NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Walden University NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES – Step-By-Step Guide

This guide will demonstrate how to complete the Walden University NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES assignment based on general principles of academic writing. Here, we will show you the A, B, Cs of completing an academic paper, irrespective of the instructions. After guiding you through what to do, the guide will leave one or two sample essays at the end to highlight the various sections discussed below.

How to Research and Prepare for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Whether one passes or fails an academic assignment such as the Walden University NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES depends on the preparation done beforehand. The first thing to do once you receive an assignment is to quickly skim through the requirements. Once that is done, start going through the instructions one by one to clearly understand what the instructor wants. The most important thing here is to understand the required format—whether it is APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.

After understanding the requirements of the paper, the next phase is to gather relevant materials. The first place to start the research process is the weekly resources. Go through the resources provided in the instructions to determine which ones fit the assignment. After reviewing the provided resources, use the university library to search for additional resources. After gathering sufficient and necessary resources, you are now ready to start drafting your paper.

How to Write the Introduction for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

The introduction for the Walden University NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES is where you tell the instructor what your paper will encompass. In three to four statements, highlight the important points that will form the basis of your paper. Here, you can include statistics to show the importance of the topic you will be discussing. At the end of the introduction, write a clear purpose statement outlining what exactly will be contained in the paper. This statement will start with “The purpose of this paper…” and then proceed to outline the various sections of the instructions.

How to Write the Body for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

After the introduction, move into the main part of the NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES assignment, which is the body. Given that the paper you will be writing is not experimental, the way you organize the headings and subheadings of your paper is critically important. In some cases, you might have to use more subheadings to properly organize the assignment. The organization will depend on the rubric provided. Carefully examine the rubric, as it will contain all the detailed requirements of the assignment. Sometimes, the rubric will have information that the normal instructions lack.

Another important factor to consider at this point is how to do citations. In-text citations are fundamental as they support the arguments and points you make in the paper. At this point, the resources gathered at the beginning will come in handy. Integrating the ideas of the authors with your own will ensure that you produce a comprehensive paper. Also, follow the given citation format. In most cases, APA 7 is the preferred format for nursing assignments.

How to Write the Conclusion for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

After completing the main sections, write the conclusion of your paper. The conclusion is a summary of the main points you made in your paper. However, you need to rewrite the points and not simply copy and paste them. By restating the points from each subheading, you will provide a nuanced overview of the assignment to the reader.

How to Format the References List for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

The very last part of your paper involves listing the sources used in your paper. These sources should be listed in alphabetical order and double-spaced. Additionally, use a hanging indent for each source that appears in this list. Lastly, only the sources cited within the body of the paper should appear here.

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Sample Answer for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Nurse practitioners serve as fundamental assets to healthcare service. They serve as the largest section of the health profession (Haddad et al., 2023). However, nurses face many obstacles within the healthcare setting. A major issue faced by nurse practitioners today is the shortage of nurses within the field of healthcare. Nurse-to-patient ratios are versatile based on staff and facility requirements, accommodations, and even coverage. Due to increased demand for nurse practitioners, nurses have had to adapt to unsafe ratios, responsibilities, and practices. This is due to the immediate impact that the past three years have had on the healthcare setting.

Nursing shortages have been a pertinent issue throughout the history of healthcare. However, 2020 exacerbated the issue of nursing shortages due to the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 resulted in a severe impact on the healthcare setting. It demonstrated that without enough registered nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and other clinicians, the U.S. healthcare system cannot function (Costa & Friese, 2022). The pandemic exposed major weaknesses in the healthcare setting and unnerved countless nurse practitioners and other clinicians.

While the pandemic resulted in an increased demand for nurse practitioners and other clinicians, the stressors of the pandemic also resulted in decreased motivation, safety, and job satisfaction for nurses. According to a national survey by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, “66% of respondents reported having considered leaving the profession, a percentage much higher than previously reported rates” (Costa & Friese, 2022). In fact, the literature of nursing shortages has seen a recent increase in scholarly attention since the pandemic began.

