Nurse Shortage in Nursing Homes and Mandatory Overtime for Nurses

Nurse Shortage in Nursing Homes and Mandatory Overtime for Nurses
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Nurse Shortage in Nursing Homes and Mandatory Overtime for Nurses
One of the greatest challenges facing nursing homes today is the acute shortage of nurses. Recent estimates indicate that more than half of nursing homes may only sustain operations for a year based on their cost structures. Virtually all nursing homes experience challenges in hiring new nursing staff. Due to the working conditions that the current nurses face, many nursing homes also face high turnover rates. The result of these factors is a vicious cycle where challenges in hiring new nurses make working conditions difficult for current staff, making them want to leave, which creates even greater nursing shortages. Mandatory overtime entails forcing current nurses to work more hours to fill the gaps or make the workforce more productive. However, this move mostly worsens matters since excessive working hours cause burnout, high nurse turnover, and risks to patient health and safety. While mandatory overtime for nurses may help plug gaps caused by nursing shortages in the short term, the long-term implications are too detrimental to make mandatory overtime standard practice.
Dangers of Mandatory Overtime
One of the immediate detriments of mandatory overtime for nurses is compromised patient health and safety. Current literature finds a direct association between long working hours and diminished quality of care. According to Son et al. (2019), long working hours are detrimental to the health status of nurses, which reduces the quality of care and increases other work-related hazards. Patient accidents will occur, including medication errors, which could be fatal for patients or have the potential for chronic outcomes. For example, the wrong medication could end a patient's life or cause greater health complications. Such accidents often emanate from fatigue and burnout resulting from long working hours. The nurses may lose concentration due to lack of sleep and rest. They may encounter fall accidents and other health complications, including pressure ulcers. All these outcomes mean that a nurse will not be able to offer high-quality care or even ensure the patient's safety. Therefore, after the nurses, patients are often the first to experience the dangers of mandatory nurse overtime. Rest is important in any high-pressure working environment, allowing workers to achieve optimal quality and output.
Another detriment of mandatory overtime is occupational health risks with the potential for legal liability for nurses and organizations. The risks also emanate from long working hours that cause fatigue and burnout to nurses. Occupational fatigue is one of the main culprits for health risks for patients and nurses. Research indicates that chronic fatigue among nurses could last up to six months and cannot be alleviated through rest. Chronic fatigue results include post-exertion malaise, cognitive impairment, unrefreshing sleep, muscle or joint pain, autonomic dysfunction, and poor health-related outcomes such as poor quality of life, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and stroke (Lim et al., 2020). Requiring nurses to continue working und...