Improving Patient Care: A Strategy to Promote Staff Nurse Enabling (Research Paper Sample)

Improving Patient Care: A Strategy to Promote Staff Nurse Enabling Student’s name: Institution: Date: Abstract An appraisal of the literature discloses the elements of structural empowerment, person-job fit, transformational leadership, and individual resources as areas that establishments, leaders, and nurse expert development educators can alter to promote nurse empowerment. A proposed structure model of nurse empowerment depicts the association between the aspects (structure) that promote empowerment which results in an increase in nurse job fulfillment, improved expert performance, in addition to empowered teamwork and peers; which eventually lead to an upsurge in quality care, empowered and gratified patients, efficiency, optimistic healthy work settings, effective education of next generation of nurses, improved professional nursing standards, and encouragement of lifelong learning (outcomes). These aftermaths of quality galvanize the procedure of nurse empowerment, generating a self-generating sequence of optimistic vitality and interest that is communicable to the healthcare workers, and serve as a facilitator that strengthens and renovates the healthcare structure. Introduction Healthcare environments ought to pay attention to the need for empowering staff nurses. Twigg (2014) depicts that listed nurses make up the biggest portion of the health workers. The ongoing nursing shortage together with complex work environments poses a challenge to nurses thus making it impossible for them to remain empowered. Redknap (2015) elucidates that empowerment is a process of regenerating positive energy and outcomes that encourage nurses to propagate and improve the healthcare environment. A study conducted by health workers who experienced psychological empowerment took part in innovative behaviors such as generating ideas, recognizing problems, rallying support, and executing their ideas (NC DOCKS, 2011). Thus, empowerment is encouraged nurses to engage in positive deeds resulting from an individual's perception of competence in the work environment. Problem statement Burnout versus empowerment More than 40% of healthcare nurses are faced with the problem of burnout in addition to which 1 in 5 nurses leave their jobs within a year (Simpsons, 2015). Apart from the decline in the number of RNs, healthcare institutions also face the problem of helping nurses to thrive in stressful work environments which makes it difficult for them to deliver high-quality care demanded by society. With increasing burnout rates, nurses ought to remain motivated if healthcare organizations, as well as the nursing profession, are to stay viable and uphold patient care. Drach-Zahavy (2015) explains that burnout is an expensive problem for both individuals and organizations, and prevention is crucial. (Drach-Zahavy) further explains that burnout represents erosion in a will, dignity, spirit, and values that put individuals in a downhill spiral over a prolonged time period that ultimately contributes to emotional fatigue and detachment from work. According to Kleiman (2014), patient safety results are linked to the quality of the healthcare practice setting and that burnout plays an interceding role. To ensure optimal patient care, there is need to analyze complex nurse environments and pinpoint the aspects that enhance nurse engagement. Problem background Inspecting the factors that enhance nurse empowerment simplifies the process of assisting new and veteran nurses to practice as well as develop skills in intricate, evolving work environs. Identifying aspects that lead to nurse empowerment has numerous implications for nurse instructors both in the clinical and practice environments. Relationship to nurse instructor practice Nursing professional development Recognizing the difficult environs that healthcare providers work in and taking note of their necessities is crucial in understanding thus making the learning process much more effective. Overwhelming nurses with comprehensive training and information may prove to be ineffective if they are not empowered to make use of skills and knowledge they acquire. The NPD principles of specialized performance guide this paper. The 7th principle is the foundation that aids in identifying factors that enhance nurse empowerment because the projected outcomes of amended quality upkeep and professional ideals of nursing practice directly promote the nursing profession. As a nurse enabler in specialized growth, Standard 10: Collegiality is ratified by setting up partnerships with leaders to pinpoint and employ aspects that enhance nurse empowerment that culminates in teamwork and involved mentors contributes to student peer development. Standard 11: collaboration is illustrated by the need to team up with nursing, leaders, and interdisciplinary teams encouraging empowerment and thus, enabling the excellent nursing practice to attain positive results for patients. Theories supporting documentation of aspects that enhance empowerment The processes of ascertaining factors that promote nurse empowerment are grounded in the humanistic knowledge theory. Chase (2012) depicts that the humanistic learning theory is a motivational theory that places emphasis initiative, enthusiasm, and inquiry. Chase further explains that recognizing what motivates nurses to learn and develop their profession and practice is the center of what a nurse instructor in a professional staff capacity needs to know. Organizational ingenuities and learning can be suggested, but unless nurse instructors and leaders are conscious of what really inspires nurses to take part in opportunities and initiatives that improve patient care. Without self-initiative and enthusiasm, nurses will not make every effort to achieve excellence that adds to progressive patient outcomes. The scholastic philosophy of progressivism highlights scientific inquiry, problem-solving, and critical thinking as critical to teaching. With the recent fallbacks in health care in addition to the complex patient needs, these skills are important. Focusing on the aspect that encourages staff nurse empowerment will motivate nurses to acquire the skills highlighted in the progressivism philosophy and also find innovative resolutions to address apprehensions and care for intricate patients. Effects for quality of education and quality of life for staff nurses Quality of education for nurses High rates of work-related burnouts translate into 40% of nurses working in healthcare institutions that are not tied up. Unmotivated nurses will put in the minimum effort to complete a job, without considering the need for creative or resourceful thinking. Any chance for support in quality enhancement initiatives will be ignored as novel ideas will translate into to an input of too much effort for disengaged nurses. An atmosphere of non-engagement also impacts new nursing staff as well as students who come for medical learning purposes. These individuals will be presented with obsolete info and procedures that compromise their learning. Indifferent preceptors will not bother modeling positive nursing practices for new nurses and students, thus the subsequent generation of nurses and patients suffer as well. This has in-depth repercussions for the nursing professional standards, nursing care, and patient outcomes. Quality of life for nurses As the demand for healthcare and the nursing profession increases, stress levels rise. If a majority of nurses in healthcare institutions have burnout the practice environ will suffer. Force (2015) defines burnout as the contrast of engagement with the features of inefficiency, cynicism, and exhaustion. These attributes can be infectious and when spread all over a nursing unit, they can have distressing impacts on the work setting, morale, and overall attitude. As practice environs become unhealthier, anxiety levels continuously rise and individuals become unhealthy. Cooperation among the nursing stuff deteriorates which leads to an intensification in errors, decreased patient satisfaction, and low productivity. This generates a negative sequence of losing quality staff and fortifying negative behaviors and attitudes. In the long run, nurses stop being responsible for expert quality practice, which compromises their capacity to take up the responsibility for safeguarding professional nursing standards. This is damaging to all healthcare institutions as well as the nursing vocation. In their commendations to alter nursing edification agree that there is a need to amend the work setting for nurses. Improving the work setting has far-reaching affirmative impacts for both staff nurses and student nurses. Literature Review Review of the literature concerning the issues that bring about nurse empowerment expounds on individual and environmental sources. Laschinga & Haven (1996) explain that work empowerment is encouraged through both individual and contextual aspects. These influences can be represented as four main themes: empowered environment, person-job fit, personal resources and transformational leadership. Empowered environment A dominating subject in the literature review related to nurse empowerment is structural enablement. Strong evidence suggests that an endowing environment indicated as autonomy, teamwork, collective decision-making, appropriate resources, recognition, and opportunities contribute to nurse empowerment (Laschinger & Kutszcher, 1997). Hence, empowerment leads to motivation and increased job satisfaction which adds to improved results. A study conducted by Bowles & Candela (2005) supports this association in that when the work setting supports specialized nursing practice, the staff nurse is more empowered and the quality of the service as well a...