Strategic Health Issues

Staffing in the Medical Practice 

Part One (300 words)

In the medical practice, career dissatisfaction has for some time been growing. This concept is mainly due to the increase in workloads and even frustration at being unable to have adequate time with the patients primarily because of inadequate staffs (Dabney & Kalisch, 2015). This affects the entire organization’s strategic plan for it becomes difficult for the staff to focus on their assigned tasks and the workload can be too much and tiresome for a single professional to handle. The workload measures of nurses can be grouped into four levels which include unit level, job level, patient level and situation level in which they can also be arranged in a hierarchy (Yang et al., 2015). In a clinical entity, some nursing tasks must be carried out by a team of nurses in a particular shift (unit-level workload). The nurses’ workload are mainly determined by the kind of unit and specialty which comprises of the job-level workload (Yang et al., 2015). These levels tend to coexist with each other. Therefore, when the nurses are inadequate, the whole chain is adversely affected. 

Some studies have shown that there is a relationship amid the working conditions of a nurse including job dissatisfaction and high workload (Harrington et al., 2015). Job dissatisfaction can result in low morale, the poor performance of the job, absenteeism and there is a considerable possibility of threatening the patient care quality and in the long run the objectives of the organisation (Harrington et al., 2015). Some research has shown a definite link amid job satisfaction and performance and job satisfaction and quality care (Wise et al., 2016). The key drivers of this issue are the financial constraints in which the hospital is not willing to pay the nurses the amount that the staff deserves and another driver is the long working hours with little breaks. 

Part Two (200 Words)

Nurse staffing is a common issue in different parts of the world. In a survey carried out in 2016, one of the realizations that were made was that around fifty per cent of nurse managers stated that understaffing is a big problem in their institutions (Wise et al., 2016). Over forty per cent of the respondents in the survey indicated that schedules made in the last minute were one of the most frequently occurring issues regarding staffing (Wise et al., 2016). This tends to affect justice, and equity in that the patients’ and the nurses’ health and well-being are put on a dangerous line. For instance, for the nurses, there are chances of getting chronic diseases due to the long working hours, less sleep etc. and for the patient, there are high possibilities of the nurses making some mistakes that can be life-threatening or can even lead to instant death. An effective health care leader can resolve this issue by ensuring that the patient-to-nurse ratio is standard. This ensures that the nurses give better care. Furthermore, it will, in turn, make the patients feel satisfied with the service thus helping the organisation meet its strategic objective which is to offer quality care to all patients. 

References 

Dabney, B. W., & Kalisch, B. J. (2015). Nurse staffing levels and patient-reported missed nursing care. Journal of nursing care quality, 30(4), 306-312.

Harrington, C., Carrillo, H., & Garfield, R. (2015). Nursing facilities, staffing, residents and facility deficiencies, 2009 Through 2014. Menlo Park: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Wise, S., Fry, M., Duffield, C., Roche, M., & Buchanan, J. (2016). Ratios and nurse staffing: the vexed case of emergency departments. Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal, 18(1), 49-55.

Yang, P. H., Hung, C. H., & Chen, Y. C. (2015). The impact of three nursing staffing models on nursing outcomes. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(8), 1847-1856.