Summary of Literature

Nursing shortages are an unprecedented issue within the healthcare sector both nationally and internationally. In the examination of nursing shortages in the United States, it has been made evident that nurse practitioners have been more concerned with their responsibilities and duties in the past three years than other points in history not including natural disasters. Aside from the textbook, two articles on nursing shortages have been reviewed from outside resources. These articles address the issue of nursing shortages in different healthcare organizations. The following is a summary of the two articles from New England Journal of Medicine and the National Library of Medicine.

“Nursing Shortage” by Haddad et al. (2023) describes the advent of nursing shortages in the United States. This article from the National Library of Medicine also provides recent statistics on the prevalence of nurse practitioners in the United States. According to the article, there are approximately 29 million nurses and midwives globally, with 3.9 million nurses and midwives in the United States (Haddad et al., 2023). The article emphasizes the need for more nurses within the next decade, which has been influenced in large part by the discouraged nurses who served as essential personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Costa & Friese’s “Policy Strategies for Addressing Current Threats to the U.S. Nursing Workforce” (2022) explains how the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in decreased motivation for nurses to return to work. Studies in this article have shown that a range of stressors and traumatic experiences, including furloughs, a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), increased violence, excessive workloads, and reduced support services have influence nurses’ apprehension to return to the healthcare setting (Costa & Friese, 2022). This article also emphasizes the increasing demand for nurse practitioners over the next decade.

Summary of Strategies

These articles highlight both the issues inherent with nursing shortages as well as potential strategies for addressing the organizational impact of national nursing shortages. Haddad et al. (2023) address technology and personal empowerment as vital strategies for decreasing the issue of nursing shortages. Costa and Friese (2022) describe state legislation as a necessary strategy for providing nurses with adequate resources and support tools which will encourage nurse practitioners to return to work. The following is a summary of the strategies highlighted respectively in the provided articles.

One of the main resources that has helped nurses navigate challenges throughout the healthcare setting in the past few years are digital databases. These help with data storage and recall of patient information. The introduction of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and other technological advances improve the likelihood of nurses’ willingness to stay in the profession (Haddad et al., 2023). However, these can also impact the nurse practitioner in a negative way. Some seasoned nurses struggle with the technology and remove themselves from the profession at an earlier rate (Haddad et al., 2023).

Another option is increasing employee motivation. Ensuring that nurses feel inspired, empowered, and appreciated for their work is essential to promoting confidence in the workplace. According to Haddad et al. (2023), an environment that empowers and motivates nurses is necessary to rejuvenate and sustain the nursing workforce. However, these methods can only be implemented appropriately through proper political procedure. State legislation that eliminates onerous scope-of-practice regulations for advanced practice providers would enable nurse practitioners, including midwives, to practice independently and could increase access to healthcare (Costa & Friese, 2022).

Developing Organizational Policies & Practices

Two competing needs impacting the nursing shortage issue in healthcare are economic interest and quality of patient care. Economic interest is an issue because the current trends in the healthcare setting have been primarily corporate-minded, leaning away from quality of care and more toward expenses and accommodations being utilized within the healthcare setting. This competes with the need of quality patient care, as nurses are now being forced to contend with these corporate-based prioritization of healthcare versus giving patients the best quality of care they deserve (Goldfarb et al., 2008). The nursing shortage persists because there are countless nurses who refuse to put up with such a work environment, especially those who became nurse practitioners to help patients in need rather than the overarching healthcare corporations.

A relevant practice that is influencing and mitigating nursing shortages is the focus on personal wellness and mindfulness for nurse practitioners in the healthcare setting. The practice has been developed over the past few years from multiple peer-reviewed studies, tailoring to the healthcare environment to successfully improve nursing staff supply (Park & Yu, 2019). Nurse practitioners can benefit from mindfulness training within the healthcare setting by reaffirming their sense of purpose and motivation despite the corporate trends in healthcare seen today.

It is important to consider the ethics of mindfulness and mental health and wellness training for nurse practitioners. Ethically, the corporate trends that are focusing on the costs of healthcare technologies and tools being used are unsound because they do not focus enough on the quality of patient care. This creates an ethical dilemma for many nurses who decided to join the occupation in order to improve the quality of patient care and help people. Many nurses leaving the healthcare setting are doing so because they do not feel ethically or morally obligated to meet corporate quotas over personalized care.

