49–54. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nme.0000767268.61806.d9 

Smiley, R. A., Ruttinger, C., Oliveira, C. M., Hudson, L. R., Allgeyer, R., Reneau, K. A., Silvestre, J. H., & Alexander, M. (2021). The 2020 national nursing workforce survey. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 12(1), S1–S96. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(21)00027-2