Post a description of the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for analysis, and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor may impact your work setting
Review of Current Healthcare Issues
If you were to ask 10 people what they believe to be the most significant issue facing healthcare today, you might get 10 different answers. Escalating costs? Regulation? Technology disruption? Social Determinant such as environment/community, education, access/quality to healthcare?
These and many other topics are worthy of discussion. Not surprisingly, much has been said in the research, within the profession, and in the news about these topics. Whether they are issues of finance, quality, workload, or outcomes, there is no shortage of changes to be addressed.
In this Discussion, you examine a national healthcare issue and consider how that issue may impact your work setting. You also analyze how your organization has responded to this issue.
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and select one current national healthcare issue/stressor to focus on.
- Reflect on the current national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and think about how this issue/stressor may be addressed in your work setting.
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post a description of the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for analysis, and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor may impact your work setting. Which social determinant(s) most affects this health issue? Then, describe how your health system work setting has responded to the healthcare issue/stressor, including a description of what changes may have been implemented. Be specific and provide examples.
Expert Answer and Explanation
National healthcare issue/stressor
Description of the Issue
My selected national healthcare issue/stressor of analysis is the nursing shortage which is characterized by the lack of adequate nursing professionals, resulting to the difficulty meeting patients’ demand for nursing care. This issue is tied to various factors including the bulging population of seniors, which drives up demand considering the prevalence of chronic health disorders such as hypertension in this population. The United States’ nursing shortage issue is a concern because of its negative impacts (Costa & Friese, 2022).
It particularly increases nurses’ workload, a problem seen in clinical settings understaffed with nurses. With nurses working intensively due to the high workload, they experience burnout, resulting to loss of motivation to work. This in turn causes the surge in cases of medical errors considering that emotional and physical exhaustion that occurs when nurses work for longer hours.
Impact of the Issue
The access to educational opportunities and the family income status are some of the social determinants of health that influence nursing shortage. The former is seen in underserved communities which have limited educational institutions or facilities that offer nursing training. Conversely, children from households that earn below the minimum wage may struggle with financing their education, resulting to poor educational outcomes for this group (Van Merode, Groot, & Somers, 2024).
Effect of the SDOH
To attract and retain nurses, the system has introduced a wellness program tailored towards addressing issues related to burnout and the psychological impact of work-related concerns. Every month, nurses get time for mindful breaks each shift day as a way of promoting nurses’ mental wellbeing.
Interventions for Addressing the Issue
However, the hospital needs to make changes like introducing a remote patient monitoring system which essentially minimizes the need for nurses to physically monitor patients. Alternatively, it can use a virtual system that virtually collects data about patients, and relays this information to nurses to identify appropriate interventions for patients (Griffiths et al., 2021).
References
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. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2202662.
Griffiths, P., Saville, C., Ball, J. E., Jones, J., Monks, T., & Safer Nursing Care Tool study team (2021). Beyond ratios – flexible and resilient nurse staffing options to deliver cost-effective hospital care and address staff shortages: A simulation and economic modelling study. International journal of nursing studies, 117, 103901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103901.
Van Merode, F., Groot, W., & Somers, M. (2024). Slack Is Needed to Solve the Shortage of Nurses. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 12(2), 220. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12020220.
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What strategies should healthcare organizations put in place to minimize the gaps in access to healthcare for vulnerable populations?
