Organizational Policies And Practices To Support Healthcare Issues
Quite often, nurse leaders are faced with ethical dilemmas, such as those associated with choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for those resources occurs daily in all organizations.
For example, the use of 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses. However, evidence suggests that as nurses work more hours in a shift, they commit more errors. How do effective leaders find a balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of ensuring quality, effective, and safe patient care?
In this Discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and examine how competing needs may impact the development of polices to address that issue.
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and think about the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously selected for study in Module 1.
- Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery as they pertain to the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously examined.
By Day 3 of Week 3
- Post an explanation of how competing needs, such as the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients, may impact the development of policy.
- Then, describe any specific competing needs that may impact the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
- What are the impacts, and how might policy address these competing needs?
Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
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Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
In today’s ever-developing healthcare field, the execution of effectual organizational policies and practices becomes predominant in addressing and resolving pressing healthcare matters. Organizational policies and practices play an essential role in supporting healthcare matters within an organization. These policies and practices offer a framework for sermonizing numerous healthcare difficulties and fostering the well-being of both patients and healthcare professionals. One significant policy is the development of clear guidelines and protocols, ensuring the delivery of high-quality care while sticking to ethical measures (Nicola et al., 2020). This includes policies on patient safety, privacy, and informed concurrence. In addition, organizations can execute practices like progressive professional development platforms and mentorship initiatives, supporting healthcare professionals in staying updated with the latest improvements in their respective industries. Another crucial policy is fostering diversity and inclusion to ensure that all patients receive impartial care regardless of their background or features. By executing these organizational policies and practices, healthcare organizations can develop an environment that grades individuals’ health and well-being while sermonizing the multiple difficulties encountered in healthcare. This paper aims to explain how competing needs, like the need for the workforce, resources, and patients, impact the development of policy, competing needs impact the nurse shortage, and the impacts of the competing needs on nurse shortage and how a policy may address the competing needs.
The Impact of the Need of the Workforce, Resources, and Patients on the Development of Policy
Policy development within a healthcare organization is frequently impacted by stacks of competing needs such as the workforce, resources, and patents. At first, the needs of the workforce can crucially influence policy development, as healthcare professionals need suitable staffing levels, reasonable work hours, restricted resources or budget constraints may pose difficulties in meeting these needs, possibly resulting in policy decisions, striving to strike a parity between workforce demands and available resources (Battafarano et al., 2018). Secondly, the issuing of resources can pose another severe challenge. Healthcare organizations must take into account the availability and distribution of resources like medical tools, technology, and medications. Competing needs develop when resources are scarce, and policymakers must make hard decisions on ranking and utilization. The choice can amend policy development by determining the availability of particular services or treatments and may directly influence patient outcomes. Finally, patient needs play a crucial role in policy development. Healthcare organizations offer patient-centered care, aiming at individual preferences, needs, and values (Olsen et al., 2019). Policies must address patient safety, quality of care, and service access. Moreover, meeting all patient needs can be demanding, mainly when restricted resources or competing needs are encountered. Policymakers must sail through the complexities to create policies that effectually address patient needs while taking into account the practical realities of resource assigning and workforce capabilities. Comprehensively, the competing need of the workforce, resources, and patients seriously influence the development of healthcare policies. Stabilizing these needs requires accurately considering available resources, workforce capabilities, and patient expectations. Effectually, effectual policy development is crucial to developing a healthcare network that optimally addresses all stakeholders’ needs.
Competing Needs Impacting Nursing Shortage
The nursing shortage is a complex problem influenced by numerous competing needs that can further aggravate the issue. One of the competing needs impacting nursing shortage is the elevating demand for healthcare services because of an aging population and the prevalence of chronic disorders (Wang et al., 2020). As the population progresses to grow and ages, the need for healthcare services, such as nursing care, also develops. This establishes a strain on the existing nursing workforce, as they encounter an overwhelming number of patients and accountabilities. In addition, there is a developing need for specialized nursing roles like nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists to meet the enlarging scope of healthcare services. These advanced practice nursing roles need additional education and training, which lessens the pool of available nurses to fill traditional nursing positions. The demand for specialized nurses competes with the need for general bedside nurses, resulting in a shortage in both categories. Another competing need is the difficulty of retaining skilled nurses (Shamsi & Peyravi, 2020). Most nurses encounter burnout, high levels of stress, and heavy workloads, leading to job dissatisfaction and attrition. Factors like insufficient staffing, long working hours, and restricted career development opportunities contribute to nurses leaving the profession or pursuing alternative career paths.