Policy changes that should be designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of existing policies include the reallocation of stakeholder agency and prioritization of needs within the healthcare setting. The need for a steady supply and maintenance of health personnel is a major issue worldwide, only exacerbated by the nursing shortage trend (Park & Yu, 2019). Therefore, it is imperative that the nurse practitioners being hired within the healthcare setting are given the proper resources and support tools so they can be competent in practice to the best of their abilities. A change in practice that can begin within the healthcare setting includes the shift from corporate quotas back to personalized care.

The needs of resources, workers, and patients can be balanced by simply focusing on quality of patient care. This is the biggest reason why nurses have decided to leave the healthcare system in search of other professions. Without the ability to provide adequate care due to limitations set by corporate stakeholders of pharmaceutical or healthcare technologies, nurses begin to lose their personal motivation to do what they have been trained to (Haddad et al., 2023). Mindfulness and personal wellness training is a certain way to maintain work motivation.

The nursing shortage is a major crisis that is faced across the globe. In the United States, “most nursing leaders agreed that the quality of the U.S. healthcare system depends on improvements in effectively managed, highly educated nursing personnel, both quantitatively and qualitatively (Park & Yu, 2019). This implies that the organizational culture of the healthcare system needs to be radically reformed in order to accommodate the needs of all stakeholders. However, the biggest stakeholders within the functionality of healthcare are nurse practitioners. Their satisfaction and sense of purpose is integral to healthcare operations.

References

Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

Costa, D. K., & Friese, C. R. (2022). Policy Strategies for Addressing Current Threats to the U.S. Nursing Workforce. The New England Journal of Medicine, 386(26), 2454–2456.

Goldfarb, M. G., Goldfarb, R. S., & Long, M. C. (2008). Making Sense of Competing Nursing Shortage Concepts. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice.

Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler., T. J. (2023). Nursing Shortage. National Library of Medicine.

Park, H., & Yu, S. (2019). Effective policies for eliminating nursing workforce shortages: A systematic review. Health Policy and Technology, 8(3), 296–303.

Sample Answer 2 for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Healthcare processes involve different activities that ought to be undertaken to ensure successful operational processes. The healthcare management therefore have responsibilities of balancing the available resources to meet the demands. Within different healthcare settings, the need of resources, workforce, and patients are always in conflict. The implementation of the staffing ratios, mandatory overtime, the application of unlicensed assisting personnel, as well as the employer reductions of educational benefits are some of the examples that can lead to the conflicting needs in practice. The provision of the solution to the conflicting or the competing needs to the cornerstone of an organizational success in healthcare service delivery. The solution can be offered through the development of effective policies, action and inaction. 

Competing Needs 

The selected healthcare issue/stressor in the nursing shortage in the healthcare organization. Most organization face nurse shortages as a result of lack of enough healthcare workers and the increasing number of patients due to the outbreak of diseases. Some of the competing needs impacting nurse shortage is the requirement to incorporate technology in the healthcare processes and the need to incorporate value-based care (Halter et al., 2017). With increased technological innovation, most healthcare institutions are concentrating on integrating technology in enhancing healthcare processes. For instance, instead of increasing the number of workforce, most organization are looking forward to adopting artificial intelligence to facilitate healthcare processes (Fasna & Gunatilake, 2019). Therefore, most managements have to balancing between training more staff and considering the application of artificial intelligence in the treatment and general healthcare processes. On the other hand, the need for value-based care sometimes force healthcare management to consider balancing the available resources to meet the needs of the treatment requirements.   

Policy That May Influence the Healthcare Issue/Stressor 

Administrative and human resource policies may impact the healthcare issue/stressor (nursing shortages). In most cases, the requirements in the recruitment process may impact the number of healthcare professionals or nurse that an organization may have. Further, the administrative and HR policies are also critical in addressing the issue associated with nursing shortages in the healthcare system (Mackey, 2020). Administrative and HR policies are critical in controlling the workforce and the general success of the healthcare organization. 

Moreover, administrative and HR policies often stress ethical approaches when it comes to the management of the healthcare professionals. In other words, the policies stress on the ethical practices when it comes to the management of healthcare workers and in addressing the nursing shortages in the healthcare institutions (Kurnat-Thoma et al., 2017). The strength of the policy relies on the ability to enhance the operational processes and to manage the entire organizational policies. The challenge of the administrative and the HR policy is pressure brought about by governmental regulations or the national health policies that guide general healthcare practices. 

Data privacy and IT security policy and the patient care policies are some of the regulations or policies that have been designed to balance the competing needs of the workers, resources, and patients (Pakenham-Walsh & Bukachi, 2019). The above policies can be applied while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. The policies that guide the application of information technology system can provide alternatives for addressing the challenges associated with the nursing shortages. Also, the patient care policies may impact the problems or challenges associated with the nursing shortages.   

Also Read:

LEADERSHIP THEORIES IN PRACTICE

YOUR LEADERSHIP PROFILE

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHIES

WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT

Module 4: Workplace Environment Assessment

CHANGE IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN

Conclusion 

Nursing is a fundamental issue that affects the delivery of healthcare services. As such, it becomes fundamental to adopt policies such as HR policies that are tailored to address the matter. The incorporation of ethics into the matter is also a significant undertaking. Therefore, it is imperative to create policies that address any stressor within the healthcare setting.  

References 

Fasna, M. F. F., & Gunatilake, S. (2019). A process for successfully implementing BPR projects. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-09-2018-0331 

Halter, M., Boiko, O., Pelone, F., Beighton, C., Harris, R., Gale, J., Gourlay, S., & Drennan, V. (2017). The determinants and consequences of adult nursing staff turnover: a systematic review of systematic reviews. BMC health services research, 17(1), 824. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2707-0 

Kurnat-Thoma, E., Ganger, M., Peterson, K., & Channell, L. (2017). Reducing annual hospital and registered nurse staff turnover—A 10-element onboarding program intervention. SAGE Open Nursing, 3, 2377960817697712. https://doi.org/10.1177/2377960817697712 

Mackey, T., Bekki, H., Matsuzaki, T., & Mizushima, H. (2020). Examining the potential of blockchain technology to meet the needs of 21st-century Japanese health care: viewpoint on use cases and policy. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(1), e13649. https://www.jmir.org/2020/1/e13649/ 

Pakenham-Walsh, N., & Bukachi, F. (2019). Information needs of health care workers in developing countries: a literature review with a focus on Africa. Human resources for health, 7(1), 1-13. https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1478-4491-7-30 

Sample Answer 3 for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Healthcare organizations have competing needs because of the limited resources and reforms. The Quadruple Aim framework as well as innovative delivery models like value-based care implore providers to develop effective interventions to address these competing needs. Nursing shortage is a health care stressor or issue that implores organizations to develop policies and practices to tackle it and guarantee quality care outcomes (Koopmans et al., 2018). This paper focuses on the competing needs emanating from nursing shortage and development of relevant policies or practices. The paper also critiques the policy for ethical considerations, explains its strengths and challenges in ethics promotion.  

Review of Nursing Shortage as Healthcare Stressor 

Nursing shortage has significant implications on the quality of care that providers offer. Nurses are frontline care providers and first point of contact between patients and the healthcare system (Mattioni & Wilson, 2018). The first competing need that can impact nurse shortage are the financial needs of nurses in these organizations which contradicts the institution’s focus on profits or return on investment. The second need is patients attaining bet healthcare services as they pay for them and are entitled to quality. The need contradicts the one for nurses as it means that they must be willing to serve patients but are not well compensated. Further, their workload becomes more because of the shortage. They do not feel well remunerated for the efforts and are demotivated yet patients want quality care irrespective of their situation.  

Relevant Policy Influencing the Stressor 

The current organizational policy and practices of hiring new-graduated nurses is one of the issues contributing to the nurse shortage in the facility. The organization adopted this policy as a means of reducing the overall cost of running the facility because new-graduated nurses want experience and getting their first job is a significant anticipation as they want to gain experience as providers (Perry et al., 2018). However, as they get new and greener opportunities in other organizations, they leave leading to a significant workload for the remaining care providers who experience burnout. Eventually, they also leave and the problem is does not get a solution.  

