Contemporary Issues And Evolving Roles In Nursing Sector

Nurses play a pivotal role in the transformation of the health care system, which is occurring at a faster rate. Nursing responsibilities have been extended as a result of new aimed at enhancing access to medical care and improving results without losing performance. Problem-solving capabilities and critical thinking have significantly improved due to a fundamental shift in nursing education. Nurses' clinical duties have changed as a consequence of the increasing use of technology. Nurses have adapted themselves to the changing environment in which they work (Abou Malham et al., 2020). The nursing industry as a whole has been trying to cooperate with the patients and their family members to provide relevant treatment and enhance care coordination. However, the nursing profession may be both challenging and gratifying. In the healthcare industry, nurses make up the vast majority of the total workforce, and they have to face various challenges. The paper's purpose is to shed light on the contemporary issues in nursing and the evolving roles in the nursing sector.

As opined by Curtis et al., (2017), there is a universal agreement that the clinical care that is being provided to the patients should be evidence-based. Decisions, clinical practice and innovation should be directed by research and information obtained from strong academic approaches for enhancing the way of delivering care. Curtis et al., (2017) further inform that scientific evidence must be integrated into clinical practice for providing safe and effective treatment while also satisfying the needs of patients and society. Considering its significance, implementing evidence into practice is hard. Nurses have always been on the frontline of the health care system, and as a result, the nurse-led study is gaining popularity worldwide as a significant pathway to efficient and realistic initiatives aimed at enhancing patient outcomes (Curtis et al., 2017). Stanley & Stanley (2018) stated that health care leadership and nursing leadership concepts had been used in health and nursing publications for several years, but clinical leadership is a modern concept. Clinical leaders are noted for having beliefs and values aligned with their activities and interventions. They are usually observed at the top level of clinical management and can be found in clinical settings. They are usually not found at the topmost level of management in a unit or ward group. Stanley & Stanley (2018) further inform that clinical leadership and a comprehension of how the leaders serve the health care system are essential to implementing principle-based practice and how such leaders influence creativity, transformation and better care.

There are nearly 29 million midwives and nurses (Haddad, Annamaraju & Toney-Butler, 2020). However, due to a shortage of prospective educators, unequal labour distribution and high turnover, the nursing sector continues to witness shortages. As stated by the researchers, nursing shortage results in morbidity, more errors and mortality. The ageing workforce, ageing population, and violence in the healthcare setting are some of the issues that relate to the nursing shortage. Thus, all these probable causes force the nurses to leave their field, contributing to nursing turnover and affecting staffing ratios. In hospitals, there is high patient to nurse ratios, and as a result, the mortality rates are also high. Proper staffing levels minimize errors, promote retention of nurses and enhance patient satisfaction (Haddad, Annamaraju & Toney-Butler, 2020). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing education has been severely impacted in both developed and developing nations. The outbreak of the pandemic from dead a sudden shift to remote learning (Wallace et al., 2021). Thus, such circumstances created several issues for students and teachers worldwide. Nursing education which used to be delivered in a face-to-face learning setting that included hands-on experiential learning, has been severely impacted due to the pandemic. It has been replaced by web-based and virtual simulation nursing programs. The researchers Wallace et al., (2021) stated that the students’ concerns could be managed effectively if the faculty members develop remote programs that encourage community building and student participation.

Significance of Clinical Leadership in Nursing

As stated by the researchers Salmond & Echevarria (2017), fragmentation, excessive costs, and access issues inequalities are the factors that drive health care transformation. The need for the transformation is generated by quality and cost issues and the shifting disease type demographics. It has become a major challenge for people with chronic diseases to pay for medical services and care. Repeated diagnostics tests, unnecessary hospitalization, and adverse drug reactions can all be reduced if better-coordinated care is provided. Nurses are ideally placed to support and drive the transformative changes in the healthcare system because of their educational role and the earned respect. Nurses’ roles are constantly changing in the healthcare sector. Thus, nurses are required to be proactive in the face of the transformation in the healthcare system So that the population’s health outcomes can be improved end of bar capita healthcare costs can be reduced (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Clinical leadership is a skill that every registered nurse (RN) possesses. It describes the actions of an RN who provides help and guidance to the service users and the team while delivering patient care. The researchers Connolly, Jacobs & Scott (2018) explored clinical leadership behaviours and the link between psychosocial and structural empowerment requirements. Further reading Connolly, Jacobs & Scott (2018), it is known that RNs feel they are worthy of clinical leadership, and it is undeniable that psychosocial and structural empowerment would enhance their performance.

