The selected national healthcare issue is the heavy workload among the nursing staff. There is a massive shortage of nurses within the US and this has led to a heavy workload for the nursing staff in healthcare organizations (van den Oetelaar, van Stel HF, van Rhenen et al., 2016). This is supported by Paulsen (2018) Who explains that the staffing levels in many healthcare organizations do not match the number of patients, and especially the nursing staff. At my work station, at times there is a heavy workload for the nursing staff. Sometimes nurses work beyond their shift and are assigned numerous nurses’ activities. Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay  For example, it is common to find an inadequate number of nurses in the medical-surgical ward or the maternity ward and the nurses working in these units end up being overloaded with nursing activities.  Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay

Heavy workload among nursing staff leads to suboptimal patient care and therefore decreased patient satisfaction (Fagerström, Kinnunen, Saarela, 2018). For example, when a unit in my work station has an inadequate number of nurses it is common to witness patients complaining about poor care, which includes delayed care delivery. The evidence further shows that the level of nursing staff has a significant impact on a number of patient outcomes that are nurse-sensitive (Fagerström et al., 2018). For example, lower levels of nurse staff are associated with increased rates of pneumonia among surgical patients.

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The leadership in my health system work setting responds to heavy workload among nurses by coming up with strategies that improve nurse retention. Nurse leaders collaborate with the human resources department to facilitate how the nursing staff can be motivated, for instance involving nurses in decision-making. This makes nurses feel valued and reduces high turnover.  Nurse leaders also use good leadership styles such as transformational leadership in order to improve the working environment and make it favorable and comfortable for staff to work in. This has reduced the number of nursing staff leaving the organization and this has curbed nursing shortage.

References

Fagerström L, Kinnunen M, Saarela J. (2018). Nursing workload, patient safety incidents, and mortality: an observational study from Finland. BMJ Open, 1(8). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016367.

Paulsen R. A. (2018). Taking nurse staffing research to the unit level. Nursing management, 49(7), 42–48. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000538915.53159.b5.

van den Oetelaar W, van Stel F, van Rhenen W, et al. (2016). Balancing nurses’ workload in hospital wards: study protocol of developing a method to manage workload. BMJ Open, 1(6). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012148.

Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

If you were to ask 10 people what they believe to be the most significant issue facing healthcare today, you might get 10 different answers. Escalating costs? Regulation? Technology disruption?

These and many other topics are worthy of discussion. Not surprisingly, much has been said in the research, within the profession, and in the news about these topics. Whether they are issues of finance, quality, workload, or outcomes, there is no shortage of changes to be addressed.

In this Discussion, you examine a national healthcare issue and consider how that issue may impact your work setting. You also analyze how your organization has responded to this issue.

To Prepare:

• Review the Resources and select one current national healthcare issue/stressor to focus on.
• Reflect on the current national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and think about how this issue/stressor may be addressed in your work setting.

Post a description of the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for analysis and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor may impact your work setting. Then, describe how your health system work setting has responded to the healthcare issue/stressor, including a description of what changes may have been implemented. Be specific and provide examples.  Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay