Staff Shortages
Staff shortages are one of the most concerning issues within the NHS, and it cuts across various disciplines. To capture everything concerning the nature of scarcity of staff, I used a model that captures a reflection on current staff shortage issues, things learned from the observation, and proposals of actions to be taken on the nursing shortage. The paper will also shed some light on government actions to address the issue of staff shortage.
During my placement at The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital at Copthorne, I was placed in an emergency department where I had the opportunity to interact with patients who were in critical condition. As I commenced my job there, I realized that the environment was not conducive at all, having not met the national safety standards. The patients were at risk, with most of them dealing with situations that required quick attendance but no one to attend to them.
Research shows that a lack of a working patient-nurse ration is a great deterrent to patient safety. In most NHS institutions, there are few nurses compared to the number of patients. The quality of care is affected, and the public confidence in the system is lowered. The RCN is, therefore, fighting to campaign for laws staffing in England, Scotland, and North Ireland after a resolution of nursing staff levels passed in 2016 (RCN, 2018). The organization also suggests that any decision about nurse staffing should be informed by nursing legislation and midwifery council to ensure professional judgment and recruitment of qualified nurses.
There are other reasons why the NHS system is understaffed. A report released in 2018 (RCN, 2018) shows that a lack of appreciation of nurses may lead them to look for new employment opportunities. Underrating nurses in healthcare facilities kill their morale, and therefore they are prompted to career advancement or poor delivery (Njovu, 2017). Overworking nurses, workload, and inconvenient schedule changes lead to fatigue and burn out. Worn out nurses increase the mortality rates and delayed discharging of patients. Some nurses get demoralized and quit practicing.
(Bodell, 2019) suggests that public polling carried out in the Royal College of Nursing claims that 71 percent of the respondents think that there are inadequate nurses to provide care to patients. The top solutions among those polls were to offer additional nurses, and most of them feel that it is the legal responsibility of the government to ensure that there is sufficient nursing staff. The college is calling for the England NHS leaders to establish legislation to enhance staffing and nurse staffing at all healthcare levels in England. It also suggests that a plan for the nursing department be created, putting into consideration the aging England population. The removal of the nursing bursary in 2016 has negatively affected the number of nursing applications, and the college, therefore, suggests that the right amount of money should be allocated to higher education in nursing (Elgie, 2007).
In a bid to increase the number of nurses and improve patient safety, the government had established a Nursing association that has nursing auxiliaries and assistants who serve as a supply bay for nurses to health facilities (NHS England, 2018). This is because around 95% of nurses admitted that patient safety is greatly affected by poor planning in recruiting nurses. The Washington State Nurses Association (2009) also affirmed that the governments have a responsibility in the general issues in the nursing sector, and they should therefore not assume the vacancies in the new industry.