Answer To: The topic for your essay (Task 1) is to discuss: • Current nursing issues and the driving factors...
Somprikta answered on May 06 2021
Nursing and Healthcare 2
NURSING AND HEALTHCARE
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Current Nursing Issues 3
Shortage of Staffs 3
Long Work Hours 4
Health Impacts 4
Workplace Hazards 4
Workplace Violence 5
Driving Factors behind Nursing Practice 5
Factors Influencing the Nurses 5
Socio-Demographic Factor 5
Patient Co-operation 6
Nurse Competence 6
Healthcare System 6
Viable Ways to Improve the Quality of Nursing Services 7
Recommendations 7
Conclusion 8
References 9
Introduction
The role of nurses is broad, which is inclusive of advocating for the promotion of health and wellbeing, promoting methods and educating patients as well as the public about prevention of illness as well as injuries, providing care to the patients along with assisting in cure, participating the rehabilitation process and providing physical as well as psychological support to patients as well as families.
Nursing in the healthcare system is driven by issues of different sorts, which shape and drive the transformation of the nursing practices and makes the significance of registered nurses higher.
Factors Discussing the Importance of Nursing
The factors behind the importance of the nursing profession are providing utmost protection, promoting and optimising health and abilities, preventing different ailments and injuries, reducing human suffering through diagnosis and treatment and advocating the rights of individuals, families, communities in the receival of health care. According to Glette et al. (2018), the other driving forces behind nursing practice are the personal characteristics of the nurses, their skills, work organisation, staffing, leadership and management, group dynamics and the ability to perform in a team, ethical perspective and so on.
The Problems
There are a number of issues in the nursing system, given the current scenario. The various nursing issues are as follows:
Shortage of Staffs
All the hospitals aim towards reduction of budgets and cost saving techniques. As a result of this, hospitals often work with a limited number of staffs, even if there is an excessive workload on each of the staffs. According to Maharaj et al. (2019), the limited number of nurses in the healthcare system is leading to increased workload, as a result of which the nurses are being overworked. The nurses are forced to take extra physical as well as psychological stress and work-related pressure, as a result of which they are feeling overburdened.
Long Work Hours
Long working hours is closely associated with the limited number of staffs, even to the extent of having staff shortages. As a result of this, according to Caruso et al. (2017), the existing nurses are compelled to do the extra load of work which include looking after patients, supporting them mentally and physically, assessing their health parameters on a regular basis, conducting regular tests and so on. The multifaceted role of the nurses forces the nurses to work for long hours, doing double shifts and so on. Due to these problems, there are cases of turnover in the hospitals.
Health Impacts
As the nurses are compelled to take extra burden in their workplace, along with that, work for long hours, their health is faltering greatly. According to Wong et al. (2019), the issues of mandatory overtime and excess pressure at work are also affecting their mental wellbeing greatly. The patients as well as the families have high expectations from the nurses in terms of care, support and performance. As a result of such great expectations, the nurses are experiencing high rates of mental and physical strain. According to Vandevala et al. (2017), greater number of nurses have been observed experiencing mental issues such as stress, anxiety, depression and so on. The nurses also suffer from terrible foot sore and back ache due to their long duty hours.
Workplace Hazards
Extra workload and working overtime have led the nurses to become less cautious about their safety....