Nursing shortages and turnover are a threat to the health care industry. This is because shortage and turnover of nurses affect the overall performance of healthcare organization. It is crucial to understand that healthcare facilities need to be efficient in terms of taking care of its patients (Fralic, 2000, p.34). This means that every healthcare facility needs to have standardized stable services where nurses take care of the patient’s health. Thus, nurses need to be fully engaged in terms of conducting their duties. However, nurse turnover and shortage puts a strain on the available nurses because they have to overstretch their hours to cater to all patients. Thus, nursing managers and leaders have a responsibility to encourage the current staff in the hospitals to stay and also conduct recruitment for people to fill in the current positions (Fralic, 2000, p.49). This means that managers and leaders should recommend more people to apply for nursing because patient’s have a priority in terms of getting medical services. This paper aims at discussing the role of management and leadership in the healthcare industry by looking at the best approach to deal with nurse shortage and nurse turnover.
Leadership and management have different roles in an organization and both have given expectations that they have to meet. Thus, it is crucial to understand that there is a slight difference in the two terms especially in an organization. Leaders are important in an organization because they have to be motivated and focused to achieve certain goals and tasks. Leaders are responsible for their team in that they should keep them motivated, inspired, and give them support to empower them in terms of improving their skills to bring efficiency. As a result, effective leaders ought to have characteristics that will improve the overall performance of the team (Fralic, 2000, p.98). For example, leaders should be self-motivate, able to build relations, able to resolve conflicts effectively, have a vision, listens to the team member, and also one should have the ability to mentor other in order the team can embrace their work. Thus, nurse leaders are obligated to ensure that their team members are well-trained and know the ethics one should follow while treating a patient. In addition, a nurse leader should motivate the team members especially during nurse shortages and turnover, by mentoring them on how it is important for them to be effective (Fralic, 2000, p.102). This can be done through constantly reminding the nurses that patients rely on them for their survival and improvement in terms physical health. Nurse leaders should also give support to the team members who have to deal with work stress so as to ensure an individual can continue maintaining a high level of patient care during a busy time schedule. This will create a sense of relationship and reliability among different teams in the health care industry, which is important for their jobs because it is stressing both mentally and physically (Tomey, 2004, p.102). This means that nurses should be allowed to communicate among themselves as a way of reducing a sense of pressure in their line of work and also creates motivation for different individuals.
On the other hand, a nurse manager focuses on given tasks such as planning, money, equipments among other things. This means that managers have to ensure that everything is running efficiently and that workers have all the materials that can support them to do an outstanding job (Tomey, 2004, p.124). In addition, managers should have managerial skills that will help the organization in budgeting, planning, coordinating meetings, decision making and also manages time. Nurse Managers should be effectual during nurse shortage and turnover in that workers have to handle more patients than they are supposed to Fralic, 2000, p.113). Thus, nurse managers should be quick in advertising work in different job sites to fill out the available positions. In addition, nurse managers should create financial incentives that will make them not lose more nurses because of the heavy physical work they are required to do due to nurse shortages in the organization. Thus, nurse managers should pay a high overtime wages to the available nurses. This will give the nurses an incentive to work longer hours and also fill out positions during their day-off to support the health care organization ((Tomey, 2004, p.134). The nurse managers can also give bonuses and benefits to the employed nurses as a way of creating incentives for them to continue working.
There is huge disparity in the health care industry because nurse shortage and turnover affects the overall population in need of their services. It is crucial to note that there is no single policy that can be initiated to resolve the nursing shortage across the nations (Tomey, 2004, p.154). Given the increase of the elderly in many nations, the ratio between nurses and the patients are not equitable. Thus, one of the ways that this issue could be addressed is through improving recruitment. This means that the management has to ensure that certain individuals qualify for the job and are also passionate and proud of practicing nursing as a profession. In addition, as a manager it is good to facilitate flexible employment opportunities, where people have a chance to advance in their career in the safe work force. It is also crucial for employees to receive proper benefits that will be a good remedy for nurses to not only sign up but also stay in the organization (Tomey, 2004, p.179). In addition, recruitment is crucial in that managers have to compensate workers if they have more education in terms of attaining degrees and certificates by paying them a higher wage rate. This indicates that recruiting is crucial because managers can give good deals to employees and also give them an incentive to stay in line with their professions. As a manager, I would also support professional development among employees by supporting nursing classes that will contribute to an individual’s career growth and also performance (Tomey, 2004, p.187). Thus, improving recruitment is also a crucial thing and using financial incentives to attract more workers and retain the nursing staff available in their given positions. Thus, managers and leaders have to work closely to not only improve the overall performance of the healthcare facility but also give moral support to the workers.
In conclusion, nurse shortage and turnover negatively affects the healthcare industries in that nurses have to work longer hours to maintain a good patient-care. Thus, nursing leader and managers have a responsibility to encourage the current staff in the hospitals to stay and also conduct recruitment for people to fill in the current positions respectively. Nurse leaders are responsible for their team in that they should keep them motivated, inspired, and give them support to empower them in terms of improving their skills to bring efficiency. On the other hand, nurse managers should have managerial skills that will help the organization in budgeting, planning, coordinating meetings, decision making and also manages time. Also, nurse managers can also give bonuses and benefits to the employed nurses as a way of creating incentives for them to continue working for the organization. It is evident that improving employee recruitment is crucial in the healthcare industry in that facilities should recognize different level of educations and certificates one has achieved in order to determine their pay rate as a way of capturing more nurses in the market. In addition, the facility can give education support for its employees to get more education in the field of nursing as a way of building their career. This indicates that nurse managers have to create incentives for people to join nursing as a profession and also to retain the workers in the line of work.
References
Fralic, M. F. (2000). Staffing management and methods: tools and techniques for nursing leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tomey, A. (2004). Guide to nursing management and leadership (7th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.
