Nursing Staffing Shortage Project

This project investigates the pervasive issue of nursing staff shortages. It aims to educate senior management on the causes of these shortages, their detrimental effects on patient care, staff morale, and hospital costs, and potential strategies to mitigate the problem. The project utilizes a mixed-methods approach, incorporating questionnaires and interviews to gather data. The importance of maintaining quality patient care is emphasized, and the role of information technology in improving workflow management and communication is highlighted. The project also discusses the importance of setting quality milestones, using both internal and external benchmarks to measure progress and ensure continuous improvement. Finally, it identifies key stakeholders, including senior management, the board of governors, staff, and patients, emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts to address the nursing shortage effectively.

Running head: NURSING STAFFING SHORTAGE 1
Nursing Staffing Shortage
Student’s Name
Institution

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Project purpose
Purpose of the project is to educate the senior management about nursing staffing shortage in
general. The project will look at deficit causes, how to curb the shortages and the impacts
brought by the shortages. Universally, Magnetic prestige is becoming one of the beleaguered
goals in many hospices and attaining this mission; the quality declaration is gaining reputation
day by day. In that esteem, administrators are certifying quality care amenity by the staff. Among
hospital’s workers, nurses are the front-line caregiver, as they encompass larger professional
group within healthcare scenery and have been accepted by the public as the most trusted
vocation (Abruzzese 1996, p97). Furthermore, superintendents also believe that nursing staffs are
the valuable spring to sustain high eminence of the hospital. However, few adversaries think;
quality reassurance can maintain by shorting nursing staff. I differ, to retain hospital excellence
and to prevent disadvantageous effects on patient, staff, and infirmaries; sufficient nursing staff
is a critical factor. In addition, from many decades, health scientists have reported association
between adequate nurse staffing and positive hospital outcome. Therefore, I firmly trust that
shortage of nursing staff harmfully impact quality hospital assurance on three major areas which
are imperilled of patient's life, the displeasure of nursing staff and ineffective mechanism of
hospital cost.
Data collection types
Organized interviews are steered with a well-designed form already reputable. Researchers, in its
place of respondents, fill in customs and in which it differs from questionnaires. While this
method is more expensive, more complex questions can be asked, and data can be authenticated
as it is collected, improving eminence of the data. Interviews tend to start with a variety of data
sources over alternative media, such as by phone or in person (Buchan et al. 2013).

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Types of data collection measures in the application are the questionnaires and interviews. In
dissimilarity with interviews, where an interviewer poses questions unswervingly, questionnaires
refer to procedures filled in by respondents unaccompanied. Questionnaires are passed physically
or sent by mailing and later collected by a stamped addressed wrapper. This technique can be
adopted for the entire populace or sampled segments. In the case of my project, I found the
questionnaire to be the most appropriate form of data gathering method as it is not much
expensive as compared to interviews schedules where one needs to travel in person to meet the
respondents. In an interview, respondents may feel uncomfortable in sincere answering the
questions smeared to them because of direct contact with the interviewer, which is not the case in
questionnaire method. By, that reason I concluded that questionnaire was the best method of
them hence its application.
Questionnaires may be used to gather regular or infrequent tedious data and data for dedicated
studies. Some data often gained through questionnaires include the working condition of staffs,
the ratio of nurses to patients among other.
Quality milestone
The milestone of quality to be set in the project is the facet of the quality measurement voyage in
deciding what actions will take place from results of the data examination. According to
(Keating, 2014, p562), data deprived of a context for accomplishment can work only to pass
judgment or sit in an account on someone’s shelf. Quality upgrading is about taking achievement
to make things healthier for those served. Measurement theatres a critical role in this drive, but
measurement unaccompanied will not change gears. In nursing staffing shortage discussion,
what considered most is the quality of services offered to the clients who visit the infirmaries
making sure they are served to their satisfaction.

NURSING STAFFING SHORTAGE 4
Information Technology role
Information technology can be applied in ensuring workflow management is efficiently catered.
These tools help to coordinate the numerous, instantaneous processes of caring for patients with
certain tasks to individual work slants, monitoring to safeguard each task is accomplished, and
notifying when tasks nosedive. These IT tools sustenance nurses in critical procedures, such as
medication administration, admission, patient circumnavigating, and emancipation and transfer
functions among others. Communication support tools also provide marvellous support to nurses
and hospital at large and for the reason management should ensure Information Technology
application in their institutions (Twigg & McCullough 2014, p92).
External benchmarks should always be applied but only from those institutions which are far
much ahead than them. External benchmarks help the administration in working out using the
same measures employed by substitute organizations to yield high results as when compared to
the currently used measures. However, internal benchmarks also are applied in ensuring they
improve performance to a high level by gauging their measures from other successful
departments within the organization.
Timeframe
The timeframe of evaluation and re-evaluation should be adequate to facilitate effective working
by the administration hence analysing the findings appropriate and coming up with measures that
will yield better results in future. Nursing staffing shortage is a complex and useful project that
should be considered valid in health organizations hence more time is required in deciding on
any measure in the application. Less duration in making decision impacts shortcomings, that in
turn fails accomplishment of the set goals in most firms and it should be greatly discouraged.

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Key players
The key players in the project are all the stakeholders in the health organizations. The
stakeholders comprise of senior management, the board of governors, staffs, subordinate staffs
and the patients seeking services in those health firms. In ensuring efficient running of the
research, it is advisable for consulting every stakeholder's unit to hear their say about the topic
under consideration. Key players are the people who will give out their say on how to run the
organization according to their satisfaction. Nursing staffing shortage aspect tends to put into
consideration to ensure every task is carried out appropriately at the right time in the right
strategy (Chan et al. 2013).

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References
Abruzzese, R. S. (1996). Nursing staff development: Strategies for success. Mosby Inc.
Buchan, J., Duffield, C., & Jordan, A. (2015). ‘Solving’nursing shortages: do we need a New
Agenda?. Journal of nursing management, 23(5), 543-545.
Chan, Z. C., Tam, W. S., Lung, M. K., Wong, W. Y., & Chau, C. W. (2013). A systematic
literature review of nurse shortage and the intention to leave. Journal of nursing
management, 21(4), 605-613.
Griffiths, P., Dall’Ora, C., Simon, M., Ball, J., Lindqvist, R., Rafferty, A. M., ... & Aiken, L. H.
(2014). Nurses’ shift length and overtime working in 12 European countries: the
association with perceived quality of care and patient safety. Medical care, 52(11), 975.
Keating, S. B. (Ed.). (2014). Curriculum development and evaluation in nursing. Springer
Publishing Company.
Twigg, D., & McCullough, K. (2014). Nurse retention: a review of strategies to create and
enhance positive practice environments in clinical settings. International journal of
nursing studies, 51(1), 85-92.