The loss of skilled nurses further intensifies the shortage, as new graduates frequently lack the expertise and skills to fill the gaps. However, the nursing shortage is influenced by the competition for nursing talent among numerous healthcare settings such as hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, and home-based care (Foster et al., 2019). Each field needs nurses with distinct skill sets, and they often compete for the same pool of candidates. This competition can result in higher turnover rates as nurses pursue better job chances or more favorable working conditions in other healthcare fields. Overall, the nursing shortage is impacted by competing needs like elevating healthcare demands, the need for a specialized nursing role, difficulties in retaining skilled nurses, and the competition between healthcare settings for nursing talent. Sermonizing these competing needs requires a miscellaneous perspective, including enhancing working conditions, offering incentives for nurses to remain in the profession, and elevating the capacity of nursing education programs to produce more certified nurses.
The Impact of Competing Needs on Nursing Shortage
Competing needs like elevating healthcare demands, the need for specialized nursing roles, difficulties in retaining skilled nurses, and completion among healthcare fields severely impact the nursing shortage. The developing healthcare demands of an aging population and chronic disorders place immense pressure on the existing nursing workforce, resulting in a shortage of nurses to meet the patient load (Perkins. 2021). The need for specialized nursing roles further lessens the available nurses for orthodox positions. Difficulties in retaining skilled nurses involve burnout and job dissatisfaction, contributing to attrition and losing valuable expertise. In addition, the competition in healthcare fields for nursing talent leads to higher turnover rates. Policies focused on addressing these competing needs may include elevating funding for nursing education platforms to produce more nurses, offering incentives for nurses to remain in the profession, enhancing working conditions to lessen burnout, and executing strategies to attract and retain nurses in disadvantaged areas. Improving partnerships between healthcare organizations and educational organizations can also assist in aligning nursing tutoring with the developing healthcare demands, ensuring a sufficient supply of nurses in specialized roles.
Conclusion
Organizational policies and practices play an essential role in addressing healthcare problems, considering the influence of the workforce, resources, and patients on policy establishment. The competing needs within the healthcare systems, the elevating demands of healthcare services, the need for specialized nursing roles, difficulties in retaining skilled nurses, and the completion between healthcare fields for nursing talent crucially contribute to the nursing shortage. To address the matters, policies must aim at elevating nursing workforce capacity through improved financing for education platforms, offering incentives to retain skilled nurses, enhancing working conditions, and fostering collaboration among healthcare institutions and educational organizations. By addressing these competing needs, organizations can work towards lessening the nursing shortage and ensuring the provision of quality care for patients.
References
Battafarano, D. F., Ditmyer, M., Bolster, M. B., Fitzgerald, J. D., Deal, C., Bass, A. R., … & Monrad, S. U. (2018). 2015 American College of Rheumatology workforce study: supply and demand projections of adult rheumatology workforce, 2015–2030. Arthritis care & research, 70(4), 617-626. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.23518
Foster, C. C., Agrawal, R. K., & Davis, M. M. (2019). Home health care for children with medical complexity: workforce gaps, policy, and future directions. Health Affairs, 38(6), 987-993. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05531
Nicola, M., Sohrabi, C., Mathew, G., Kerwan, A., Al-Jabir, A., Griffin, M., … & Agha, R. (2020). Health policy and leadership models during the COVID-19 pandemic: A review. International Journal of Surgery, 81, 122-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.07.026
Olsen, C. F., Bergland, A., Debesay, J., Bye, A., & Langaas, A. G. (2019). Striking a balance: health care providers’ experiences with home-based, patient-centered care for older people—a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. Patient education and counseling, 102(11), 1991-2000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2019.05.017
Perkins, A. (2021). Nursing shortage: Consequences and solutions. Nursing Made Incredibly Easy, 19(5), 49-54.
Shamsi, A., & Peyravi, H. (2020). Nursing shortage, a different challenge in Iran: A systematic review. Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 34, 8.
Wang, J., Wang, Y., Cai, H., Zhang, J., Pan, B., Bao, G., & Guo, T. (2020). Analysis of the status quo of the elderly’s demands of medical and elderly care combination in the underdeveloped regions of Western China and its influencing factors: a case study of Lanzhou. BMC Geriatrics, 20, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-020-01616-6
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