Nursing Shortage Essay

Assignment 2: Becoming Influential (20%)
Due at the end of Unit 8

Introduction

As a nurse you have a role in increasing the public visibility and credibility of your profession. You are developing the skills and knowledge to influence public opinion and actions related to issues of the health and well-being of society. All nurses have some responsibility to be �leaders� and to influence the thinking and action of others on matters of health in a positive way.

The goal of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to practice some of the key skills of effective nursing leaders such as communication, advocacy, and negotiation.Nursing Shortage Essay .  In other words the goal of this assignment is to give you practice at becoming influential.

Directions

1. Before you begin, review Chapter 12 (Telling Nursing�s Story) in Becoming Influential (Sullivan, 2013).
2. Decide on your message. Chose an issue, quality, concern, or characteristic related to the profession of nursing about which you would like the public to know more. You might get inspiration from your experiences in the program or from reading you have done.
3. Determine how you could best share your message with the public and which sector of the public would be most appropriate to share your message with. Who is the most appropriate target for your message? For example, is your message about a particular concern related to health care that you could share with your MP or a national lobby group in order to influence legislation or public policy? Is your message related to a local health issue that might be most appropriately shared through a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper?
4. Based on your thinking from point 3 write your message in an appropriate form to the agency or person you have selected.
5. Summarize your process in a 3-4page double-spaced paper, excluding the title and reference pages, that includes the following headings:

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Deciding on My Message

How did you select the issue, quality, concern or characteristic about the profession of nursing that you wanted the public to know more about?  Nursing Shortage Essay .What is the theme of your message? Why do you think this message is important? What do you hope to accomplish by sharing your message?

Deciding on How to Share My Message

How would you share your message to have the most influence? Describe how you would choose an appropriate target for your message. What person, agency, or institution would you select and why? What considerations would influence the format, timing, and follow-up of your submission? What obstacles might you face and how would you overcome these? What negation and advocacy skills would you need to get your message out?

My Message

Append your message in the format you have chosen. NOTE: please do not actually send your message at this point.

What I Learned From This Assignment � Discuss what you learned from this assignment. Why do you think that nursing is seldom mentioned in media discussions related to health care? How do you think you can become more influential in this regard? What will you do to increase the visibility and credibility of your profession in the future?

Assignment 2 Marking Guide — Becoming Influential (20%) Due at the end of Unit 8

Name �

Score ___/20 = ___%

Content

Maximum Value 15%

• The three areas of discussion are included: a description of how you selected your message; a discussion of how you determined the content for your message and the target audience for your message; and a discussion of what you learned from the assignment. Nursing Shortage Essay .
• The discussion of these topics is reflective and includes appropriate references to course materials.
• The assignment includes insights into how you can become more influential.
• The submission is focused on the topic, effectively written, and appropriate for the target person/audience selected.

Comments:

Format/Presentation

Maximum Value 5%

• Paper is informative and succinct (within page limit).
• Paper is written in a well-organized way.
• It is written in scholarly format with title page, sentences, paragraphs, headings etc.
• APA format (6th ed) is used.
• Presentation is free of errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure etc.

Nurses are the backbone of the entire healthcare system and as such, they play a vital role in ensuring support for the other medical professionals within the healthcare setting. Their role in offering primary care can never be ignored and thus they have become the driving force for the healthcare sector. However, in the recent past, the nursing shortage has been a major challenge across the globe and this is expected to escalate even further as we move forward. Considering the vital role that nurses play within the healthcare setting, the nursing shortage can, therefore, be catastrophic and can lead to serious challenges that will jeopardize the overall patient care (Twigg et al., 2010). This action message is a personal perspective on the issue of nursing shortage directed to the relevant authority for action.

A Discussion of How I Determined the Content for My Message

The healthcare sector has had some challenges both in its operations and management sides. Nursing Shortage Essay .The most challenging one in the recent past has been the experience of nursing shortage which is determined by the rising nurse-patient ratio. Although this has been caused by various underlying issues, the problem has been specific to regions with unique challenges that lead to the shortage (Scheffler & Arnold, 2019). Nevertheless, there are those common challenges that have been identified to have led to the nursing shortage issue.

To begin with, the developed countries such as US are coping up with the challenges of an aging workforce. The most experienced nurses belong to the ‘baby boomers’ era of which most of them have attained the retirement age or are about to retire. With such a big number of experienced workforces withdrawing from the sector, a serious shortage of nurses has started to hit the healthcare sector globally. According to the US bureau of labor statistics, by the year 2024, the demand for registered nurses will have increased by around 16% from the current demand (Buerhaus et al., 2007). This shows that if the shortage is being experienced at this juncture, there will be more challenges within the healthcare sector in years to come.

