Literature Review on Effects of Shortage of Nursing Staff on Nurses (Term Paper Sample)

Literature Review on Effects of Shortage of Nursing Staff on Nurses Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Institutional Affiliation Date Literature Review on Effects of Shortage of Nursing Staff on Nurses Introduction The health sector has been facing significant challenges for a long while, and the challenges were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been an increased demand of healthcare services worldwide due to a significant number of ageing individuals with chronic diseases. Bridges et al. (2019) further highlight that there have decreased efforts in promoting recruitment, retention and sustainability of qualified nurses who are necessary in meeting the increased demand. Drennan (2019) further echoes the World Health Organization in that the health workforces in any particular country must have the capacity to meet the health needs of the population. A shortage of nurses is described as a shortage of the nurses required and the number available to work in the future (Drennan, 2019). Understandably, the nursing shortage is brought about by increasing complex demands of the population, entangled with a reducing number of nurses due to their retirement and some leaving the profession due to a burdensome and stressful working environment (Both-Nwabuwe, 2018). Shortage of staff is therefore a problem that should not be ignored. The situation in Canada is no different from the global circumstances. CIHI (2017) highlight that Canadians are living longer, hence the healthcare needs of the population are becoming increasingly complex. This is essentially because there are more people living with chronic diseases and co-morbidities. Essentially, the direct result of this is increased hospital stays, increase in outpatient homecare and long-term care for patients, which all requires a significant number of nurses. Scheiffer and Arnold (2018) report that in 2018, Canada had a shortage of 117,600 nurses, making the sector suffer. These effects were later felt during the pandemic where the nurses were overburdened and volunteer aides came to the rescue but still could not sustain the healthcare needs. This paper aims at exploring how the nursing staff shortage affects the wellbeing of nurses in Canada by analyzing different research articles and providing a detailed literature review. Methods Analyzing the different effects of nursing shortage on the wellbeing of nurses, needs a combination of data focusing on the views and experiences of nurses. This particular review majors its analysis, findings and conclusion on five peer-reviewed research articles. Price and Reichert (2017) analyze the importance of professional career development in improving the job satisfaction among nurses. A thematic analysis was conducted based on 185focus groups where each group had 8-15participants. The focus groups lasted for about one and a half hours, and the participants did their self-selection into student, early career and mid-to-late career stages. The nurses were from 8different provinces in Canada and the end result was 2 student focus groups, 7 early-career nurses groups and 9 of the last stage. The focus groups were followed by semi-structured interviews aimed at understanding the values and experiences of the participants. Furthermore, the individual nurses also filled out questionnaires highlighting their personal information. The other four research articles were largely literature reviews that analyzed different articles. Adam, Ryan and Wood (2021) highlight that the chosen studies in their review were assessed using MMAT (Mixed Method Appraisal Tool) to ensure that they were of quality. Gribben and Semple (2021) also make use of the MMAT in ensuring quality of their sources. However, there are existing limitations in that some data used in the chosen articles are not enclosed in Canada. Bakhamis et al. (2019) major data from articles and websites in the US; however, the expected results are expect to reflect even in Canada. This study has taken into consideration articles from Google Scholar that are peer-reviewed, and fulfill all aspects of the CRAAP test. This makes the findings and conclusions credible and reliable. Findings The different chosen articles yielded several findings that contribute to the understanding of the effects of nursing shortage on the wellbeing of nurses. Price and Reichert (2017) establish that across the different focus groups the individual nurses stated that the capacity to access training and education opportunities was integral in their career satisfaction and retention in the profession. However, the different groups established different particular needs in relation to continual training and education. The students highlighted that the workplace environment had a direct impact on their orientation experience. They further identified that understaffed units negatively affected their orientation as the nurses would be too busy to mentor them. Early-career nurses highlighted that they received inadequate orientation at the onset of their careers, which was significantly caused by lack of staff and time to train them. The mid-to-late career nurses highlighted that skills and expertise was a crucial consideration for management to hire, however, the same management overlooked the training and mentorship of new nurses. Furthermore, they also highlighted that healthcare management often overlooked more senior nurses in leadership opportunities. Adams et al. (2021) established four major themes including individual characteristics that encompassed demographic characteristics and factors relating to employment and experience. In this case, it was established that increase in age lowers the chances of mental health nurses (MHNs) leaving the profession and further single people had a higher chance of leaving than those who are married. It was further established that most of the MHNs that left their jobs were less experienced than those who stayed. The second theme revolved around the perception of their job. In this, majority of MHNs established that the job’s rewarding and exciting nature was the reason for their stay. The stigma around working with mental health patients was an established factor of reduced retention. It was further established that most MHNs also left siting burnout and emotional exhaustion as reasons. MHNs further established that being part of a supportive teams where their skills were enhances was a significant reason for their stay. Lack of guidance and supervisory support were also reasons why MHNs left. It was further established that the healthcare organizations had a significant impact on retention and maintenance of the nurses. Gribben and Semple (2021) found that short-staffing and work-life balance resulted in lower job satisfaction and nurse burnout. Furthermore, authentic leadership was found to have a positive impact on staffing and work-life interference of the staff. Bakhamis et al. (2019) highlight that the burnout syndrome can be analyzed in terms of work, individual and management dimensions. They further highlighted that the burnout syndrome occurred at a higher rate in organizations where each nurse handled more patients at any particular time. They further stated that the nurse burnout has impacted the quality of care and staff functioning negatively. Denis et al. (2021) find that creating favorable working environment for nurses needs participative organizations. Therefore, for the healthcare organizations to change the under-staffing situation, they need to act on it. Furthermore, Denis et al. (2021) establish that the governance of Healthcare Human Resource (HHR) needs to take a different approach and aid in the wellness of the nurses. There needs to be deliberate strategies and change of policies to solve the understaffing problem in healthcare organizations. Discussion There is clearly an understaffing problem in the healthcare institutions in Canada and all over the world. The impact of understaffing has not only been felt by the patients, but also the healthcare workers (HCWs) like nurses. One of the key effects of understaffing to the nurses is burnout. This is essentially because they have to work more hours and attend to more patients compared to when the nurses are sufficient to cater for the patients. Bakhamis et al. (2019) highlighted that nurses with large number of patients to attend to hard higher chances of burnout due to the workload. The impact has been felt heavily by the patients who have received lower quality care and have also experienced more hospital-acquired infections. The burnout has been recorded to have severe impacts on the health of the nurses including high levels of blood pressure, headaches, sleeping complication and also has a chance of leading to cardiovascular illnesses (Bakhamis et al., 2019). Burnout is therefore an impact of understaffing on nurses that significantly affects their health. Retention and sustainability of nurses is a key factor of consideration in the assessment of impacts of shortage of nurses in healthcare organizations. Mentorship is a key factor in any profession and is expected to contribute to increased professionalism and satisfaction in the career. Price and Reichert (2017) highlight that there is a burning need for mentorship among nurses especially those starting off their career and those in the growth stages. Bakhamis et al. (2019) provide that recruitment of nurses has increased in terms of priority in HHR department between 2015 and 2017. Taking a more specific approach to different units of nursing, Adams and Ryan (2021) highlight that MHNs who have support and work in teams to improve their skills are more comfortable in their job spaces hence have less chances of leaving the profession. The greatest determinant of mentorship is availability of experienced nurses who can guide and mentor the new recruits. However, ...