This is an excellent paper where the writer has vividly discussed briefly a critical problem of the healthcare system, that is, shortage of nurses. It is evident that the healthcare system is grappling with the issue of shortage of nurse which has affected patient outcomes negatively (Kutney-Lee et al., 2013). As such, due to this shortage, patients’ needs are not addressed exhaustively since the available nurses cannot attend to all patients efficiently, thus, priority is given to emergency situations and of which these emergencies are overwhelming to the existing nurses, hence, even these urgent cases are not addressed adequately. Therefore, cases of burnout, depression, stress and fatigue are rampant among nurses which force some to leave the profession especially the new graduates who find nursing career challenging and they have no experience in addressing these work challenges (Laschinger & Grau, 2012). Thus, the human resource department plays a vital role in recruiting new nurses and striving to retain the current workforce. It is critical human resource department to incorporate and utilize new technologies to ease recruitment of new nurses and manage the existing nurses together with other resources. One of the technologies which have proved to be an essential tool in recruitment is geographical information system which has been crucial in identifying underserved areas which need reinforcement with suitable and qualified nurses (Andrews et al., 2012). Notably, this software has helped the human resource department and nurse managers to make informed decisions, analyze policies and make evaluations of mechanism put in place to address the shortage of nurse, in addition, it GIP has been instrumental in tracking and mapping data concerning nurses’ geographical location and their mobility (Andrews et al., 2012).
I agree with the author that a nurse administrator and human resource department need to collaborate to ensure recruitment process achieve its goals and there is collective responsibility for selecting correctly suitable candidates for the organization and help these candidates cope with the new environments and its daily challenges. It is important to note that, new graduates can find the actual nursing environment stressing due to unfriendly work schedules, hostile patients, incidences of errors, lack of support/collaboration from colleagues, sophisticated equip/procedures and they can easily choose to leave the profession since they have no skills in addressing the daily difficulties of a normal nurse (Barbosa et al., 2013). Thus, it is critical that training ought to be offered to all new recruits to help them fit well in the organization; have knowledge of the vision, mission of the health facility; policies and regulations; where to seek help; how to use various equipment in the hospital and how to solve conflicts. I fully concur with the writer that training and developing provide staff with the skills, knowledge, and competencies to provide the high-quality care that is expected from the customer-patient.
Reference
Andrews, G. J., Hall, L. M., Price, S., Lalonde, M., Harris, A., & MacDonald-Rencz, S. (2012). Mapping nurse mobility in Canada with GIS: career movements from two Canadian provinces. Nursing leadership (Toronto, Ont.),26, 41-49.
Barbosa, P., Raymond, G., Zlotnick, C., Wilk, J., Toomey III, R., & Mitchell III, J. (2013). Mindfulness-based stress reduction training is associated with greater empathy and reduced anxiety for graduate healthcare students.Education for Health, 26(1), 9.
Kutney-Lee, A., Wu, E. S., Sloane, D. M., & Aiken, L. H. (2013). Changes in hospital nurse work environments and nurse job outcomes: an analysis of panel data. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 50(2), 195-201.
Laschinger, H. K. S., & Grau, A. L. (2012). The influence of personal dispositional factors and organizational resources on workplace violence, burnout, and health outcomes in new graduate nurses: A cross-sectional study.International journal of nursing studies, 49(3), 282-291.
