Applying Theory to a Practice Problem

Applying Theory to a Practice Problem
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Summary of Problem
In 1990, the economic constraints brought about radical changes in the healthcare sector in most countries that are developing. The organizational policies advocated for retrenchments in medical facilities and also incorporated other strategies such as restructuring, downsizing, and re-engineering in an attempt to manage the changes that occurred (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski, & Silber, 2002).
Due to the restructuring process, there were approaches that led to the abolition of the existing hospital beds, consolidation or closure of other hospitals, and the merging of other departments and units. Human service providers were then laid off or relocated, a factor that made the nature of work take a different turn. Since nurses remain the largest group of healthcare providers employed by medical institutions, these challenges enormously affected their delivery of services.
Due to the ongoing changes, the nurses faced several challenges that required them to provide high-quality care at very low costs, a factor. With the minimum staffing levels that provide care to patients, the heavy workloads on nurses increased significantly. This, therefore, increased the overall stress levels since more patients turned out to treatments and the processing hours and turnover turned to be faster than was witnessed in the past (Aiken, et.al). The increase in the levels of pressures in practice in stressful changing healthcare environments resulted in a rise in the prevalence of burnout levels on the nurses. Burnout is a problem witnessed mainly in the nursing sector since it is associated with reduced job performances, job turnover, low morale’s, poor physical, mental and emotional health for workers, and the high rates of absenteeism. This paper, therefore, seeks to determine how the middle-range theory can be incorporated in solving the nurse burnout issues.
Theory of Intellectual Capital in Nursing
It is important to note that nurse managers have the sole roles of maintaining and developing nursing human capital. Through the theory of intellectual capital, therefore, aids in identifying and supporting the important relationships and concepts required in advancing the nursing knowledge in any healthcare organization. With the primary emphasis on education, continuing professional development among nurses needs to be supported with the knowledge gained put into practice in order to improve the quality of care. The management and leaderships of nursing institutions need to be equipped with knowledge of the theories and models of management and administration in order to handle the various issues that affect the delivery of services within a nursing institution.
It is, therefore, significant to note that investing in nursing intellectual capacity is a critical factor that faces nursing organizations and their leaders. Nursing organizations and their leaders have the role of initiating advanced education and the proponents of continued education with the aim of eliminating dissatisfactions and the experienced burnout rates in different hospitals. According to Covell and Sidani (2013), the outcomes that would result from intellectual capital have the capacity to improve the levels of performance results, and improve the quality of patient care as well as advance the establishment of intellectual assets. The experiences faced that lead to medical errors, patient falls, and the related costs of hiring new nurses can, therefore, be channeled in the implementation of the intellectual capital in nursing.
Discussion of the origin of the Theory of Intellectual Capital in Nursing
The theory of intellectual capital in nursing was derived from the field of economics and accounting. This approach...