Policy Critique 

The current policy does not promote ethical values and principles of healthcare, especially the biomedical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice as well as autonomy. The policy fails to consider these ethical values for patients and even providers. The policy should ensure that the hired nurses are compensated well instead of giving them low wages leading to high turnover rates. The policy does not promote any ethical values as it exposes patient to low quality due high turnover rate.  

Recommendations 

The current policy can be effective if it focuses on hiring newly-graduated nurses and training them sufficiently so that they do not leave the organization. These new nurses should be motivated and inspired through good compensation, incentives, and leadership support to retain them. The competing needs should not be the ultimate determiners but quality of care and the retention of best and well-trained providers (Milliken, 2018). The change will ensure that nurses and patients interact and have quality services for mutual benefit and respect. 

Conclusion 

Nurse shortage is a critical healthcare stressor that needs effective strategies and approaches to address. Low nurse staffing levels threaten the quality of care and patient safety. Therefore, organizations, like ours, should develop effective interventions to ensure patient safety and quality of care.  

References 

Koopmans, L., Damen, N. & Wagner, C. (2018). Does diverse staff and skill mix of the team’s  

impact quality of care in long-term elderly health care? An exploratory case study. BMC Health Service Research, 18(988). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3812-4.  

Mattioni, C. & Wilson, L. (2018). A collaborative approach to creating a perioperative nursing 

recruitment and retention strategy: The official voice of perioperative nursing the official 

voice of perioperative nursing. AORN Journal, 108(6), 675-678. 

DOI: http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1002/aom.1243 

Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: Online Journal of  

Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 1. doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man01 

Perry, S.J., Richter, J.P. & Beauvais, B. (2018). The effects of nursing satisfaction and turnover  

cognitions on patient attitudes and outcomes: A three-level multisource study. Health  

Services Research. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.12997 

Sample Answer 4 for NURS 6053 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Cost of medication determines whether the patients will be willing to seek healthcare services from an institution or not. The goal of the quadruple Aim is to reduce the cost of education and increase the access to healthcare services by the population. The cost of medication depends on various factors including the changing economic times and the need to increase the number of healthcare providers in an organization. From the business perspective, institutions operate with the aim of making profits. Therefore, in the call for improving the quality of the healthcare services the patients receive, the healthcare institutions may require to increase their staffs and other equipment necessary for efficient operations. Addition of the resources result in the increased cost which must be transferred to the patients who are the consumers. Therefore, the current study explores the conflicting perspective of the mandatory overtime as a way of meeting the needs of the patients without increasing the cost of medication.

Competing Needs

The increasing number of patients in the healthcare institution requires an additional human resource. However, conventionally, the ratio of healthcare providers to the patients have remained low because of the limited resources. Healthcare providers are forced to attend to many patients beyond the standard requirements. Alternatively, the healthcare institution may opt to recruit more staff and this will result in additional costs which may be transferred to what patients pay. Some leaders may opt make full of their current staffing in responding to the rising costs and change in the payment policies by the federal government.

The introduction of the pay-for-value compensation method meant that healthcare institution would improve the quality of healthcare services to the patients (Kominski et al., 2017). Besides, the policy aimed at eliminating all the unnecessary health interventions that could otherwise increase the cost of medication. Furthermore, the hospital institutions are forced to utilize their existing staff accordingly to improve both the quality of care and minimize the treatment costs. Nurses and other healthcare providers may be forced to work for long hours since they have to spend lots of time understanding the need of their patients to meet the quality threshold (Bernstrøm et al., 2019). On the other hand, the increasing number of patients also force them to work overtime. Therefore, the need to lower the cost of medication and at the same time maintain the quality.

Relevant Policy Practice

The healthcare organization introduced the mandatory overtime as a way of dealing with increasing demand for the quality healthcare services as well as maintain the cost low. Eliminating the mandatory overtime means that the institution may have to employ more staff and this will result in additional cost of medication. The nursing staffs are expected to work for about 2 hours extra per day to meet the demand for healthcare delivery. The policy was introduced after recognizing that the nurses and clinicians spent little time with the patients and so did not identify all their needs. As a result, the healthcare providers were required to spend enough time and so they would have to work overtime depending on the patients’ flow. Therefore, all the employees recruited in the organization were made aware of the mandatory overtime requirement whenever requested.

