1. Discussion: Effect of inadequate nurse staffing
Discussion: Effect of inadequate nurse staffingDiscussion: Effect of inadequate nurse
staffing“The effect of inadequate nurse staffing on patient care” The writer was prompted to
write on this topic because inadequate Nurse staffing is one of the main problems facing the
nursing sector. most healthcare facilities have a limited number of nurses hence
overwhelming the few nurses that are supposed to attend a relatively high number of
patients. Inadequate nurse staffing is a major problem that needs to be addressed because
overworking nurses has serious consequences for instance increased errors that affects
patients negatively (Buerhaus, et al., 2007). The nurses are also negatively affected
psychologically due to fatigue and stress, and other aspects of being which include
emotional and physical. Nurses need a healthy working environment which includes being
allocated adequate and sensible amount of task (Cox, Willis, & Coustasse, 2014). Such an
environment makes them to handle patients with care and remain motivated all through the
working shift.The settingTo understand the impact of a healthcare facility where nurses are
understaffed, examples of the healthcare facility can be a hospitals, nursing homes, mental
health facilities, outpatient clinics, home health, correctional facilities etc. it is important to
observe from how the nurses address patients and respond to issues brought to their
attention (Lee, Blegen, & Harrington, 2014). Where nurses are limited and there is a lot of
work to be done, limited or no attention is granted to some issues. The nurses also seem
less motivated, stressed, and they feel that the patients are a bother to them instead of them
being passionate and caring towards the patients (Aiken, et al., 2018). Overworked nurses
also seem to be disorganized as it is hard to plan and prioritize activities in a working
environment where there is excess work to be handled and more work keeps on being
added in the course of working (Cox, Willis, & Coustasse, 2014). Moreover, by the end of
working shift, there are a lot that is left unattended to hence making it hard for the incoming
nurse to understand exactly where to pick from (Clarke, & Donaldson, 2008). This is not
ignoring the fact that whenever there is nurse staffing issues, working shifts are
prolonged.Problem descriptionNurse staffing is the act of having a limited or inadequate
number of nurses within a healthcare facility. This is to mean that a single nurse is allocated
much more duties that it is legally and professionally recommended (Cho, et al., 2015).
Nurse staffing is a problem allowed by the healthcare organization to take place. the latter is
in the sense that it is realized when the management recruits and hires a small number of
nurses while as the facility receives and offers services a higher number of patients (Clarke,
& Donaldson, 2008). This is a challenge because in an ordinary situation, it is the
2. approximated number of patients that a facility receives that should be used to determine
the number of nurses that should be hired.ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED, PLAGIARISM-
FREE PAPERSImpact of the problemStaffing problem in the nursing practice has serious
negative impacts on the nurses and the entire facility. Overworked nurses gradually
underperform as they are stressed and not in the right physical and mental ability. This is to
mean that nurse staffing problem hinders nurses from realizing their real potentials and
abilities (Cho, et al., 2015). Secondly, it affects overall performance of the facility which
means that the facility does not become as productive as it should. Due to fatigue and the
need to handle as much work as possible; errors are easily triggered that have far reaching
consequences on the patients. This is to mean that the quality of care is highly
compromised, and the nurses do not have the time to build rapport with patients which is
vital in the recovery process (Bridges, et al., 2019). As a matter of reality, nursing errors
have led to patient’s developing other complications that they did not have in the first place
as well as reduced recovery pace (Martin, 2015).Proposed solutionThe nursing issue has no
other shortcut to address the problem apart from hiring the right number of nurses (Lee,
Blegen, & Harrington, 2014). The latter is in the sense that there is the recommended
number of people that a nurse should at least serve. The facility should conduct a statistic
research to determine the number of patients it serves and determine the number of nurses
it should hire (Clarke, & Donaldson, 2008). Also, different measures should be put in place
to make sure that nursing tasks are done in a much easier and effective way. For instance,
advanced technology strategies can be used to reduce nursing errors and motivation
strategies applied as well.ReferencesAiken, L. H., Cerón, C., Simonetti, M., Lake, E. T., Galiano,
A., Garbarini, A., … & Smith, H. L. (2018). Hospital nurse staffing and patient outcomes.
Revista Médica Clínica Las Condes, 29(3), 322-327.
