Contemporary Issues in Nursing

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN NURSING
Contemporary issues in nursing
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CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN NURSING 1
Introduction
It has been seen that in health care centers, nursing staff serves as the largest element in
health care service. Nursing skill mix is basically an effort to reduce the cost associated with the
nursing service in health care centers by cutting nurse care with the help of individuals which are
practicing nurse (Aiken et al., 2017). This kind of approach has been seen in countries like US,
UK, Australia because their workload is more as compared to nursing staff. In situation where
the patient has to stay for a longer time, it increases the cost and there are chances that patient
will not get quality care services due to long process of paperwork, discharge preparation and so
on. As a result, the health care has to depend on the service of the nursing mix which is not able
to offer satisfied service as compared to nursing staff which is completely dedicated to this
service. This essay is focused on the real meaning of nursing mix skill used in health care (Twigg
et al., 2015). In addition, it is also includes impact of nursing shortage on skill mix. It is also
focused on the ratio of RNs related to another level of healthcare workers. It is also focused on
the impact of AIN`s-assistants in nursing on skill mix. In addition to this, it is also includes
impact of skill mix on patient healthcare outcomes.
Nursing skill mix
Nursing skill mix is actually a combination or alliance of various categories of
workforces which are employed mainly in the field of health care. It is considered as the cost-
cutting approach used by present hospitals to offer health care service with minimum investment.
It is mainly interlinked with two types of pattern, one is macro level planning and other is micro
level in framework of service (Staggs et al., 2017). It can be referred as a combination of various
skills which can be used on a particular time in the health care context. In addition to this, it can
be referred as a combination of activities which includes all type of healthcare role. It is an
attempt to offer services which are connected with nursing, physician and some other health care
services in one single format (Jacob, McKenna & D'amore, 2015). It consists of different level of
training along with the different level of wage pattern depending on the importance of the role to
be played. In addition to this nursing skill mix, it is also described as a combination of posts,
scale or occupations within the healthcare organization or in simple words it can be referred to as
grade mixing. It also includes the involvement of various skills which are essential for
completing all type of task in a healthcare organization. In this approach workplace, culture plays

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN NURSING 2
a very important role in bringing learning and development environment in the health care
organization in order to take control on all type of task at the same time so that there will be no
need of special person which will be dedicated towards one particular task.
Nursing shortages impacted on skill mix
Shortage in nursing is impacting quality of health care from many years and is being
expected to be rising in upcoming years. This is because very few individuals are interested in
entering this field as a profession and try to generate limits to overtime trend. This job is having
a hundred percent turnover rate due to very low job satisfaction because of which health care are
facing difficulties in recruiting and selection process (Rosenberg, 2019). Nursing shortage has
directly impacted the demand for skill mix. As this profession is receiving very low inflow
therefore, health care system has started focusing on skill mix and has seen it as the only option
to solve this nursing shortage issue in the health care system. Management of the health care
system has introduced new policies related to the formation of skill mix team which consists of
increasing the education and status within this mixture group in order to maintain the quality
service in the health care which is being impacted due to nursing shortage (Duffield et al., 2016).
This new policy has increased the demand for skill mix in the field of health service because it
will offer two types of advantage to the hospital system. One advantage is this type of
individuals are capable of handling multitask at a time and another advantage is that it will help
the health care centers to lower down the expense which they have to invest on their nursing
service (Jacob et al., 2016). This new environment has forced the health education system to
focus their interest into this new stream of skill mix which is in great demand especially in
countries like UK, USA, Australia and so on.
Best ratio of RN’S to other levels of healthcare workers
Every hospital do not record the amount of care which is being delivered to the patient
because hospital do not reimbursed for the amount of care being delivered to every patient. This
measurement is not considered as burden in terms of financial earning (Fields, Bigbee & Bell,
2016). In this situation, most separate level of nurse staffing dimension is made available in the
form of patient care. Two pattern of care can be offered through patient care, one of the best