Introduction
Health care organizations face two main challenges, which include a shortage of staff and the high turnover rates due to poor job satisfaction. The issues are compromising the quality of care offered at the respective institutions, hence call for a need to be resolved (Lehmann & Rennie, 2016). The purpose of the above study is to inform on the impact of the two issues to health care organizations and the necessary recommendations to help solve the problem.
The Two Issues the organization is facing
The nursing shortage is a worldwide challenge, and globally, the health care demand has tremendously increased over the recent past. This comes with the new responsibilities accorded to the health practitioners such as the responsibility to prevent infection, engage in electronic documentation and finally engaging in the maintenance of patient safety. The shortage comes with a range of issues such as increased nurse workload, increased cases of error among the practitioners among other issues. In the US for instance, the shortage was noted since 2000 and has since grown to significant levels (Zhu et al., 2014). Some of the challenges that are experienced in the health care organizations include the increased need for health care due to increased population growth and increased cases of chronic disease growth. Different scholars associate the shortage with a broad range of causes, and there is a need to find effective strategies to help address the challenge.
Another issue of concern is the increased rate of nurse turnover, which has adversely affected the performance of most health care organizations and reduced the profitability of the respective firms. According to Collini et al., (2015), health care organizations require having stable and highly competent individuals who are engaged completely in their work as one approach through which quality care can be provided. Different stakeholders fear that the increased cases of staff shortage in the respective facilities may contribute to further turnover incidents. Besides, if the situation is not addressed as required, the quality of care provided at the health centre is likely to drop, an aspect that will compromise the health of the patients. The above paper, therefore, seeks to identify the different causes of nurse turnover, the impacts of this condition, and how the situation can be addressed to resolve the challenge.
Impact of these two issues on the ancillary service department
Numerous effects are associated with staff shortages in the health care organizations such as reduced quality of care at the facilities. With the emergence of new chronic diseases, the number of people seeking medical care has significantly increased making nurse workload to increase. The issue has made medical practitioners to experience long working hours, low pay and increased cases of dissatisfaction that contribute to turnover. Most practices that used to take short periods are now taking longer due to increased waiting period. The issue has compromised the quality of care offered at the facilities and led to greater care cost, an issue that adversely influences care delivered.
Nurses play a pivotal role in the management of an organization particularly regarding the quality of care and financial performance of the corporate. The high turnover leads to increased cost for the respective medical health agencies and according to Yang et al., (2015), turnover contributes to about $15 million annually. It is, therefore, evident that losing such employees in a health care facility has a number of issues such as:
Decreased quality of care
Incidents of increased turnover (caused by staff shortage) compromise the quality of patient care delivered at the different facilities, lengthen waiting time for the patient, contributes to increased incidents of hospital-acquired illness among other significant issues.
Loss of patients
Staff shortage makes different health care organization to turn patients away due to high workloads as a result of high turnover among the practitioners (Risman et al., 2016). The issue may lead to loss of lives among the patients hence there is a need to manage the situation.
Increased costs
Increased cases of turnover
As mentioned earlier, incidents of staff shortage create increased workload among the remaining employees at the organizations. The situations increase the chance of the remaining health practitioners to quit work due to excess workload.
Increased staffing costs
Cases of turnover in health facilities as evidenced contributes to increased staffing costs among employees as the hospital requires more resources to engage in recruiting, hiring, and training of new personnel to replace the once that have already quit.
How Improved collaboration, teamwork, and communication in the organization
It is worth acknowledging that effective communication is vital for any health care organization to allow for the flow of critical information. Besides, the objective is achieved through the establishment of effective teamwork and collaboration, a feature that enhances the quality of care in the respective organizations. Inadequate communication results in misinterpretation of information, leading more errors that may compromise the health of the patients and make the hospitals incur enormous costs. Collaboration in health care requires that everyone assumes their respective roles and works collectively to achieve the organizational goals. Moreover, the concept supports sharing of responsibility and ideas while carrying outpatient care (Roche et al., 2015). Collaboration helps the different health practitioners to appreciate skills of each member, an aspect that will contribute towards the realization of improved health care. The team, on the other hand, will help the employees in the organization to work towards achieving a shared goal, which is necessary to the success of the facilities (Gao et al., 2014). As evidenced by the study, collaboration, teamwork and embracing effective communication in the health organizations will help counter the challenge of employee shortage and poor job satisfaction that often results in high turnover.
Techniques to foster inclusion and improve communication and collaboration
Some of the important techniques that support effective collaboration in the organization include having shared goals, an ideal understanding of the responsibilities and roles of each other in an organization, mutual respect for each other and clear communication. Moreover, the health practitioners should learn to change their viewpoints points once they are offered with new information. To enhance communication and collaboration, it is worth appreciating diversity among other significant approaches.
References
Collini, S. A., Guidroz, A. M., & Perez, L. M. (2015). Turnover in health care: the mediating effects of employee engagement. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(2), 169-178.
Gao, F., Newcombe, P., Tilse, C., Wilson, J., & Tuckett, A. (2014). Models for predicting turnover of residential aged care nurses: a structural equation modelling analysis of secondary data. International journal of nursing studies, 51(9), 1258-1270.
Lehmann, L., & Rennie, E. L. (2016). Health-Care Worker Safety and Shortages.
Risman, K. L., Erickson, R. J., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2016). The Impact of Person-Organization Fit on Nurse Job Satisfaction and Patient Care Quality. Applied Nursing Research, 31, 121-125.
Roche, M. A., Duffield, C. M., Homer, C., Buchan, J., & Dimitrelis, S. (2015). The rate and cost of nurse turnover in Australia. Collegian, 22(4), 353-358.
Yang, Y., Liu, Y. H., Liu, J. Y., & Zhang, H. F. (2015). The impact of work support and organizational career growth on nurse turnover intention in China. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 2(2), 134-139.
Zhu, J., Rodgers, S., & Melia, K. M. (2014). The impact of safety and quality of health care on Chinese nursing career decision-making. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(4), 423-432.
