Negative Outcomes of Nursing Shortage in Healthcare Organizations

This report discusses the negative outcomes of nursing shortage in healthcare organizations, the causes contributing to it, and recommendations to overcome the issue. The audience addressed is the administrative and financial department of the healthcare organization.

Running head: NURSING SHORTAGE
NURSING SHORTAGE
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Contents
Overview:........................................................................................................................................2
Negative outcomes of nursing shortage in the organization:...........................................................2
Causes contributing to nursing shortages:.......................................................................................3
The audience to be addressed:.........................................................................................................4
References:......................................................................................................................................6

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Overview:
Nursing shortage can be defined, as the situation when the number of nurses required for
providing safe and effective care to the patient is lesser than required. Nursing shortage not only
affects the quality of care to the patients but also affects the nurses who are working in the
organizations (Rosseter, 2014). Therefore, this report would be mainly displaying the problems
of nursing shortage that is faced by the organization and will eventually propose different
recommendations so that the organization can overcome this issue successfully.
Negative outcomes of nursing shortage in the organization:
Less number of nurses on the ward results in a risky and life and threatening situation for
the patients who are admitted. The ratio of the number of nurses caring to a specific number of
patients is called the nurse patient ratio. When the nurse patient ratio is low, less number of
nurses remains available to treat comparatively larger number of patients and this lower ratio
results in poor care quality, omission of interventions, delay in medication administration as well
as afferent types of medication errors (Snavely, 2016). Studies are of the opinion that poor nurse
patient ratio are associated with higher stays of patients in the hospitals, increased readmission
rates, increased frequencies of medication errors and many others. Wu et al. (2015) are of the
opinion that low nurse patient ratio affects the therapeutic development of relationships with the
patients and thereby patient centered care could not be provided. All these affected the autonomy
and dignity of the patients and could not ensure patient satisfaction. At the same time, it also
affects the mental and emotional stability of the nurses and makes them suffer from
physiological issues as well. When less number of nurses has to tackle more number of patients
than they can, it can result in burning out of the nurses. They suffer from physical health issues
like backaches and headaches, spondilytis, indigestions and many others. It also results in

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emotional burnouts, as nursing professionals cannot maintain work-life balance, as they often
have to extend their shifts to meet the healthcare demands (Cox et al., 2014). They also suffer
from depression and anxiety issues. Some of them also feel guilty for not being able to provide
effective acre. All these negative outcomes show that there is high need to think of strategies that
would help to manage the nursing shortage issues successfully.
Causes contributing to nursing shortages:
One of the most important contributing factors is the increased number of admissions of
patients belonging to the older cohorts. With the advancement of the medical science and
modern technology, it is seen that the life expectancy of people have increased and that they are
leading longer lives. However, these aspects could not make sure best quality of the lives of the
older people. They are seen to suffer from various consequences of complex co-morbid disorders
and often face threatening life conditions. The admission rates of such patients suffering from
obesity, unmanaged diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, osteoarthritis, asthma, cancer, and many
others along with severe depression and anxiety (Marc et al., 2018). Therefore, as the number of
patients being admitted to the hospital is increasing at alarming numbers thereby creating a
pressure on the present number of nurses in the organization. The nurse patient ratio becomes
low which affect both healthcares provided to patients and health of nurses. Besides the
increasing number of patients suffering from chronic conditions, another important contributing
factor is the increasing number of the aged workforce and their retirement. The number of
working professionals retiring from the organization is not in line with the number of new
recruitments. Less number of new recruitments along with lack of experience and skills of the
newer nurses cannot manage the workflow present on the floor (McKechnie, 2016). The third
issue is that as fewer nurses are caring for more patients, they are burned-out and cannot tolerate

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the work pressure any more. Therefore, they leave their work and resign to overcome the fatigue
and anxiety issues they face at work. All these are the factors that are mainly resulting in nursing
shortage in the organization and plans need to be developed to handle the issues successfully.
The audience to be addressed:
This report is developed for the administrative and the financial department of the
healthcare organization. This issue is advocated to the higher authority. This is done so that the
concerned members can understand the serious issues that the nursing professionals are facing
presently and take proper steps to develop strategies and mitigate the issue. The financial
departments also need to be involved in the new project so that they can also understand the
urgency of the situation and allocate appropriate funds to the concerned stakeholders. Their
contributions would ensure that the strategies could be conducted effectively without any
interruption due to fund shortage.
Recommendations:
The HR department should be given the responsibility to recruit more number of skillful
nurses who can fill up the positions of the retired nurses. They also need to handle the
responsibility to make sure that the nurse patient ratio in each of the ward is managed
successfully so that safe care is provided to the patients. Secondly, training sessions need to be
arranged, where the newly recruited nurses are given training about how to handle their work
burden effectively. Different skills like self-regulation, self-awareness, motivation and many
others need to be trained in the nurses so that they can manage themselves successfully
(Richardson, 2018). Third, personal counseling sessions should be arranged for the burned-out
nurses. The nurses should be counseled when they are emotionally or mentally unstable and the

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problems faced by then should be discussed. The therapists should be providing them with
strategies so that they can cope successfully with their mental and physical issues and this will
lessen the chances of the present nurses to leave the organization. Fourth, the nurse leaders
should also arrange for fun games or fun outings for the nursing professionals so that they can
enjoy break from their regular work burden and interact and communicate with other members
and have good time. This will help them to rejuvenate themselves when they are burned-out and
would help them to join work with zeal and enthusiasm (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017).
Cost or budget justification:
For recruitment of new nurses, the HR department need to conduct interviews and these
recruitment processes would require $500. Training sessions of the nurses to manage their skill
and stresses would require expert trainers and for this, $.800 is allocated for two trainers and
arrangement of training sessions would require $1000. Personal counseling sessions by expert
psychotherapists would require $1000. Moreover, for arrangement of the fun sessions, $500
would be required.

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References:
Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum, O. A., & Srisuphan, W. (2017).
Analysis of a government policy to address nursing shortage and nursing education
quality. International nursing review, 64(1), 22-32.
Cox, P., Willis, W. K., & Coustasse, A. (2014). The American epidemic: The US nursing
shortage and turnover problem.
Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2018). A nursing
shortage–a prospect of global and local policies. International nursing review.
McKechnie, T. (2016). CALL FOR NURSES: The Multi-Dimensional Manifestation of Nursing
Shortage on Patient Care. QIHI Journal of Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety,
(2).
Richardson, K. (2018). The impact of retiring baby boomers on nursing shortage. The Journal of
Global Health Care System, 1(1).

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Rosseter, R. (2014). Nursing shortage. American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Snavely, T. M. (2016). A brief economic analysis of the looming nursing shortage in the United
States. Nursing Economics, 34(2), 98.
Wu, L. T., Low, M. M. J., Tan, K. K., López, V., & Liaw, S. Y. (2015). Why not nursing? A
systematic review of factors influencing career choice among healthcare
students. International nursing review, 62(4), 547-562.