Benchmark - Applying Leadership and Management Principles

Benchmark: Applying Leadership and Management Principles Name Institution Course Code and Title Instructor Date Benchmark: Applying Leadership and Management Principles Issue Selected- Nurse Staffing Ratios Nurse staffing ratios have been a major challenge towards improving the quality of nursing services. The required nurse-to-patient ratio within care units with demanding patients should be 1:2, in special ward departments should be 1:4 and in general wards, it should be 1:5 (Sharma & Rani, 2020). However, this ratio is not achieved in many nursing and healthcare facilities. A major reason for the low nurse staffing ratio is the fact that there are unattractive nursing working conditions to attract more students to pursue nursing courses. In fact, the existing nurses are resigning from their jobs due to the harsh working conditions and being overworked. In many states across the US, the nurse shortage is a serious issue that is projected to worsen even in the years to come if no solution is developed. The nurse shortage issue has become prevalent in the US, such that the American Nurses Association (ANA) has been consistent in engaging concerned stakeholders to ensure that nurses are attracted to the profession and that good working conditions are provided to the practicing nurses (ANA, 2019). The sensitivity of the nurse staffing ratio issue is illustrated by Heath (2019), who indicates that due to the low number of nurses in healthcare institutions, most patients experience poor-quality care services. Nurses play a crucial role in healthcare service provision by ensuring that patients are monitored and effective support services are availed. The issue of nurse shortage creates a major challenge in ensuring that an effective healthcare system is developed. Therefore, the nurse staffing ratio is a sensitive issue that needs a comprehensive approach to ensure that practicing nurses are retained and more nurse candidates are acquired to meet the required nursing staff ratio. Possible Solutions and Financial Considerations The nurse staffing ratio issue can be effectively solved by developing an employee engagement and retention initiative. The solution involves ensuring that the practicing nurses are retained rather than experiencing a high turnover of nurses in the healthcare institutions. Nurses' engagement and retention will involve two major steps. First, the nurses need to be engaged to help understand what will ensure that they are content and motivated to work in the current healthcare system (Ghazawy et al., 2021). Secondly, the development of specific measures to ensure nurse retention. The fact that there are new nurse recruits being introduced into healthcare systems means that solving the turnover issue will help increase the number of nurses within the healthcare system. Effective initiatives that would enhance effective nurse retention include improving their remunerations, engaging them in career development programs and frequent promotions, scheduling their shifts to minimize nurse burnout and creating a well-facilitated workplace environment. These initiatives to retain the nurses will help create an attractive and moti...