Nursing staff shortage: Team Approach VS Individual Patient Care (Essay Sample)

Comp 1302-20FZ1
25 June 2020
Nursing staff shortage: Team Approach VS Individual Patient Care
Nurses are an essential building block for the health care system. A nursing career, while a rewarding career, is, at times, an overlooked profession. This is due to the demands of the profession and the lack of suitable staff ratios. Nurses are increasingly becoming discouraged and are often overwhelmed by the number of patients assigned to them. The negative effects of this shortage range from staff burnout, poor quality of care, and reduced patient safety. Numerous nursing staff models have been implemented and have failed to improve the healthcare system. Still, recent studies have shown that a team-based approach has been far more effective than an individual patient care approach.
A main problem of the nursing shortage is the discontent many nurses experience on the job and burnout. Nurses are expected to give the best care possible to patients. Still, most are unable to give this quality care due to the high nurse-patient ratio. Demands are to “get the job done” and move on to the next patient. A high turn-over rate exists because of the nurse’s burnout and simply cannot keep up with these demands.