Nurses are regarded as the soul of the healthcare institutions, and the management face difficulty in keeping them on board. As a result, to keep a highly devoted and engaged nursing workforce and promote the retention of nurses, organizational measures must be implemented (Labrague et al., 2018). It is essential for maintaining high-quality services and patient care and organizational productivity, performance and effectiveness. Labrague et al., (2018) stated a well-established connection between job performance and organizational commitment. Greater job performance, reduced absenteeism and nurse turnover, reduced burnout, and a drop in work fatigue have been associated with greater levels of organizational commitment in nurses. The nursing industry is becoming more influenced by digital technologies. Robotic systems and artificial intelligence (AI) are gaining popularity (Booth et al., 2021). Virtual modes of care, telehealth and so on are becoming more prevalent, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite significant advances, nurses are facing issues in using digital technology. Nurses have not kept up with the fast advancements in digital technologies. It restricts the possible benefits to patient care and nursing practice that they could deliver. Therefore, it is important that nursing immediately shifts into a technology-driven profession capable of responding to society and healthcare systems (Booth et al., 2021).

Nurses in the United States and Europe are shifting to a 12-hour shifts. However, the impact of a 24-hour shift on patient care quality, safety and health require special attention (Koy, Yunibhand & Turale, 2020). Hospital executives are required to collaborate with nursing organizations to formulate effective shift strategies. It will improve the care quality. Due to back-to-back schedules and long working hours, nurses become stressed. They struggle to organize their priorities, and as a result, they are unable to successfully handle their task. Long shift hours give rise to health-related problems in nurses, and they feel uncomfortable and cannot work, which in turn impacts the health of the patients The researchers Koy, Yunibhand & Turale (2020) suggested that nurses should work up to a maximum of 12 hours, and should be able to take adequate breaks. The nurse-to-patient ratio has to be adjusted. It has significant implications not only for practice but also for administration. Violence and aggression are the major social issues prevalent in the healthcare system worldwide, and nurses are especially vulnerable. It has a significant detrimental effect on nursing students and nurses and can cause discomfort and stress in them. Furthermore, because violence and hostility can trigger negative responses in people, it is important to formulate strategies so that the nurses can cope with such challenging situations (Hopkins, Fetherston & Morrison, 2018).

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that nurses must deal with various critical challenges. It is not an easy task for nurses to provide medical services to the people, but they manage to perform their duties efficiently. A nurse’s job nature changes dramatically, even though nurses’ supply is likely to satisfy overall demand. Nurses adopt additional responsibilities for a wide spectrum of patients in community-based care and multiple settings in transformed healthcare systems. New duties for public health, coordinated care, and interdisciplinary collaboration are included in nursing roles. For maximizing the nurses’ contributions, nursing education must instil new abilities, and the regulatory systems must be updated.

References

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Booth, R. G., Strudwick, G., McBride, S., O’Connor, S., & López, A. L. S. (2021). How the nursing profession should adapt for a digital future. bmj, 373. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1190

Connolly, M., Jacobs, S., & Scott, K. (2018). Clinical leadership, structural empowerment and psychological empowerment of registered nurses working in an emergency department. Journal of Nursing Management, 26(7), 881-887. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12619

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Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2020). Nursing shortage. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

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Labrague, L. J., McEnroe–Petitte, D. M., Tsaras, K., Cruz, J. P., Colet, P. C., & Gloe, D. S. (2018). Organizational commitment and turnover intention among rural nurses in the Philippines: Implications for nursing management. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 5(4), 403-408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2018.09.001

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Wallace, S., Schuler, M. S., Kaulback, M., Hunt, K., & Baker, M. (2021, July). Nursing student experiences of remote learning during the COVID?19 pandemic. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 612-618). https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12568