Essays on Aiken

As the nursing executive of a general hospital with more than 1,000 beds, I need to address the nursing shortage in the emergency department. Currently, there are 19 full-time nurses working in the emergency department. That number proved to be sufficient to effectively address approximately 80% of all admissions, but it will be necessary to increase the number of full-time nurses and staff retention rates need to increase in order to further improve care delivery in the department and reduce job burnout rates. According to Buchan and Aiken (2008), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) identified ...

Gap in Care Quality during the Discharge Process for Care Coordination for Patients with Chronic Illnesses

Patients in the United States who experience long-term illnesses may change from one health care setting to another. They might move from home to a hospital, to an assisted living facility, or to other types of residential care. The coordination of care for patients with chronic illnesses is reliant on the abilities of health care providers to interact effectively in order to provide optimum outcomes (NTCC, 2010). In order to determine the best possible option for the patient, care coordinators must accurately assess the patient’s condition, reach a consensus on prognosis, evaluate possible resources, and develop and initiate ...

Nantsupawat, A., Nantsupawat, R., Kulnaviktikul, W., & McHugh, M. D. (2015). Relationship between nurse staffing levels and nurse outcomes in community hospitals, Thailand. Nursing & health sciences, 17(1), 112-118. The study examines the relationship that exists between the staffing levels of nurses and the subsequent nurse outcomes whereby the study was conducted in various community hospitals in Thailand. According to the author understanding the various factors that influence nurse outcome especially job dissatisfaction as well as emotional exhaustion could enable policy makers as well as hospital administrators in developing strategies to enhance the satisfaction of nurses and minimize emotional exhaustion ...

Question 1

I was particularly surprised at the huge difference between the career descriptions of a registered nurse and that of a licensed practical and licensed vocational nurse as well as the difference in their pay and job education requirements. For example, I established from my research that the vocational and practical nurses work under the directions of a registered nurse or doctor. Similarly, the median pay for the two jobs was unexpectedly huge. While the licensed vocational nurses and the licensed practical nurses earned in the range of $43, 000, the registered nurses earned in the tune of close to $ ...

Introduction

The healthcare system in Australia is termed as one of the most successful in the world when it comes to the delivery of good healthcare. Additionally, the health outcomes, as well as the control of costs by the system, are remarkably effective as stated by Hall (2015). Such achievements have however been achieved through the interaction of the public and private financial backing, public and private provision of services, and the sharing of key duties between the federal as well as the state governments (Hall, 2015). In the US, no single system of health insurance covers the nation. Health ...

Strategic Messages to Different Stakeholders

Key message to executive: Introducing a new CEO Objectives: Issues: According to Koyne & Koyne (2007), the executive should know that the new CEO and managing partners are likely to reorganize the company through layoffs and dismiss top management. However, the top management can tell the new leaders that they want to help them achieve implement the changes. Porter, Lorsch &Nohria (2004) established that CEOs should focus on managing the organizational structure and not on daily operations. Additionally, the CEO at BrightStar should understand that his position does not give him the right to lead or a guarantee that the ...

Healthy Work Environments and Nurse Burn Out (4)

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critique of an article on the topic of work environments and nurse burn out. The article to be critiqued is a large cross-sectional Swedish study that examines the associations among nurse practice environment, family/work conflict and burnout (Leineweber, et al., 2014). The intent of this critique is to provide evidence that the nurses’ working environment has an impact of personal psychosocial factors. The data for the study was retrieved from the survey-based Swedish section of the RN4CAST, which was multinational EU 7th Framework project. The original project involved RNs employed ...

The health care reforms have brought about a dramatic change in the way people seek healthcare. Before health reforms, people choose to remain untreated, as treatment costs was too expensive. This scenario has changed with the introduction of managed care. More people are seeking health care and more transparency has been introduced into the care process. The healthcare has been reengineered to effectively integrate various players that form a part of the managed care system. The health providers, pharmacies, health delivery, payers, specialized services are integrated to form a multifunctional health care system. (Hoffman & Emanuel, 2013) Nurse’s role ...

