Issues in Today’s Workforce Culture

Sample Answer

Discussion Week 5

In chapter six of their textbook, Mason et al. (2016) focus on issues that impact the nursing workforce culture today. The chapter explores the need to expand the nursing workforce and increase the diversity and retention of nurses in the profession. The chapter notes the important role that nurses play in meeting healthcare needs.

The workforce has the obligation of functioning based on ethical values like honesty so that it gains trust and works efficiently to deliver quality and affordable care that all people can access. The purpose of this discussion is to explore the reasons for the persistence of these issues in the present nursing workforce culture.

Nursing shortage as a core aspect of the workforce culture is an issue that persists due to different aspects. For instance, the Baby boomer cohort is aging and retiring. The implication is that over 70 million individuals were born between 1946 and 1964. All these people will be retiring as nurses while others, having hit over seventy years, will require health care services associated with engaging.

Consequently, the issue of nursing shortage may persist as it is expected that more nurses with be retiring yet those graduating are not sufficient to fill the gap (Almendral, 2022). The issue of nursing shortage will also persist as more nurses leave the profession due to a rise in care demands as an outcome of an aging population that requires more resources, especially human resources to meet its needs.

Healthcare reforms like the expansion of policies or programs like Medicare and Medicaid mean that more people than before can have access to healthcare services. These reforms imply that facilities should get more workforce and leverage their existing resources to meet rising care demands.

As such, the issues in the nursing workforce, particularly concerning meeting the rise in demand for care services due to reforms will persist (Zhavorokova et al., 2022). These reforms like the enactment of the Affordable Care Act and other legislations aimed at improving access to health care mean that the nursing workforce should specialize in different areas.

By specializing in such areas of care delivery line geriatrics and pediatric care, nurses leave gaps in their organizations that should be filled.
The workforce culture persists because of a lack of effective policies to deal with issues that nurses raise like workplace violence. Studies indicate that nursing is one of the riskiest professions with nurses more likely to experience workplace violence compared to other professions (Kurtzman et al., 2022).

Violence comes from patients and peers, especially bullying. Many nurses are leaving the profession because of lateral violence and seeking other areas. The implication is that the workforce will continue to face increased shortage and amount of work leading to burnout and fatigue.

The situation also persists since the nursing faculty is not training sufficient levels of nurses to take on duties left by those retiring or leaving the profession. The lack of qualified nursing educators to help prepare qualified nurses at different levels and specialties is a core concern affecting the nursing workforce culture. A limited number of faculty members means that the number of nurses in the workforce is few, and this impairs their ability to work effectively and deal with patient issues (AHCA, 2023).

The faculty members should change and focus on programs that prepare nurses to leverage different approaches to care provision, including investing in health technologies to enhance their overall competence. The workplace, especially consisting of retiring individuals, should embrace and welcome graduate nurses to balance out their career prospects and professional development to meet patient and health population needs in their various practice settings.

References

• Almendral, A. (2022). The world could be short of 13 million nurses in 2030 – here’s why.
  https //www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/health-care-nurses-attrition-mental-health-burnout/
• American Heal Care Association (AHCA) (2023). Survey Nursing Home Providers Say
  Workforce Challenges Continue to Persist. https //www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Press-
• Releases/Pages/Survey-Nursing-Home-Providers-Say-Workforce-Challenges-Continue-To-Persist.aspx
  Kurtzman, E. T., Ghazal, L. V., Girouard, S., Ma, C., Martin, B., McGee, B. T., … & Germack,
• H. L. (2022). Nursing workforce challenges in the post-pandemic world. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 13(2), 49. DOI 10.1016/S2155-8256(22)00061-8
• Mason, D. J., Gardner, B. D., Outlaw, H. F., & O’Grady, T. E. (2016). Policy and Politics In Nursing and Health Care. (7th ed.). St. Louis, MO Saunders.
• Zhavorokova, M., Custer, B. D. & Neal, A. (2022). How to Ease the Nursing Shortage in America. https //www.americanprogress.org/article/how-to-ease-the-nursing-shortage-in-america/