Nursing | Technical English Essay

Running head: Technical English Essay 1
Technical English Essay
Name
Institution of Affiliation

Technical English Essay 2
The number of nursing staff to the patient population for a while has been an issue of
contention in the US public healthcare system for several decades. As per the U.S Association of
Nurses, “ensuring enough staff numbers in the award is crucial in reducing patient
complications, decreasing nurse exhaustion, reducing nurse lethargy and decreasing number of
mortality cases due to medical errors” ). Nursing staff shortage can lead to adverse consequences
for sick persons such as having a higher duration of stay due to hospital-related problems and
medication errors. It can negatively impact the nursing staff and lead to loss of job morale, nurse
burnout, and fatigue. We will analyze, causal factors for nursing shortage, its implications and
recommend approaches from a perspective of nurse a leader as well as a nurse manager and
administration interventions which can be undertaken to solve this issue in the United States.
Introduction to problem
The number of nursing staff to patient population has been a challenge for several years
in the USA. The consistent increasing need for nurses against the high number of patients has
pushed them to commit medical errors due to exhaustion. Nurses are forced to use a short period
in a single patient because of the pressure put on them by an overwhelming number of patients.
Other issues like forgetting to document crucial information about a patient have also risen.
(Purcell et al., 2011). An example is nurses from California for thirteen years now, they have
been vocal in the fight for an adequate nurse-patient ratio until recently measures were put up to
address their concerns. It has been also proposed that the problem is not only the nursing staff
shortage, but also how hospitals have been planning their schedules have aggravated this issue,
(Lake et al., 2016). In attempt to control organization cost and wages, healthcare facilities have
sought to downscale their nursing staff to profitable ranges as possible. For this reasons health

Technical English Essay 3
institutions can work at a minimum cost regardless of nurse staff to patient population. However,
as health facilities race to adopt this strategy by embracing understaffing, it has a direct negative
consequence on quality of patient care. Both the patient and the individual nurse are exposed to
the risks of this nurse staffing issue. Healthcare institutions and Insurance organizations are
advocating for the need to have shorter hospital stays. To remain aggressive in terms of service
delivery, they have started rendering service of greater delicacy to patients. (Sink et al., 2010
Sequence of events That Led to the Nursing Shortage in United States
Nursing staff shortage started since 1990s in the USA, at the time when use of registered
nurses began. A number of events like a change in technology, health issues and economic
changes together caused a higher demand for registered nurses and consequently a shortage of
them, (Zinn et al., 2012). During this time the healthcare system in US was reshaping due to
changes in technology: changes like start of inpatients required nurses to give ward services to
patients. Also demand for nurses to serve in the military in nursing soldiers was on arise,
therefore depriving public hospitals for civilians further more nurses. These nurses were
anticipated to come back and serve in civilian facilities soon after military activities, but it was
not the case. The situation forced hospitals to start training nurses to cater for the shortage,
(Munier & Porter, 2014). At the time the few nurses who were available were working for longer
time, at a low payment and stressing working conditions. Moreover it was recommended nurses
to stay at the hospital premises, this further made more nurses to opt to work in other sectors.
Recent Causes of Nursing Shortage
Most aspects of the US public healthcare system have been affected by the low staffing
of nurses in healthcare institutions. First the aging population which has been on arise and has
contributed significantly to this problem. The USA does not have enough nurses to care for this

Technical English Essay 4
ever increasing number of old patients who need nurses to take care of them, (Stimpfel et al.,
2012). Besides the ever increasing population of old people, there other factors which have also
contributed to nurse staff shortage: nurse to patient population ratio, inadequate incentive
programs toward nurses, increasing workload and insufficient number and support for nursing
tutors are the five major factors contributing to nursing shortages in the USA. Nurses exhaustion
as a result of workload lead to a high nurse turnover, ultimately resulting in increased operational
cost, (Hinno et al., 2011).
Secondly inadequate incentive programs also have contributed to the low number of
nurses available for service in the nation healthcare set up. Motivational programs should be
adopted in attempt to maintain nurses in public health facilities. Additionally the federal
government should come up with incentives that could motivate more students taking up the
nursing profession. Poor incentives for nurses has been an impediment to retaining nurses in
healthcare facilities. Most have been preferring other sectors which may be offering greener
pastures and better accommodating terms, (Zolot, 2017). Going with the work overload nurses
experience, incentive programs as motivation could assist in retaining nurses in the health sector.
It is a role of nurse managers to ensure his or her employees are well motivated. Availing
incentives such as favorable retirement benefits plan, manageable schedules, higher
compensation, 401K matching, paid sick time and bonus for good work done would reduce
number of nurses quitting the US public healthcare system. Nurses need more time to interact
with their families, and this traditionally they have been getting little time to do so. Often they
are pressured to work in wards for a longer time depriving nurses’ family needs, (Juraschek et
al., 2011). Also it is evident over 55% of US nurses have little access to their employers and are
underpaid in regards to the work they have to do, (Buerhaus et al., 2017). All this challenges,