The nursing profession has been plagued by poor performance for a long time. There have been cases of patients receiving poor healthcare from nurses, which has, in some instances, resulted to death of patients. There are a number of causes for the poor performance in nursing (Marquis & Huston, 2009). They include poor and unrealistic patient and work scheduling, biased and poor enforcement of policies, lack of leadership in the profession, failure to pay attention to the grievances of employees, failure to show care to the employees and failure by the management to lead by example.
Unrealistic patient and work scheduling comes about when the management in a hospital allocates little time to a nurse to attend to so many patients. This results in a nurse rushing to finish the scheduled work in time. This results to a haphazard performance of the given work. Patients, in turn, end up being provided with healthcare that is not of high quality (Daly, Speedy & Jackson, 2003). Piling a lot of work on one nurse also results to psychological stress and fatigue and this affects the performance of the nurses.
Biasness in the enforcement of healthcare policies in a healthcare institution also contributes in the poor performance by nurses. If, for instance, the management is biased against some nurses when it comes to enforcement, then the employees are likely to perform poorly. This is because those who feel that they being mistreated will perform their duties grudgingly and this will lead to poor performance. Poor or lack of enforcement of the healthcare policies is also another source of poor performance in a nursing profession (Chitty & Black, 2011). When policies are not enforced, nurses would lack something to guide them in the execution of their duties. Lack of enforcement of policies can also bring about laziness and careless among workers in the health facility and this can result to poor performance. Policies set a benchmark to be met by the workers. Lack of them therefore puts nurses in a confusing state hence leading to a poor performance.
Good leadership is important in any organization. Lack of good leadership in any institution has negative effects on the performance of the workers. In any health institution, the performance of nurses can only be enhanced if the management offers good leadership. This is because leaders define and set examples that can be emulated by the junior workers. Good leaders also do not resort to dubious means of doing things nor do they practice biasness. Good leadership in a health institution acts as an inspiration to the nurses and this can boost performance. Poor leadership therefore is likely to impact negatively on the performance of the nurses (Roussel, 2013).
Nurses, as other workers, face problems in their homes and personal lives. These problems need to be addressed. If the management fails to address the problems and grievances faced by nurses, then there is likely to be poor performance in the provision of healthcare. This therefore requires the management in any health institution to address the grievances presented by nurses in order to boost their performance (Iyer & Aiken, 2001).
Poor performance can also result due to lack of care by management. If the management fails to show care to its workers, they be come de-motivated (Roussel, 2013). This can impact negatively on their performance. Lastly, poor performance by nurses can also be caused by failure by the leadership in any healthcare institution to lead by example. Failure to lead by example can make nurses to feel that the management is imposing impractical policies on them and this can result to poor performance.
Questions related to the problem
How the management offer effective leadership to nurses?
How can performance in nurses be enhanced?
How can nurses be motivated to improve their performance?
What are the remedies for poor performance in nursing?
References
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2009). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Roussel, L. (2013). Management and leadership for nurse administrators. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Daly, J., Speedy, S., & Jackson, D. (2003). Nursing leadership. Marrickville, N.S.W: Elsevier Australia.
Chitty, K. K., & Black, B. P. (2011). Professional nursing: Concepts & challenges. Maryland Heights, Mo: Saunders/Elsevier.
Iyer, P. W., & Aiken, T. D. (2001). Nursing malpractice. Tucson, AZ: Lawyers & Judges Pub. Co.