Critique of the Policy

The policy was developed to respond to the need to improve the quality of healthcare services to the patients. The introduction of the pay-for-performance means that the healthcare institutions would be compensated based on the patients outcome and not the services offered. As a result, the institution had to develop an approach of responding to the need without increasing the costs of medication to the patients. Nurses and clinicians would spend more time with their patients and understand all understand the underlying factors that could impact their treatment outcomes and this would lead to better outcomes.

However, exposing the healthcare providers to long-working hours could leads to injuries and emotional exhaustion. Studies have indicated that burnout among the employees in healthcare sector is attributed to the long working hours (Kowalczuk et al., 2020). It is ethically wrong to expose the healthcare providers to health risks with the intention of reducing the medication costs (Moon et al., 2020). The quadruple Aim advocate for both the better outcomes for the patients and improved quality of life for the healthcare providers. Mandatory overtime for the healthcare providers does not improve their quality of life but instead increases their risk of developing burnout.

Furthermore, studies show that fatigued employees are prone of making errors and this means that the patients could suffer more from the medication errors (Salen & Norman, 2018). The policy in the institution is only suitable for short-term goal but destructive in the long-run. All healthcare providers must be treated with dignity and be given enough time for rest. Therefore, while the goal of the policy was to address the issue of rising costs, it could increase the costs because of the frequent recruitment requirement due to high employees’ turnover in the organization. High turnover rates could compromise the quality of the healthcare delivery to the patients farther.

Recommendation

The healthcare organization can use other policies to improve the quality of healthcare services in the organization other than the mandatory overtime. The healthcare institution can introduce the electronic health system that will allow the healthcare providers to interact with their patients virtually and so reduce their need to go to the hospitals. The electronic health system will increase interaction between the healthcare providers and their patients as well as improve the level of patients’ commitment in managing their health (Sprivulis, 2020). Eventually, the pressure to attend to many patients in the hospital will reduce as the quality of treatment improves. In addition, the cost of medication ill improve significantly (Sanyal et al., 2018).

The healthcare providers will work with the community health volunteers in offering the healthcare services to the patients at home. The policy will promote better treatment outcomes which will improve the quality of life for the healthcare providers. Furthermore, the healthcare providers will be motivated to offer their best in interacting with the patients.

Conclusion

The rising cost of medication following the Medicaid and Medicare programs present a significant challenge to the healthcare delivery process. The introduction of pay-for-value compensation aimed at making the medication costs affordable. However, the increase in the number of patients seeking healthcare services exerts a significant pressure on the limited number of healthcare staff. The introduction of the mandatory overtime is one of the ways of ensuring the healthcare providers offer quality services to all patients. However, the policy presents more harm to the healthcare providers’ health. The electronic health systems can be deployed by healthcare institutions to minimize the need for the patients to visit the hospital and improve the treatment outcomes.

References

Bernstrøm, V. H., Alves, D. E., Ellingsen, D., & Ingelsrud, M. H. (2019). Healthy working time arrangements for healthcare personnel and patients: A systematic literature review. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-3993-5

Kominski, G. F., Nonzee, N. J., & Sorensen, A. (2017). The Affordable Care Act’s impacts on access to insurance and health care for low-income populations. Annual Review of Public Health, 38(1), 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044555

Kowalczuk, K., Krajewska-Kułak, E., & Sobolewski, M. (2020). Working excessively and burnout among nurses in the context of sick leaves. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00285

Moon, S., Mariat, S., Kamae, I., & Pedersen, H. B. (2020). Defining the concept of fair pricing for medicines. BMJ, l4726. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4726

Salen, P., & Norman, K. (2018). The impact of fatigue on medical error and clinician wellness: A vignette-based discussion. Vignettes in Patient Safety – Volume 2. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70712

Sanyal, C., Stolee, P., Juzwishin, D., & Husereau, D. (2018). Economic evaluations of eHealth technologies: A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 13(6), e0198112. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198112

Sprivulis, P. (2020). Connecting health care through information technology. Patient Safety First, 299-317. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003116677-14

