Strategic HR Planning for Registered Nurses: Challenges & Solutions

This report identifies and addresses the human resource challenges faced by registered nurses within the healthcare system, particularly focusing on strategic HR planning. The report, written from the perspective of an HR Manager, explores internal and external factors impacting the nursing profession, such as compensation disparities, workplace violence, societal disrespect, long working hours, short staffing, shift cancellations, lack of communication, and difficulties with digitization. It emphasizes the importance of addressing these challenges to improve employee performance, patient experience, and overall healthcare quality. The report also touches upon strategies for recruitment, selection, compensation, benefits, succession management, forecasting supply and demand, and change management to meet current and future HR requirements. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Challenges faced by the HR...................................................................................................3
 Compensation and benefits:........................................................................................3
 Workplace violence:....................................................................................................3
 Disrespect from society:..............................................................................................4
 Long working hours:...................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCE.............................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
The registered nurse is a nurse who has successfully graduated in nursing program and carries
a valid nursing licence and also meets the requirements outlined by the country, state or a
province. The scope of practice for the registered nurse is decided by legislation and
controlled by a governing body or council. Since the registered nurses are the most
experienced nurse, theyhave the highest clinical expertise(Hickman et al, 2020). The role of
the registered nurse in a healthcare settings is to monitor, evaluate and record the vital signs,
review the progress of treatment of the patient and measure the progress. They also
collaborate with the physicians and act as an assistant during surgeries. Being the senior
most, they are involved in giving education and knowledge to the junior nurses and helps in
their skill development(Bodenheimer & Mason, 2016).
Discussion
Challenges faced by the registered nurse
The challenges and problems faced by the Registered nurses in a healthcare organization are:
 Compensation and benefits: Regarding nursing compensation, there seems to exist a
regional disparity based on the cost of living. It is found that the registered nurses of
United States earn much more than the registered nurses belonging to other regions.
Gender biasness is also prevalent regarding compensation and pay gaps of the
registered nurses. It is found that the male registered nurse make much more money
on an average when compared to their female counterparts. The gender biasness was
found mostly in the orthopaedics department, however the department of chronic care
had the smallest pay gap opposite to the registered nurses belonging to the cardiology
department enjoyed highest compensation and benefits(Behrens, 2018).
 Workplace violence: It is the most common issue faced by the registered nurses,
where they becomes victims of violence and aggression by their fellow nurses,
physicians or the family members of the patients. It greatly impacted the quality of
health care, increase absenteeism among the nurses as the nurse felt reluctant and
hesitated to approach others due to the fear of getting violated again. This questions
the safety and security of the nurses in the hospitals.
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 Disrespect from society: Most of the registered nurses are treated badly by the
society even after dedicating their life on people welfare and working tirelessly for
hours. Even after such struggle, they do not receive the deserved respect. Moreover,
in some society the nurses are considered as a second class citizen.
 Long working hours: It is very usual for the nurses to feel tired and exhausted after
working for such long shifts. This fatigue can call for patient problems as it accounts
for more medication errors and mistakes in assessing the patient condition. It is
evident because they are also human being, it is not possible for them to work
recklessly for hours and hours with the same concentration and enthusiasm. They are
also more likely to experience burnout, their satisfaction level also reduces gradually
along with an intent to leave their profession. It was also found that the nurses who
worked for long shift hours were unable to take care of their patients, thus resulting in
patient dissatisfaction(Spence et al, 2019).
 Short stuffing: The short staffing of the registered nurses is a crucial challenge that
the hospital faces nowadays. The registered nurses are very less in number, which
increases the pressure and stress on the nurses who are present, which in turn, leads to
loss of focus and concentration on their profession. If this trend continues to happen,
then there is an increased risk of burnout and the hospital will face a huge challenge in
retaining those present nurses, which will reduce the overall quality and standard of
the healthcare organization. Furthermore, if sufficient registered nurses are not present
it can pose for huge concern regarding patient safety and security, increasing the
chance of patient injury(Hofler & Thomas, 2016).
 Shift cancellation – This is frustrating for any nurse to be informed at the last time
about the change in the shift timings as it affects the plans that were pre-meditated
and expectations. This can happen due to decrease in the patient census or
overstaffing of nurses(Buerhaus et al, 2017).
 Lack of communication: Lack of communication or interaction with the fellow
nurses or physicians can be a great issue in providing effective healthcare as it
prevents the sharing of information regarding the patient health with the other nurses.
This can happen due to egoistic or unfriendly relationship with the peers and
physicians owing to a previous dispute. Often the registered nurse feels reluctant or
hesitant to communicate with the physicians due to inferiority complex(Pelletier et al,
2019).
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 Digitization: Some registered nurses faces difficulty in operating the modern
equipment and instruments installed in the modern hospitals to provide efficient and
improved patient care and also reduces the risk of errors in medications. However, the
nurses are not trained and educated about the mode of operation of such instruments.
This makes it difficult for them to use such instruments properly. Thus, it leads to
confusion and anomalous results.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that the importance of a registered nurse within a healthcare
organization is crucial for the delivery of efficient performance of the employees and other
healthcare personnel, also ensuring better patient experience. They are responsible for the
delegation of tasks and responsibilities to the other nurses, promote and evaluate the
performance of them. Furthermore, they also hold the responsibility to provide patient safety,
managing legal and ethical issues within the organization with the help of thorough decision
making and problem-solving skills. It is very essential for the healthcare organizations to
address the challenges and issues faced by the nurse. Their hard work and struggle often gets
unrecognized by the hospital and the society. They also face issues regarding staffing
shortage, low salary, workplace violence, which needs to be resolved immediately to ensure
provision of better health service to the patient and also ensuring patient satisfaction.
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REFERENCE
Behrens, S. A. (2018). International Nursing: Constructing an Advanced Practice Registered
Nurse Practice Model in the UAE: Using Innovation to Address Cultural Implications
and Challenges in an International Enterprise. Nursing administration
quarterly, 42(1), 83-90.
Bodenheimer, T., & Mason, D. (2016, June). Registered nurses: Partners in transforming
primary care. In Proceedings of a conference sponsored by the Josiah Macy Jr.
Foundation in June.
Buerhaus, P. I., Skinner, L. E., Auerbach, D. I., & Staiger, D. O. (2017). Four challenges
facing the nursing workforce in the United States. Journal of Nursing
Regulation, 8(2), 40-46.
Hickman, S. E., Parks, M., Unroe, K. T., Ott, M., & Ersek, M. (2020). The Role of the
Palliative Care Registered Nurse in the Nursing Facility Setting. Journal of Hospice
& Palliative Nursing, 22(2), 152-158.
Hofler, L., & Thomas, K. (2016). Transition of new graduate nurses to the workforce
challenges and solutions in the changing health care environment. North Carolina
medical journal, 77(2), 133-136.
Pelletier, J., Vermette, S., Lauzier, S., Bujold, M., Bujold, L., Martin, É., & Guillaumie, L.
(2019). Challenges faced by Canadian primary health care nurse practitioners in
chronic disease management: A qualitative study among key informants. Journal of
the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 31(5), 300-308.
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Spence, D., Zambas, S., Mannix, J., Jackson, D., & Neville, S. (2019). Challenges to the
provision of clinical education in nursing. Contemporary nurse, 55(4-5), 458-467.
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