NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills

NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 2

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX4000 Developing a Nursing Perspective

Prof. Name

Date

Applying Research Skills

The shortage of doctors, nurses, and allied health workers has become a crisis evident in most parts of the world, particularly in the United States (US). The consequences of a health workforce shortage include the worsening of workload and burnout among existing personnel, resulting in a diminished quality of care and increasing health costs. The main factor is high turnover. The nursing level is predicted to fall by 7.61 million in 2030. The nurse turnover in America is 26.9% (Ren et al., 2024). Resolving the workforce shortage issue is crucial to improving patient safety and care services. Inadequate nurses increase mortality risk by 2.1-3.2% (Griffiths et al., 2023).  This assessment is centered on developing an annotated bibliography to gain knowledge about the health workforce crisis, including nurses.

Personal Interest and Professional Experience

This interest in workforce shortage is crucial as it affects many lives of healthcare workers and patients. The pressure on such people leads to job dissatisfaction, high turnover of healthcare professionals, and poor patient care outcomes. My professional experience has been exposure in the health care field, where understaffed medical facilities find themselves in situations where almost all of their nurses and doctors have to share overwhelming patient loads, manifesting as sheer over-stress, hopelessness, and complete non-productivity. For instance, during my nursing practice, due to a staff shortage in my unit, I and my fellow nurses had to serve more patients than normal, which led to increased work stress and physical tiredness and ultimately caused burnout and job dissatisfaction, impacting the care services. This instance underlines how the health workforce shortage in health settings adversely affects the physical and emotional health of the remaining staff, leading to job dissatisfaction.

Research and Selection Process

The search for all relevant articles on the health workforce shortage, notably nurse understaffing, has been executed within online databases, including PubMed, CINAHL, ProQuest, etc. The research strategy was constructed by introducing research keywords such as “healthcare workforce shortage,” “nurse and physician shortage,” and “solutions to healthcare staffing crisis.” While searching for relevant resources using these keywords, there were some barriers and difficulties in finding the most appropriate resources for the research topic. Boolean operators “AND,” and “OR” were employed to refine the research to overcome this barrier. The keywords to search relevant articles were “Staffing shortage and patient safety,” “Nurse shortage and burnout” “and Staff retention and care quality.” To ensure the articles’ credibility and relevance, filters were applied, including peer-reviewed articles and the time frame of the last five years. Following a thorough search, three peer-reviewed articles were chosen that analyzed the staff shortage and related measures.

Assessing the Credibility and Relevance of Sources

Each article was checked for reliability because it appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, thorough research was performed on the authors’ expertise, and the articles also needed to be able to indicate up-to-date data and evidence-based recommendations. The CRAAP was applied to identify the relevance of the credibility of resources on the workforce shortage issue. The CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (Muis et al., 2022).

Currency reiterated articles written over the recent five years to ensure current information. Relevance was defined by how closely the content related to the issue, underlining workforce difficulties. Authority was determined by validating the writers’ credentials and the repute of the journals. Accuracy entailed verifying data based on evidence or supporting citations. The purpose was assessed to ensure that the articles informed regarding staffing shortage and relevant solutions. The assumptions for source relevance included that current, peer-reviewed articles from recognized databases will provide reliable insights. Applying the CRAAP will select legitimate or pertinent resources for staffing issues.

Annotated Bibliography

Alshahrani, S. H. (2022). Reasons, consequences, and suggested solutions for nursing workforce shortage: A literature review. International Journal of Health Sciences, 6(S5), 1557–1568. https://doi.org/10.53730/ijhs.v6nS5.9004

The peer-reviewed article underlines the causes and implications of workforce shortage on care quality and patient results. The causes are workload and high nurse-patient ratio, adversely impacting nurses’ perceptions and causing nurses’ burnout or turnover. Aged nurses intend to leave their jobs due to poor wages or insufficient respect at work. Improved staffing is crucial for patient safety. The study showed a 31.1% variance in patient death rates when one nurse cared for eight patients and four patients. The strategies to boost retention or address shortages entailed efforts to redefine nursing perceptions by conveying positive messages and involving career advisors or educators. Enhancing the workplace via flexible scheduling, raising salaries, and overtime policies to retain staff. The study is vital as it inspires hospital managers to apply robust retaining measures to resolve understaffing risks and boost care. However, there is a gap; it did not discuss the aspects of staff growth efforts and impacts on nurses’ retention or satisfaction.

