Effective Approaches in Addressing Nursing Shortage and Nurse Turnover

EFFECTIVE APPROACHES IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: NURSING SHORTAGE AND NURSE TURNOVER Name:
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EFFECTIVE APPROACHES IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: NURSING SHORTAGE AND NURSE TURNOVER
The healthcare industry in the U.S and the entire world has been experiencing a worsening problem of nursing shortages and nurse turnover. Based on the current trend, the problem is expected to worsen by 30%by 2020 in case no strategy will be taken to resolve the issue. The aim of this paperis to critically discuss the issue of nursing shortage and nurse turnover, apart from analyzing the approaches employed by leaders and nurse managers in resolving the issue effectively.
Leaders and managers in different hospitals play important roles in facilitating hospitals` functioning. According to Frankel (2008)hospitals` future and success are usually defined by the implementation of long-term strategies by the hospital management and leadership. The increasing nursing shortages are causing an increase in nursing turnover. This is based on the fact that every worker prefers working in environments experiencing less stresses and highly esteemed. As a result, hospital emphasize have been placed onretaining their staff members instead of recruiting new employees, but retaining nurses requires leadership and management support. As a result, hospital leaders and managers should be in a position of understanding ways through which nurses can be inspired to remain in their hospitals. As an effect, hospitals should provide a favorable working environment filled with sundry opportunities that will enable nurses to undergo professional growth, apart from supporting personal growth will help hospital facilities retain their nurses (May J. et al 2013).
The first approach that can be used in dealing with nursing shortage and nurse turnover is employing temporary staff. Both managers and leaders have the responsibility of staffing, all employ this strategy. However, since managers are budgeters, they are always concerned with costs and quality of outcomes; they are not employing this approach, except under severe conditions, temporary staffing is the only option. According to May et al (2013) hospitals are employing internal staffing agencies in dealing with short-term nursing shortages. This strategy has been considered as being cost effective even though internal agency nurses receive premium payments as compared to staff nurses, the payments are much below as compared to payments made to external-agency nurses. Moreover, more confidence in the quality of nursing services offered by internal nursing agencies, as use nurses that are already on boardthat are just looking for additional shifts, and/or formerly employed nursing having a desire of having fewer hours to work, or a working environment that is much flexible to meet their schedule. There are hospitals that have also employed agencies based on per diem nurses, where they are using outside nurses but have to be given specialized experiences and training. This strategy is more effective as it allows hospitals to control external agency staffing that might come with external influences, and encourage staff nurses to bid down the unfilled shifts.
The second ...