Nursing Shortage In Canada: Economical, Political, And Cultural Analysis

Definition of Nursing Shortage

Question:

Discuss about the Nursing Shortage In The Present Generation.

Nursing shortage can be defined as the situation where the demand of nursing professionals likes that of the registered nurses, enrolled nurses and similar others are exceeding the supply of the nurses (McIntyre & McDonald, 2014). This can take place locally, globally as well as nationally. The  nursingshortage can be identified from the analysis of nurse-patient ration, nurse-population ratio as well as the number of job openings available in the market (Rustoen, 2016). Canada has been suffering from  nursing shortage in the present generation that had affected safety of patients largely. This report will be mainly shedding light on the issue of nursing shortage. It will also provide the economical, political and cultural analysis leading to such a situation. The barriers of resolution of the issue will also be discussed and strategies would be provided by which the issue can be resolved.

Statistical data has shown that in the early years of the 1990s, most of the regions, territories and provinces in Canada. Just after two decades, situations have become worse, where Canada is witnessing a growth in the issue of nursing shortage. Researchers are of the opinion that the aging nursing workforce is the main reason for the nursing shortage. They have also stated that even if new nursing professionals are trained, they will not be enough to overcome the offset of the huge number of nursing retirements that are anticipated (Bloomberg & Stier, 2016). Further researchers who have conducted social analysis of the issue had stated that if the government or the concerned authorities publish no policy interventions, Canada would be witnessing a shortage of about 60,000 full time registered nurses in the year of 2022. Canadian Nurses association has provided this information. Canadian population is actually seeing a vast increase in the number of people over 65 due to the advancement of the medical science. The expectancy of life has increased and therefore older generation is living for a large expansion of time. However, the quality of the life of such individuals is quite poor and they have many medical as well as health needs. This will require the service of many nursing professionals to care for the patients (Gottlieb, 2016). Recent reforms in the healthcare systems have given scopes to millions of people in the nation to access the healthcare system. As a result, nursing shortage is a huge issue that needs to be solved.

Factors Contributing to Nursing Shortage in Canada

Nursing shortage has negative impacts on the health of the patients who get admissions in the hospitals. It disrupts the smooth workflow of the healthcare organizations as well. Researchers have often stated a number of disadvantages that affect healthcare organizations. Nursing shortages are seen to increase the workloads of the patients (McIntyre & McDonald, 2014). This issue also enhances the risk for error that compromises the safety of patients. It also results in increase in the spreading of the infection to patients and staff (Lee et al., 2014). Nursing shortage forces few existing nurses to take huge amount of responsibilities that results them in burning out. This leads to many adverse outcomes like shock, cardiac arrests, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and many others among patients who take admissions in the healthcare centers. It also increases risk for occupational injuries where the burned out nurses may face severe emotional as well as physical stress in their lives. Such heavy pressures on the existing nurses and the various errors committed by them during caring for patients make them suffer from legal obligations. Their enthusiasm and confidence also become low for which nursing turnover results (Cox, Willis & Costasse, 2014). This in turn results in higher costs for the healthcare system and even for the employers

The organizational culture as well as the working climate often becomes the major reason for nursing turnover and shortage of nurses. The working culture of many healthcare centers in the present days is critical to the new nurses who are joining the healthcare centers. This is said so because the senior nurses, nursing managers and others criticize the new nurses. They are criticized about their skills, their lack of knowledge and many others. Therefore, the seniors who should provide helping hands and guide the new nurses are in turn becoming difficult to them. Researchers have stated that many nurses who have left the organizations or are thinking of leaving the organization state bullying. They have stated that such behaviors affect their morale for which they cannot develop bonds with each other. Moreover violence at workplace both from fellow members and also from colleagues are also other reasons that cause nursing turnovers A second point that can be noted here is that the society had never taken initiatives to promote nurse education and empower them. Lack of nursing empowerment is one of the social issues in the nation that affect the morale of the nurses. There are many areas where training resources are scarce and social attitudes result in inhibiting nurses for advocating patients or themselves. Perceptions like nursing being a peripheral, menial job for women with fewer other options has made nurses suffer from low confidence level and poor morale. Such perceptions have also obstructed adequate respect or resource for them. Poor empowerment and encouragement of the society affect the morale of the nursing professionals. As they do not get the respect and compassion from the society regarding their dedication, they suffer from poor morale. They feel overworked and suffer from burnout as their morals remain down. Moreover, lack of support from hospital authorities regarding intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors also add to the poor condition of the morale of the nurses and they tend to leave their job or not dedicate themselves enough as expected from them.