Organizational Policies and Practices To Support Healthcare Issues and Competing Needs
In healthcare environments, when there are competing demands and limited resources, ethical problems arise. While maintaining morality and exemplary service standards, healthcare organizations must overcome these obstacles. This article examines how competing requirements affect the formulation of healthcare policy using a national issue or stressor as a case study. 
Policymaking and conflicting needs
Healthcare policy is influenced by competing patient, workforce, and resource needs (A.N.A., 2015). The American Nurses Association (2015) asserts that organizational needs must be balanced with providing patients with high-quality, effective, and safe care. According to Kelly and Porr (2018), R.N. practice enhancement, cost control, and ethical nursing care are all important. With ethical awareness, these needs can be harmonized (Milliken, 2018). Healthcare organizations can enhance resource use and patient care by incorporating ethics into policymaking.
Competing needs and the national healthcare system constitute the problem or stressor.
Competing needs have an impact on the chosen stressor or national healthcare concern. The issue can be resolved by hiring and retaining nurses (Kelly & Porr, 2018). Twelve-hour shifts could worsen mistakes and endanger patient safety to keep nurses on staff (Kelly & Porr, 2018). The distribution of resources impacts the identified stressor or national healthcare concern. Resources could limit comprehensive solutions. Ethical knowledge helps with more equitable resource distribution and better healthcare results (Milliken, 2018). Creating policies that go beyond budget limitations and improve equitable treatment by adopting moral standards and considering underserved people is possible.
Conflicting Needs and Policy Solutions

The conflicting needs of the national healthcare concern or stressor can be addressed through policies. First, cost control and moral nursing should be prioritized in policies (Kelly & Porr, 2018). Resource consumption can be optimized through interdisciplinary collaboration and evidence-based staffing strategies. Healthcare decision-making guidelines should include ethical considerations.
In conclusion, competing needs significantly impact the highlighted national healthcare issue/stressor. Institutions in the healthcare industry can fix these problems by implementing ethical standards. Policies relating to workforce needs, resource allocation, and ethical awareness may improve patient-centeredness and healthcare outcomes. 

References
A.N.A. (2015, February 15). Code of Ethics PDF. ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ethics/code-of-ethics-for-nurses/coe-view-only/
Kelly, P. M., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical Nursing Care Versus Cost Containment: Considerations to Enhance R.N. Practice. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol23no01man06
Milliken, A., & Grace, P. J. (2015). Nurse ethical awareness: Understanding the nature of everyday practice. Nursing Ethics, 24(5), 517–524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733015615172

NURS 6053 ANALYSIS OF A PERTINENT HEALTHCARE ISSUE

Analysis of A Pertinent Healthcare Issue 

The healthcare system encounters a host of pertinent issues that require interventions to improve the quality of care offered to patients and reduce costs. The Quadruple Aim framework focuses on ensuring quality access to care that leads to better patient experience, improvement of population health, reduced costs and enhancing the work life of healthcare providers (Arnetz et al., 2020). However, a pertinent healthcare issue that can impact this framework and public health in general as well as care delivery is personnel shortages, especially nursing shortage. The purpose of this paper is to discuss nursing shortage as a pertinent health issue and its impact on the organization.  

Nursing Shortage and Impact on the Organization 

Nurse staffing shortage is a critical issue that requires interventions because of its effects. Organizations and evidence from federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Nurses Association assert that there will be a significant increase in nursing jobs over the next five years compared to any occupation or profession. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that over 176,000 openings will be available for nurses in healthcare due to newly created roles as a result of advanced education and the need to address physician shortage, nurses leaving the profession and those retiring because of their age (Broome et al., 2022). The BLS assert that the nursing shortage will continue to bite the healthcare delivery as more Americans with diverse needs get access to care due to reforms through legislations at both state and federal levels.  

Nursing shortage has serious implications on the organizations, especially in critical care situations and the need to deliver quality patient-centered interventions. The increased number of patients per nurse means poor quality of care due to strain and associated fatigue. Nurse shortage is a leading cause of burnout and nurse turnover. For instance, figures from the organization’s leaders show that over ten nurses left the facility in the last two years due to working on long shifts. Data also indicates a rise trend of missed nursing care in the facility due to the shortage (Tamata et al., 2023). The implication is that nursing shortage in any facility leads to increased cost of care and high turnover rates. Having limited nurse of nurses also leads to increased risk of patients to adverse events like medication errors and falls which the organization cannot get reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As such, the entity loses funds when patients miss care or experience adverse events that preventable like falls, healthcare associated infections, and medication errors.  

