Essay Example on Nurse Shortages in Health Care Facilities: Impact on Care Quality

Introduction

Delivery of health care services highly depends on the availability of personnel in the health care facilities. When healthcare facilities are equipped with adequate personnel patients can receive the attention and care they need. Availability of sufficient nurses results in fewer tasks for the workforce hence reducing fatigue and consequently eliminating any possible medical errors. However, when health facilities face a shortage of nurses, several problems may arise. Such issues include deterioration of the health conditions of the patients due to lack of attention, medical errors and fatigue to the available personnel (Buerhaus et al., 2009). However, such problems can be reduced by devising the best measures. Therefore, this paper will concentrate on the impacts of the shortage of nurses in healthcare and the actions that can be adopted to improve the quality of care even with limited nurses.

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Implications of shortage of nurses

Firstly, lack of nurses results in longer working hours for available nurses. When there are limited nurses in the health care facilities, the ones available are subject to more extended periods of work since no one is available to switch shifts with them (Buerhaus et al., 2009). As a result, nurses experience extreme stress and fatigue due to overworking. Operating when stressed and tired can cause the nurses to commit errors during their performances. Secondly, the patient to nurse ratio increases. Shortage of nurses leads to a situation whereby, more patients are assigned to one nurse. The nurses may not be able to attend to all the patients assigned to them which results in long waiting lines for the patients. Consequently, the health of patients in critical conditions continues to deteriorate and some may succumb while still in the waiting line.

Moreover, the shortage of nurses results in massive losses for health care institutions. Institutions with limited nurses are prone to having a bad image of medical errors and poor quality care for the patients (Buerhaus et al., 2009). As a result, many patients opt not to go to such institutions, and this affects the income of the health care institutions when their customers are drawn away. Likewise, a shortage of nurses may result in increased mortality rates. Limited nurses are unable to attend to the patients effectively which makes the conditions of some patients to worsen leading to death. Also, limited nurses are prone to committing medical errors which may sometimes lead the patients to their demise.

Actions that can be taken to elevate the quality of care even with limited nurses

Even though the shortage of nurses is associated with poor quality of care, several measures can be taken to improve the situation. Firstly, the management in the health care facilities should reduce the patient to nurse ratio (Rowe et al., 2012). In this case, the number of patients to be attended to by each nurse available is reduced. Therefore, nurses can pay more attention to their patients without stress or fatigue due to work overloads. As a result, the quality of care offered to the patients is improved since medical errors are reduced.

Secondly, the admissions of nurses in medical schools should be expanded. This will ensure that more nurses are trained and sent to healthcare institutions to increase the workforce (Rowe et al., 2012). Consequently, patients will be cared for adequately, reducing waiting lines and also decreasing the patient mortality rates. Furthermore, the salaries of the nurses available should be increased due to the numerous tasks they perform. As a result, the nurses will be motivated to attend to the patients effectively and also increase job satisfaction. Consequently, the quality of care offered to the patients will improve.

References

Buerhaus, P. I., Auerbach, D. I., & Staiger, D. O. (2009). The recent surge in nurse employment: Causes and implications. Health Affairs, 28(4), w657-w668.

Rowe, A. K., De Savigny, D., Lanata, C. F., & Victora, C. G. (2012). How can we achieve and maintain high-quality performance of health workers in low-resource settings?. The Lancet, 366(9490), 1026-1035.