Literature Reading

Literature Reading Nursing profession is faced with several issues concerning care practices including the mandatory overtime imposed on nurses. However, both positive and negative perceptions about mandatory overtime appear in various studies about its effect on work efficiency and patient safety. The following literatures provide significant insights on the issue of mandatory overtime based on the findings encompassing both the qualitative and quantitative methods. Bae, S. (2013). Presence of nurse mandatory overtime regulations and nurse and patient outcomes.Nursing Economics, 31(2), 59-89. Retrieved from https://www.nursingeconomics.net/ce/2015/article31025989.pdf Mandatory overtime imposed among nurses is a prevalent practice in order to address the ...

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports nursing as one of the country’s top occupations based on demand. The Association expects the workforce to increase from 2.71 million nurses in 2012 to approximately 3.24 million over 2022. This figure represents a 19 percent projected growth over a ten-year period. Further projections exist in the demand for additional 525,000 replacements in the same period. However, the growth is not fast enough to meet the rise in demand for RN services. This finding shows that the country has continuously experienced nurse shortages. The situation would experience further ...

Infections in hospital settings are a challenge in nursing because of the potential dangers that they pose to a wide number of patients. Bloodstream infections from central lines are particularly hazardous as they affect patients that are already vulnerable, meaning that they contribute to morbidity and mortality in the hospital setting (Rinke et al., 2012). Although the rates of central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) can be reduced by up to 67% through the introduction of checklists (Schulman et al., 2011), the issue continues to be important in a wide number of hospital settings. It is also important to understand the ...

Purpose

This paper looks to evaluate the impact of the nurse-to-patient ratio in achieving the desirable outcomes. It will analyze the evidence which depicts ways of improving this ratio to improve the quality of care given to patients and meeting their needs. Additionally, the paper will describe the impact of staffing problem to the well-being of the patient and work satisfaction. It will come up with questions which will be used to find the evidence which addresses this issue. Lastly, the paper will describe the strategy which will be employed to locate articles in regards to nurse-to-patient ratio.

Describe the problem

Nurses played ...

Organizational change procedures are influenced by the institutionalization of power as well as the behavior of interest groups in and around organizations. The power that is embedded in formal organizations structure, as well as the process and the existing organizational arrangements, have been dramatically changing. The pressure of global competition and deregulation has driven numerous organizations and foundations to look for new types of association and diverse models for overseeing individuals. In the theory and practice of organizational change, attention has always been paid to the importance of structure in achieving organizational goal. Initially, the concept of differentiation and ...

Question 1

The colonists devised new strategies to support their colonies as well as thwart any rebellions from the poor, regardless of their skills. In an attempt to achieve the goal, they devised various methods to raise funds using dubious means. One of the strategies they used was the Stamp Act. The British colonists imposed the Stamp Act to amass enough funds to repay debts and support their vast colonial territories in America (Taylor, 2002). The Stamp Act was a legislation that imposed a direct tax on printed materials of profitable nature and legal use in British territories. Stamp Act affected ...

Catalyst Investors, mid-tier hedge fund located at 711 Fifth Avenue Suite 600 New York, is the firm whose employee evaluation form is used to carry out the study. Catalyst Investors use Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS). Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) are descriptive in nature, such that the evaluator is required to rank the continuum of descriptive statements relating to behaviors ranging from the least effective to the most effective behavior relating to a given task which the employee possess (Aiken and Lewis 173). Through the ranking, the evaluator will identify which scale best describes an employee.

The Scale Used

. Behaviorally Anchored ...

For a long time now, nurses have been fighting against inadequate staffing and the outcomes that such issues have on them and the patients under their care. Additionally, the ever ballooning needs of the health care system have resulted in the number of patients requiring care going above the available healthcare personnel (Aiken, et al., 2014). As such, the available nurses presently working in the country, both at the state and the federal level are overwhelmed by the responsibilities bestowed on them. From the foregoing, therefore, it is evident that finding the optimal level of the nurse-to-patient ratio has ...