Another cause for the nursing shortage has been the challenge for life-work balance. Nursing is a profession which has a lot of demand both in man-work hours, as well as psychological wellness. Most nurses may feel that the job is occupying a large portion of their daily life and therefore the social side of their life is being jeopardized and thus causing many to leave their nursing career. This has been a challenge that has also contributed to the rising nurse shortage (Scheffler & Arnold, 2019). On the other hand, nurse burnout is also a contributor to the nursing shortage in the health sector. Due to the increasing patient-nurse ratio, those of whom are left within the sector are experiencing chronic overwork and a sustained lack of job fulfillment and support. This has led to high turnover and discourage to pursue the nursing career thus causing a further stretch in the shortage being experienced (Gray, Wilde & Shutes, 2018). Nursing Shortage Essay .

On a similar note, there has been a shortage of nursing faculties across the globe with some nursing schools either admitting a limited number of students or placing a higher qualification criterion that leads to fewer admissions. As such, there has also been observed that many experienced nursing educators have also left due to attainment of retirement age stretching further the challenge of having enough educators (Cash et al., 2009). This has led to the number of fresh graduates deteriorating by each year and thus contributing to the rising nurse shortage.

With the above cited facts, the healthcare sector is facing a big challenge, which, if not well articulated, it will escalate further and negatively affect the healthcare sector in terms of patient care dissemination and treatment management. This situation therefore forms the basis for my message and an immediate action is thus called for to mitigate the situation and make the necessary strategic plans that will save the healthcare sector in terms of resolving the underlying issues that cause the nurse shortage.

The Target Audience for My Message

The targeted audience for this message will be the federal and state governments together with the Senate and Congress representatives. The cited underlying challenges that lead to the nurse shortage within the health sector have been for a long time attributed to lack of proper policies and implementation guidelines that can solve the menace forever. The policy making also requires legislation of vital bills that will offer guidelines for a long-term strategic plan that will solve the underlying issues. As such, both levels of government, as well as people’s representatives in both houses have a duty to ensure that the existing policies align with the healthcare nursing demand and enable the availability of nurses at any given time.

The aging workforce, life-work balance, Low wages, as well as shortage of training and education opportunities can be well resolved by putting in place policies that will ensure that these associated challenges are kept at bay. Solving challenges require planning and execution timeline that can be well-coordinated both at the national level, as well as within the individual states. Policies and guidelines will enable activities such as seasonal hiring, improved financial aid, training and development upgrade, interprofessional collaboration and increase in salaries and wages (Sripathyet al., 2017). Nursing Shortage Essay .By ensuring that enabling policies are in place, issues that emanate from nurse shortages such as increased mortality rate, overworking, high turnover and poor patient primary care can be eliminated forever to ensure that the service quality and patient care engagement is done in the right manner to ensure the general health well-being of those seeking the healthcare services (Scheffler & Arnold, 2019).

The Assignment Lessons

This assignment has enlightened me on the part that the representatives together with the government play in the overall development and the implementation of the healthcare policies. On the other hand, I have also learnt the vital part that nurses play within the healthcare sector and the challenges that the healthcare sector experience whenever there is a reported shortage of them. With the increasing population and an aging workforce, developing a strategic plan that will enable a continued training and hiring of enough nurses whom their welfare is well kept can go a long way is resolving the nurse shortage that has been witnessed in the recent decades (Gray, Wilde & Shutes, 2018). Furthermore, this assignment has raised my attention into looking at developing and adopting the enabling leadership qualities that are vital in working in an environment that may be facing a nursing shortage to well cope with the emerging challenges and enable myself and the team to disseminate the expected quality care. Nursing Shortage Essay .

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References

Buerhaus, P. I., Auerbach, D. I., & Staiger, D. O. (2007). Recent trends in the registered nurse

labor market in the U.S.: Short-run swings on top of long-term trends. Nursing Economics, 25(2), 59-66, 55; quiz 67.

Cash, P. A., Daines, D., Doyle, R. M., von Tettenborn, L., & Reid, R. C. (2009). Recruitment

and retention of nurse educators: A pilot study of what nurse educators consider important in their workplaces. Nursing Economics, 27(6), 384-9.

Gray, K., Wilde , R., & Shutes , K. (2018). Enhancing nurse satisfaction: An exploration of

specialty nurse shortage in a region of NHS england. Nursing Management (2014+), 25(1), 26. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/nm.2018.e1695

Scheffler, R. M., & Arnold, D. R. (2019). Projecting shortages and surpluses of doctors and

nurses in the OECD: What looms ahead. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 14(2), 274-290. Nursing Shortage Essay .

Sripathy, A., Marti, J., Patel, H., Sheikh, J. I., & Darzi, A. W. (2017). Health professional

education and universal health coverage: A summary of challenges and selected case studies. Health Affairs, 36(11), 1928-1936.

Twigg, Di, RN, RM,B.HlthSc(Nsg)(Hons), M.B., Duffield, Christine, RN, DipNEd,

BScN,M.H.P., PhD., Thompson, Peter L, AM,MD, MBBS, FRACP,F.A.C.C., F.A.C.P., & Rapley, Pat, MAppSc, BSc, DipNEd,R.N., F.R.C.N.A. (2010). The impact of nurses on patient morbidity and mortality – the need for a policy change in response to the nursing shortage. Australian Health Review, 34(3), 312-6. Nursing Shortage Essay.