Staffing Of Nurses: Retention Of Nurses

Staffing of Nurses Name Institution Staffing of Nurses Nurse staffing forms an integral part of the health care system because the provision of quality and patient-centered care depends on the nursing profession. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), enhancing safe and proper nurse staffing does not only improve the outcome of a patient but also enhances patient safety. It is thus imperative to address the issue of staffing, especially about the retention of nurses within the Canadian health care system. However, nurse staffing is a big challenge in the health care field because there are no definite guidelines on what constitutes sufficient staffing in healthcare facilities (Sharma, Hastings, Suter, & Bloom, 2016). Consequently, when there is an inadequate nurse staffing, the outcomes can be dire, especially in terms of increased workload for existing nurses who may opt to quit and on patients. Registered Nurses (RN) have been the most vulnerable group of nurses to be affected by staffing and the consequent high turnover issue. As revealed by Nowrouzi, Giddens, Gohar, Schoenenberger, Bautista, and Casole (2016), a high workload for RN in most health care facilities in Canada has affected their quality of life, indicating the need to address the workload challenge by addressing the staffing issue. Also, as more nurses leave the profession, the nursing workforce will continue to decline, contributing to the already imminent danger of nursing shortage in Canada. Nurses need to be provided with an optimum work environment to avoid poor retention rates, which reflect on patient health outcome and safety. This paper focuses on nurse staffing as an issue that affects the retention of nurses and explores how leaders can address the issue for improved outcomes within the Canadian health care system. Background Nursing forms the backbone of the health care system, and as such, nurse staffing is core as it affects various aspect of the profession and the entire health care system as well. Nurse staffing has been linked to patient mortality. According to Cho, et al. (2015), poor nurse staffing increases the workload of nurses, and this has been linked to higher patient mortality. Health care facilities have to be careful when staffing because the ability to attract the best talents and retain them lies in how effective their staffing strategies are. In this case, one aspect of nurse staffing that the management needs to address is hiring adequate nurses to ensure that the ratio of nurse to patient is manageable. Other than affecting the mortality of patients, nurse staffing has also been associated with patient satisfaction. Hockenberry and Becker (2016) indicate that patient satisfaction increases as the number of RNs per bed increases. This is especially helpful for hospitals that want to increase their number of clients or those who aim at being the best. Patient satisfaction is a significant key in business continuity, and it is imperative for the management to address the issues that affect patient satisfaction. Nurse staffing also influences nurse outcomes in various settings. In most cases, the focus of nurse staffing is usually on the effect of staffing levels on patient outcome and satisfaction. However, it is evident that nurse staffing also affects the nurses themselves. One of the effects of low nurse staffing levels is increased emotional exhaustion and general job dissatisfaction among nurses (Nantsupawat, Nantsupawat, Kulnaviktikul, & McHugh, 2014). As a result, the staff turnover among nurses increases and it has been associated with other challenges that are facing the Canadian health care system. For instance, Fleury, Grenier, and Bamvita (2017) reveal that high staff turnover due to job dissatisfaction has created financial challenges for the health care system in Canada because the process of hiring and training new employees is more expensive than retaining nurses. As such, funds that would have been spent in dealing with more serious medical issues are spent on hiring new nurses. All these repercussions point out to one thing; the importance of making the right and safe staffing decisions, which include nurse retention. Using Leadership to Address the Staffing Issue Leadership in nursing has received much attention in the recent past due to the benefits associated with good leadership within the field. Nursing leadership is important in the delivery of patient-centered care in an environment that is demanding and ever-changing. Several leadership theories and styles can be adopted, but as revealed by Maxwell (2017), the type of leadership adopted depends on the situation that the leader needs to address. For this paper, the leadership theory explored will be focused on addressing the nurse staffing issue as it relates to the retention of nurses. In order to address the nurse staffing issue that has been linked to nursing retention, there is a need for creating change within the system. This requires changes that start with individuals and spreads throughout the entire health care system. Transformational leadership is, therefore, the most appropriate in this case. According to Maxwell (2017), transformational leadership entails inspiring and motivating followers to complete their tasks by identifying their individual needs. This is very important in nursing because nurses face challenges every day and it is important to have support and motivation from their leaders so that they do not feel alone in their problems. Limited or poor leadership support has been linked to nurses’ high intention to leave their workplace or the profession as a whole. According to Hayward, Bungay, Wolff, and MacDonald (2016), failure to acknowledge the contribution of nurses, lack of support on nursing professional development and lack of general motivation from leaders are some of the aspects of leadership that has contributed to their intention to leave. When leaders understand this, they will be able to make better decisions, especially about retention as part of the nurse staffing mandate. Talent attraction and selection becomes useless if leaders are unable to retain talent. As such, nurses can use leadership in various ways to deal with the issue of staffing and ultimately increase the retention rates of nurses. As noted earlier, transformational leadership is appropriate for this situation and for it to work, nurse leaders have first to establish a connection with their followers. This connection is imperative in building trust which is essential as it makes leaders more approachable. In turn, leaders can be able to provide the needed support and promote high employee engagement. Highly engaged employees care about their work, and in return, their work makes them feel good. High levels of job satisfaction and consequent retention among nurses has been linked to high motivation which stems from how the job makes nurses feel (Maxwell, 2017). This is part of the intrinsic motivation that has allowed nurses to feel engaged in their work, hence promoting safe staffing within the health care system. Leaders who understand the importance of work engagement provide employees with a safe and trustworthy platform to air their sentiments and challenges. Second, nurse leaders can create a positiv...