Capstone Project Topic Selection and Approval

 Capstone Project Topic Selection and Approval

There has been a shortage of nurses in most healthcare worldwide. This is considered among the challenges facing healthcare around the globe. The ratio of nurses as compared to the patients does not add up. The number of nurses is minimal, making it hard for the patients to be provided with high medical healthcare services. For instance, elderly patients have been categorized as mostly affected by the challenges. They are prone to frequent falls if they are not carefully catered for appropriately, supported, and guided daily (Kelly et al. 2019). The mandatory nurse-patient ratios have been categorized as a perseverance health care problem around the globe in most hospitals. This issue has raised the alarm amongst different researchers. In addition, the issue has been identified by various shareholders, who include the patients, the government, nursing organizations, and nurses.

The percentage of elderlies in health care in most parts of the United States increases every day (Pham et al. 2020). These centers are preserved for the older adults who seek advanced care that their relatives or family members cannot provide. This can be due to a lack of availability due to job issues and other commitments. The centers enable the elderly to receive comprehensive care. In addition, the considerations allow the elderly to get medications, counseling, physical therapy, and several needed treatments for older people (Straßner et al. 2019). Centers care for the elderlies provide shelters to thousands of elderly patients aged fifty and above. Due to this, more nurses are required for daily services in those settings.

The more the number of the elderlies increases in the healthcare centers, the more they need extra nurses. Older adults are weak, and therefore more assistance is required during their care (Hernández et al., 2019). Only people with health care education can handle the elderly. This is also because certain medications need guidance which the nurses have experience and education in the medical course and nutritional courses. According to Marc (2019), the challenge is that no matter the increase of the elderly in the care centers, there is no increase of trained professional nurses. The small number of nurses in the settings get overwhelmed during their duties.

Having a lower percentage of nurses in the elderly’s healthcare centers is a significant problem in quality care delivery (Buerhaus, 2018). Nurses only have time and energy for just some patients in the facilities. An increase may result in burnout, resulting in poor delivery of services. The elders' welfare in the facilities will continue to exist if the problems are not evaluated and a solution is implemented.

Tackling the nurse shortage in elderly facilities is an issue that is critical in delivering most patient care. The need to hire more nurses in the facilities will automatically solve the challenges. The recruitment can be done face to face and through online sources such as Facebook (Stokes et al. 2019). However, the nurses picked are the ones who are  pretty conversant with their job. The effects will lead to adequate delivery of maximum healthcare services.

According to Iserson (2020), the solution to the shortage of nurses in healthcare facilities is the increase of unregistered nurses. However, the percentage of nurses to patients needs to be increased for maximum health care. For instance, a nurse handling fewer patients will increase their productivity hence maintaining good health care service delivery. The nurses are required to attend to some manageable patients with less effort, which will reduce burnout and fatigue. Therefore, the challenge of the elderly healthcare facilities and services will end. 

References

Buerhaus, P. (2018). Nurse practitioners: A solution to America’s primary care crisis. American Enterprise Institute, 1-30.

Hernández Morante, J. J., Gómez Martínez, C., & Morillas-Ruiz, J. M. (2019). Dietary factors associated with frailty in old adults: a review of nutritional interventions to prevent frailty development. Nutrients, 11(1), 102.

Iserson, K. V. (2020). Augmenting the disaster healthcare workforce. Western journal of emergency medicine, 21(3), 490.

Kelly, G., Mrengqwa, L., & Geffen, L. (2019). “They don’t care about us”: older people’s experiences of primary healthcare in Cape Town, South Africa. BMC geriatrics, 19(1), 1-14.

Marc, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2019). A nursing shortage–a prospect of global and local policies. International nursing review, 66(1), 9-16.

Pham, N. C., Pham, H. H., Hossain, T., & Li, Y. (2020). Servicescapes in healthcare: A qualitative study on the Elderly's perception of an aged care facility. Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management, 15(1), 26-34.

Stokes, Y., Vandyk, A., Squires, J., Jacob, J. D., & Gifford, W. (2019). Using Facebook and LinkedIn to recruit nurses for an online survey. Western journal of nursing research, 41(1), 96-110.

Straßner, C., Frick, E., Stotz-Ingenlath, G., Buhlinger-Göpfarth, N., Szecsenyi, J., Krisam, J., ... & Joos, S. (2019). Holistic care program for elderly patients to integrate spiritual needs, social activity, and self-care into disease management in primary care (HoPES3): study protocol for a cluster-randomized trial. Trials, 20(1), 1-11.