Identifying a Local Health Care Economic Issue

Nurses provide exceptional care services in any healthcare facility. In Villa Health Care Center (VHC), nurses provide well-suited care to the community. Nursing practitioners are the leading health heads to provide specific healthcare diagnosing, counseling for treatment, and medication support till recovery. However, in a hospital, a required number of nurses can handle healthcare responsibilities efficiently. For instance, if a nurse receives an extra burden of responsibilities, she will start burning out and committing medication and administration errors. The VHC faces a nursing shortage and a high burden of allocated and additional responsibilities. 

The VHH is one of the health care providers in Riverside, California, providing care services to a diverse 317,261 population with only 59 beds (VHC, n.d.). The population includes Whites 54%, African Americans 5.89%, Native American 0.84%,  Asian and Hawaiian 0.30%., and with a poverty rate of 16 .6% (USCB, 2021). However, the diverse population has different cultural and economic backgrounds and needs; 49% live in rented houses and rely on the VHC for care.

Contributing Factors 

The shortage of nurses is creating crucial impacts on the community population and the nurses at work. They have started being burnout and frustrated due to extreme population care. The nurses have to face excessive working hours, poor income, and regular on-call sessions, creating difficulties for physicians (Bauer, 2019). These factors contribute to medication errors, unknown deaths, medical harm, stress, and depression. It is also contributing to dissatisfaction with work and owing to the financial and loyalty challenges.

Furthermore, inadequate counseling and training for the prevention of economic issues and unsatisfying patient-centered outcome stop nurses from working on equitable care for a diverse population. The nursing shortage affects the quality of care by reducing nurse’s and hospital performance. So 16.6% of the population of Riverside County is not receiving critical care at VHC (USCB, 2021). Similarly, the nursing shortage creates low-quality care, which contributes to financial burdens on the elderly and retired community members because they have to travel to other care facilities. However, high staff contribution will encourage Villa Heath Care center to promote quality care to support ethical and diversity challenges individuals. 

The Rationale for the Choosing the Issue

The shortage of nurses is contributing to poor healthcare service at VHC. I was a part of the health center and practiced as a mainline nurse. In VHC, I have observed the patients, nurses, and center management’s dissatisfaction with the given quality of care. I have chosen the issue after analyzing the direct and indirect impacts on diverse populations, cost-effective care, the supply-demand ratio of the nurses, and the lower level of return on investment in the care center. According to the World Health Organization and the State of the World’s Nursing 2020, the global nursing shortage reached 5.9 million (WHO, 2020). As an ER nurse at VCH, I work more than the required hours and get frustrated due to the hospital’s mismanagement. The other main reason is the community health center has lost the trust and loyalty of patients, which creates a shortage of patients and reduces financial turnover. The burden of ER room visits contributed to overtime for one of my friend’s colleagues and me. We must attend various ER-required patients all day and even mid of night. Our work routine, sleep schedule, and low salary frustrate us during and after our duties. I have experienced an over-dosage case working with my colleagues, creating serious health concerns in ER.     

Effects of the Healthcare Economic Issue

The issues have created serious health concerns for the community and financial challenges for the care center. The shortage of nurses affected my daily workload routine, sleeping pattern, and financial budget. Also unable to rest and pay my debts for a healthy life. Similarly, my colleague had to work more than his responsibilities, which led her to an overdose of medication errors, and the management rusticated her. The lack of nurses contributed to poor care for a diverse population in various ways, and the local nursing shortage created a language barrier and healthcare disparities. Most African American and Asian has to face communication difficulties. It affects the equality in care access for the low-income population living in rented houses. The VHC has to shut down many rehabilitation rooms because of the nurse shortage, including ER. The care center is restricted to primary care, affecting the day-to-day care procedures. All those factors indirectly decrease the supply-demand ratio, return on investment, and hospital popularity.

Identify Gaps to Address the Issues 

The analysis shows the nurse shortage decreases healthcare quality, which needs to be addressed. The nurse shortage is also affected by the cost-cutting policies of hospital management (Marć et al., 2018). The existence of assistants in the hospital rather than nurses created a gap in hiring new skilled nurses. However, In America, more than 1 million nurses will be required to facilitate care concerns by 2030 (Behring, 2021).

Conclusion

Nurses’ shortage is contributing to less efficient care in America. The World Health Organization and the State of the World’s Nursing stated that the global nursing shortage would reach 5.9 million in 2020. The shortage of nurses is creating crucial impacts on the community population and the nurses at work. Nurses have started being burnout and frustrated due to extreme population care. However, it is necessary to address the nursing shortage issue for the quality of life.

References 

Bauer, U. E. (2019). Community health and economic prosperity: An initiative of the surgeon general’s office. Public Health Reports, 134(5), 472–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354919867727 

Behring, S. (2021, August 11). What’s causing the American nursing shortage? Health line. https://www.healthline.com/health/nursing-shortage 

Dewanto, A., & Wardhani, V. (2018). Nurse turnover and perceived causes and consequences: A preliminary study at private hospitals. BMC Nursing, 17(S2). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-018-0317-8 

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 

USCB. (2021). U.S. census bureau quick facts: Riverside city, California. Census. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/riversidecitycalifornia 

VHC. (n.d.). Villa health care center. Villa Health Care. Retrieved November 28, 2022, from https://villahealthcare.com/ 

WHO. (2020, April 7). WHO and partners call for urgent investment in nurses. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/07-04-2020-who-and-partners-call-for-urgent-investment-in-nurses