Summary of Studies on Nursing Shortage 

In her article, Bourgault (2022) focuses on the issue of nursing shortage and work expectation for nurses caring for patients in critical care conditions. The article asserts that the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at its height during the Omicron wave, demonstrated the crisis of nursing shortage due to thousands of missed nursing care moments. Further, the article highlights the long hours that nurses are working, increased workload and patient acuity while others have to endure with mandatory overtime while also nursing health issues like COVID-19. The paper also highlights the unsafe conditions for nurses and other health care workers without protective personal equipment despite the heightened risk of infections. The implication is that the article highlights the current state of nursing shortage and need for innovative approaches to handle the situation. The article explores the need for policies to help organizations manage safe nurse-to-patient ratios.  

The second article by Griffiths et al. (2018) identifies the association between nurse staffing and adverse patient events or outcomes, including mortality. The article asserts that by measuring the number and level of missed care, healthcare organizations can determine the adequacy of their nursing staff and develop innovative interventions to address the situation. The findings from the study indicate that low staffing levels lead to increased prevalence of missed care that result into poor patient outcomes.  

Organizations Handling Nurse Staffing Shortage 

Organizations are employing innovative approaches to deal with the nurse staffing shortage. These include a collaborative approach to ensure that nurses and their leaders can develop innovative approaches to improving care as opposed to all patients coming for physical visits. For instance, the integration of technologies like telehealth and telemedicine can help organizations address the issue. Nurses are on demand because of increased access to care through health care reforms and partly due to an aging population (Spurlock Jr., 2020). Therefore, organizations need effective leadership to inspire nurses to offer better solutions to care provision. Good working conditions as incentives for nurses in any facility are essential to addressing the nurse shortage. More fundamentally, reducing the turnover rates is also an effective strategy to address the issue. Flexible work schedule and shifts can also help alleviate the issue.  

Strategies Used to Address Nursing Shortage 

The articles are categorical that stakeholders can address the healthcare issue of nursing shortage through a raft of strategies. These include policies that focus on improving the work conditions and organizational efforts to enhance a collaborative approach among healthcare workers. Secondly, the use of technologies like telehealth and telemedicine can help nurses offer care remotely and reduce the current workload burden (Broome et al., 2021). The strategies are impactful to organizations positively since they are evidence-based practice and will lead to quality patient outcomes. These strategies will ensure that the facility has sufficient number of staff to cater to patients based on their needs. However, they require sufficient resources allocated by the management to attain their goals.  

Conclusion 

Nursing shortage is a serious healthcare issue that needs stakeholders, especially organizational managers and leaders to address to enhance quality patient outcomes. The articles used in this study demonstrate the need for nurses as innovative care providers to develop EBP interventions to improve care outcomes for patients. Policy interventions and other approaches will be important in addressing nursing shortage as a serious healthcare issue.  

References 

Arnetz, B. B., Goetz, C. M., Arnetz, J. E., Sudan, S., vanSchagen, J., Piersma, K., & Reyelts, F.  (2020). Enhancing healthcare efficiency to achieve the Quadruple Aim: an exploratory study. BMC research notes, 13(1), 1-6. DOI: 10.1186/s13104-020-05199-8 

 Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer. 

Bourgault, A. M. (2022). The nursing shortage and work expectations are in critical condition: is anyone listening? Critical Care Nurse, 42(2), 8-11. https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2022909 

Griffiths, P., Recio-Saucedo, A., Dall’Orca, C. Briggs, J., Maruotti, A., Meredith, P. & Missed Care Study Group (2018). The association between nurse staffing and omissions in nursing care: a systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 74(7), 1474-1487. DOI: 10.1111/jan.13564. 

Spurlock Jr, D. (2020). The nursing shortage and the future of nursing education is in our hands. Journal of Nursing Education, 59(6), 303-304. DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20200520-01. 

Tamata, A. T., & Mohammadnezhad, M. (2023). A systematic review study on the factors affecting shortage of nursing workforce in the hospitals. Nursing open, 10(3), 1247-1257. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1434