Discussion Post Assignment

Discussion Post Assignment

Many hospitals and healthcare facilities struggle with various challenges that jeopardize their operations. These healthcare challenges contravene their quality objectives and effective patient outcomes. One major issue of national concern is the poor patient-to-nurse ratios that strain many nurses and make their working conditions unconducive (Anders, 2021). For example, the hospital I work with seems to give less priority to this issue of poor patient-to-nurse ratio. The challenge has been there for a long making it challenging for effective service delivery. The hospital management blames the poor patient-to-nurse ratio on budget constraints and a low number of trained nurses (Broome & Marshall, 2021a). Unfortunately, there seem to be no feasible solutions to address the issue since they consider the challenge a normal state of affairs. Generally, a poor patient-to-nurse ratio has led to a massive turnover of nurses, long working hours, and work burnout. Nurses turnover is the most eminent scenario at the hospital as many nurses get recruited and quit after a short while. They seem to be overwhelmed with the workload since they are few. The management is fully aware of the current state of affairs, but they are reluctant to provide a lasting solution. The major challenge with the hospital management is that they focus more on profit margins at the expense of building the critical success factors that will influence the quality and effective patient outcomes (Broome & Marshall, 2021a). The management blame budget constraints on the poor patient-to-nurse challenge facing the hospital. They claim the budget allocation of the hospital does not enable them to hire more nurses to meet the current patient-to-nurse ratio, which is growing worse every day.

Additionally, the poor patient-to-nurse ratio at the hospital is blamed for the lack of trained nurses. Generally, few trained nurses are a national issue that needs the intervention of the government to bring balance to the nursing sector (Anders, 2021). Many patients get poor quality treatment due to nurses’ lack of personal care in their hospitals. Our hospital reflects an accurate picture of what many hospitals face. For example, the continuous nurse turnover at the hospital where I work is mainly attributed to the poor patient-to-nurse ratio. Many nurses find it challenging to provide personal care to the many patients at their disposal, making the hospital services to be rated as poor (Broome & Marshall, 2021a). Another effect of poor patient-to-nurse ratio is work burnout. Many nurses report that they get exhausted due to long working hours (Anders, 2021). For example, a nurse is sometimes forced to work for more than the recommended working hours due to insufficient nurses. The hospital management has given this issue of nurse shortage a blind eye since they have made it part and parcel of the hospital’s day-to-day challenge that cannot get addressed amicably. Many nurses that suffer work burnouts opt to quit their jobs and look for other places with a conducive working environment (Broome & Marshall, 2021b). Due to the continuous cases of nurses quitting their jobs at the hospital, the management recently decided to look for solutions to the challenge. One recommendation made by the management is to sponsor students aspiring to be nurses in the future and absorb them at the hospital once they graduate. Secondly, the management recommended restructuring the hospital’s salary structure to give the current nurses morale to enhance their productivity and commitment (Broome & Marshall, 2021b). The management aims at retraining the best talents they have by providing them with reasonable compensation commensurate with their workload. Additionally, the management recommended hiring additional nurses to add to the pool of current nurses by adjusting the budget allocation (Broome & Marshall, 2021a). Generally, the hospital management has recommended strategic measures to address continuous nurse turnover and eliminate the poor patient-to-nurse ratio in the long run. 

References

Anders, R. L. (2021). Patient safety time for federally mandated registered nurse to patient ratios. Nursing Forum, 56(4), 1038–1043. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12625

Broome, M. E., & Marshall, E. S. (2021a). Current challenges in complex healthcare organizations and the quadruple aim. In Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed., pp. 66–97). Springer Publishing Company.

Broome, M. E., & Marshall, E. S. (2021b). Transformational leadership: Complexity, change, and strategic planning. In Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed., pp. 34–62). Springer Publishing Company.