Challenges Faced by Nurses in Delivering Care Services

Running Head: NURSING: TODAY AND BEYOND
Nursing: Today and Beyond
Name
Institution

NURSING: TODAY AND BEYOND 2
Nursing: Today and Beyond
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Challenges that Nurses face in Delivery of Care.............................................................................3
Understaffing...............................................................................................................................3
Workplace Violence.....................................................................................................................4
Workplace Hazards......................................................................................................................4
Institute of Medicine (IOM) Core Message.................................................................................5
IOM Five Core Competencies and Nursing Practice......................................................................6
Provide Patient-Centered Care.....................................................................................................6
Work in Interdisciplinary Teams.................................................................................................6
Employ Evidence-Based Practice (EBP).....................................................................................7
Apply Quality Improvement........................................................................................................7
Utilize Informatics.......................................................................................................................8
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

NURSING: TODAY AND BEYOND 3
Introduction
The work setting where nurses work in delivering services may determine the quality, as
well as safety of patient care. The contemporary healthcare atmosphere is demanding and
complex for nurses at a time in history where there was a serious deficiency of personnel to meet
the all-around needs of clients. Being the largest healthcare labor force, nurses play a critical role
through applying their skills, knowhow and experience to care for the diverse and changing
needs of patients (Safriet, 2010). Thus, a huge percentage of the demands of patient care are
primarily on the work of nurses. These challenges have affected the way they deliver the services
to its clients. The paper will examine the challenges, which nurses face in delivering care
services and potential solutions to prevail over these problems. The paper will further investigate
the Institute of Medicine (IOM) second Core Message and IOM five core competencies.
Challenges that Nurses face in Delivery of Care
Understaffing
Staffing is a subject of both specialized, as well as individual concern for nurses
nowadays. Indeed, matters concerned with staffing levels or unbalanced jobs are among the
leading grounds these nurses leave their jobs because they are being overworked and experience
fatigue. The shortage of nurses has been an issue that has affected the job of nurses because most
of the nurses develop burnouts because of longer hours that they work. Many nurses that work in

NURSING: TODAY AND BEYOND 4
an environment where there is shortage of nurses normally experience stress. They report high
stress because they experience staffing difficulties (Lasater & Nielsen. 2009). Thus, nurses that
work in environment with staff shortage will always threaten the health and safety of the
patients, leads to higher difficulty of nursing practice and usually affect their health, as well as
security by growing exhaustion plus rate of harm (Ulrich & Grady, 2009).
The problem of understaffing can be resolved by promoting growth opportunities and
incentives for the nurses that can attract more nurses and reduce the workload. This strategy will
ensure that the nurses are motivated that will result in lower turnover in the workplace. In
addition, the healthcare organizations need to develop environment that will promote
communication, teamwork and collaboration to lower the stress that nurses experience
(Hendrich, Chow & Goshert, 2009).
Workplace Violence
The nursing profession has faced the challenge of violence in the workplace that hinders
their productivity in delivering care. The violent behaviors displayed by patients have been found
to affect the performance of the nurses since some patients will attack nurses and injure them.
The workplace violence has been found to impact the job of nurses as many nurses will fear
working in workplace that they will likely to experience violence. This means that they will
prefer in environments that promote safety (Gooch, 2015).
Nurses can overcome the challenge of workplace violence by ensuring that they develop
a safe and secure environment. The nurse leaders should endeavor to create a safe workplace
where patients will be monitored to eliminate and stop any form of violent behavior by the