Negative Impacts of Nursing Shortage on Patients and Healthcare Organizations

Incentives and financial rewards are not provided to the nurse due to fund shortage for which the nurses not only get demotivated, develop poor morale and leave the job. Therefore, all theses result in increases nurse turnover and hence increased nurse shortage. Although the healthcare institutions try their best to accommodate funds to meet, the professionals’ need but lack of funds from governmental allotment affects the distribution of resources (Kydd et al., 2014).. Therefore, economic constraints and management issues result in tremendous pressure on nurses who tend to leave their jobs (McIntyre & McDonald, 2014). Again, other cases are seen where the hospital authorities, to make more profit, restrict flow of resources that creates pressure on nurses and affect safety of patients. Therefore, hidden agendas are indeed there which though controversial can be observed in many cases. When the nurses do not get financial rewards for working extra shifts or delivering more services, they tend to get upset and leave their jobs due to such management issues and financial constraints.

In many cases, it is seen that the higher officials are careless about the occupational health and safety of the nurses and provide a poor and unsafe workplace for the nurses. The employers are seen not to take initiatives for work health safety of the nurses that exposes them to accidents on the floor. Such working environment demoralizes them as they feel that the organization do not care for the safety of the nurses. The prevailing environment poses danger for the nurses with which they do not want to take chances. The officials do not conduct risk assessments for the safety of the nurses for which the nurses develop anguish over their seniors. Many of the healthcare organizations provide restricted resources to the nurses that are not enough for them to provide care to the patients which not only exposes the patients to unsafe treatment but also such workplace exposes nurses to legal obligations. Such incidents result in emotional turmoil, which make them leave their jobs. Other political issue that nurses face is the power struggles (Onouha et al., 2015). They face tremendous power struggles with physicians who try to override the suggestions and feedbacks of the nurses. The higher officials, physicians and other healthcare experts also practice dominancy and power over the nursing professionals for whom they become depressed and unhappy. This makes them leave their jobs. The officials do not plan any social activities for nurses, do not work and resolve concerns of individual nurses, fix supervisors for morale development, provide them flexible staffing and others. All these issues make the workplace culture monotonous for the nurses where they do not feel loved or respected. Such unsafe working environment becomes a major reason for nurses leaving their jobs. Fewer responsibilities by the higher authorities might benefit them but this affects the interest of nurses.

Barriers to Resolving Nursing Shortage in Canada

Improper work environment is one of the most important barriers that results in continuous nursing turnover. The officials still do not feel conducting work-health-safety analysis that exposes nurses to threats and accidents (McIntyre & McDonald, 2014). The population of baby boomers is continuing to increase and so their healthcare needs are increasing. The nation cannot find out ways to provide high quality lives to such large population of old people and hence, it continues to act as barriers until the population getting affected is controlled. Funding system is yet another barrier for resolution of the issues (Sawatzky et al., 2014). Until the government does not understand the importance of increasing the funding system for allocation of nurses, their education in the universities, for their continuous professional development, nursing shortage cannot be overcome. Stigmatized society will continue to be a barrier until proper education is given to them.

The government should provide adequate funding which helps in developing a working environment that is free from any sort of risks and safety hazards. They must conduct an analysis of the requirement of funding for every health organization and thereby develop ways by which they can collect the fund and hence provide them to healthcare organizations. A policy should be developed at the national level by which the employers could understand how to create quality work environments, attract new recruits, and retain experienced nurse at the same time (McIntyre & McDonald, 2014). The human resource management should take care of recruiting a proper skill mix of nurses so that nurses do not have to conduct an activity that is outside their comfort zone (Glasper, 2016). This would prevent nurses from burning out. Unions and professional associations should support the nursing professionals by working in partnership with the governments thereby creating creative work schedules, providing members with educational supports and professional development options and other social support (McIntyre & McDonald, 2014). Societies should be educated about how to empower nursing professionals, as they are the individuals who care for the social beings when they become ill (Zboril et al., 2016).

Conclusion:

Nursing shortage has become one of the leading causes of concern in the nation. This are affecting the safety of the patients making them suffer and lead poor quality lives. Nursing turnovers are taking place as the exposing nurses are leaving their jobs due to burnouts. In sufficient funding system, one of the main reason that is resulting in nursing shortage as nurses are paid less or trends of short staffing are encouraged. Nurses also suffer from power struggles with their higher officials who dominate them. This factor results in development of anguish and disappointment among the nurses. Moreover, stigmatization among the societies over the profession of nursing does not allow the nurses to feel empowered. Moreover, the decision makers also do not understand the importance of proper patient nurse ratio and hence encourage short staffing. All these factors need to be addresses and effective initiatives should be taken to overcome the issues.

References:

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