Nurse Shortage and Poor Job Satisfaction Rates Resulting To High Turnover Rates

Nurse Shortage and Poor Job Satisfaction Rates Resulting To High Turnover Rates
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Nurse Shortage and Poor Job Satisfaction Rates Resulting To High Turnover Rates
Nursing is an exciting profession but can be very demanding; nurses act as advocates for health playing an important role within the healthcare sector. However, high nurse turnover due to poor job satisfaction is becoming a growing concern worldwide. Critical care units are mostly affected, nurses working within these units often complain of increased workload resulting to frequent burnout and fatigue (Hayes et al., 2015). Nurse faces several challenges including violence and frequent burnouts; this explains why most nurses are quitting their jobs due to lack of job satisfaction. The average annual nurse turnover rate in the US stands at 60 percent. Lack of job satisfaction is the main cause of nurse shortage according to health experts (Hayes et al., 2015). This paper describes the impact of nurse shortage and poor job satisfaction rates resulting to high turnover rates witnesses within the emergency department. The paper presents recommendations stating how improved communication, collaboration, and teamwork can improve the current situation at the emergency department
The Impact of Nurse Shortage
The emergency department is cited as the busiest department; patients walk in with different problems some exhibiting aggressive behavior. Managing aggressive patients is one of the challenges nurse within the emergency department face every day. Some violent patients are likely to attack health care providers. Workplace violence is on the increase, and this is among the several reasons why nurses are leaving their profession. Work conditions is another contributor of high nurse turnover, low wages, poor working environment and low status accorded to nurses compare to other healthcare profession affects the job satisfaction levels among nurses (Lu et al., 2012).
The Impact of Poor Job Satisfaction Rates
Considering that job satisfaction is measured by monetary benefits, low wages with minimal benefits do not attract many people to the nursing profession. Low pay is regularly cited as the main cause of high nurse turnover, especially within critical care departments. Nurses feel that they have more responsibilities compared to other health care professional yet others medical personnel receive better pay packages. Furthermore, the nature of emergency rooms combined within limited nursing staffs is the main contributors of poor health outcomes among patients (Hayes et al., 2015).
The World Health Organization states that a good working environment is likely to determine the type of service received by patients. Therefore, employee safety is an important element that will determine their levels of satisfaction. Job satisfaction can be measured based on the environmental conditions and leadership, for nurses several factors influence their job satisfaction rating. Issues of age and experience, benefits are considered to be some of th...