Marufu, T. C., Collins, A., Vargas, L., Gillespie, L., & Almghairbi, D. (2021). Factors influencing retention among hospital nurses: Systematic review. British Journal of Nursing, 30(5), 302-308. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2021.30.5.302

NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 2

The systematic review aimed to assess the contributing elements that impact nurse retention, which leads to a staffing shortage issue. The review highlighted that professional aspects like high work demand, mental fatigue, high patient volume, and job dissatisfaction impact nurses’ retention and worsen staffing. Other factors are poor management, limited educational or professional growth options, negative organizational culture, and poor teamwork and communication among the team. Insecure workplaces and inadequate assets like tools and infrastructure can lead to employee dissatisfaction and turnover, harming care services. The study stressed enabling nurses and fostering motivating work settings to sustain staff and resolve shortages. The review is valuable as it delivers insight into the factors that cause understaffing, harming care quality. The study’s findings can help policymakers and medical experts make decisions to resolve the staff shortage in hospitals. However, the study observed retention variables for hospital nurses; how these aspects affect nurses in other medical settings is uncertain.

Noya, F., Carr, S., Freeman, K., Thompson, S., Clifford, R., & Playford, D. (2021). Strategies to facilitate improved recruitment, development, and retention of the rural and remote medical workforce: A scoping review. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 11(10), 2022. https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2021.160

The scoping review intends to underline the strategies to address the staffing shortages in remote regions by facilitating improved retention and recruitment of healthcare staff. The study stated that educational interventions like offering rural training at the institute level, student selection from remote areas integrating rural-focused health schools, and rural immersion boost staff willingness to work in remote regions. The study showed that implementing a policy of mandatory practice duration in rural areas, offering competitive pay, funded training, and housing assistance improves retention. Career growth options, like tailored courses or tuition reimbursement, improve hiring and retention. Improving remote infrastructure, increased medical facilities, and connectivity creates an inviting place, enhancing retention and care quality. Based on this evidence, the study suggests that stakeholders adopt effective strategies to address the shortage issue in remote regions. However, there is uncertainty, such as the need for research on the feasibility or scalability of these methods in diverse settings, notably in underdeveloped countries.

Summary of the Learnings

Creating bibliographic annotations enhanced research abilities by strengthening critical analysis and resource credibility appraisal. It helped to improve my research abilities, give me a deeper understanding of the healthcare issue of understaffing, and prepare me for future coursework or professional work. It entailed locating, summarizing, and analyzing resources, promoting critical thinking, and having the capacity to recognize reliable data. Using CRAAP aided in analyzing peer-reviewed articles on workforce shortages and evaluating them based on study type and subject oneness to ensure relevant and credible resources were included. Summarizing data aided in analyzing healthcare issues related to workforce shortages to improve staff wellness and care quality. Researching this topic led to discovering factors like an aging population, workload, limited professional growth options, negative work culture, and poor teamwork that cause this issue (Marufu et al., 2021). It offers insight into solutions like improved efforts for nursing image, flexible scheduling, raising salaries, and overtime policies to retain staff (Alshahrani, 2022).

The annotated bibliography guided the improvement of the retention of staff in rural regions to address the workforce issue in remote areas. The Noya et al. (2022), study provides information about efficient strategies like rural-focused curricula, mandatory rural service policy, higher salaries, housing support, and enhanced infrastructure. Synthesizing the bibliography improved my comprehension of the risk factors and the necessity of resolving understaffing to enhance patient care by improving nursing satisfaction and practices. It is useful for comprehending intricate healthcare issues and prospering in future research-based activities.

References

Alshahrani, S. H. (2022). Reasons, consequences, and suggested solutions for nursing workforce shortage: A review of literature. International Journal of Health Sciences, 6(S5), 1557–1568. https://doi.org/10.53730/ijhs.v6nS5.9004

Griffiths, P., Saville, C., Ball, J., Dall’Ora, C., Meredith, P., Turner, L., & Jones, J. (2023). Costs and cost-effectiveness of improved nurse staffing levels and skill mix in acute hospitals: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 147, 104601–104601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2023.104601

Marufu, T. C., Collins, A., Vargas, L., Gillespie, L., & Almghairbi, D. (2021). Factors influencing retention among hospital nurses: Systematic review. British Journal of Nursing, 30(5), 302-308. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2021.30.5.302

NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 2

Muis, R., Denton, C., & Dubé, A. (2022). Identifying CRAAP on the internet: A source evaluation intervention. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(7), 239-265. http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.97.12670

Noya, F., Carr, S., Freeman, K., Thompson, S., Clifford, R., & Playford, D. (2021). Strategies to facilitate improved recruitment, development, and retention of the rural and remote medical workforce: A scoping review. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 11(10), 2022. https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2021.160

Ren, H., Li, P., Xue, Y., Xin, W., Yin, X., & Li, H. (2024). Global prevalence of nurse turnover rates: A meta‐analysis of 21 studies from 14 countries. Journal of Nursing Management, 2024(1), 5063998. https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/5063998

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