How Nurse Managers and Leaders Can Solve Nursing Shortage Essay Example

shortages have revealed that good leadership skills are directly linked to greater job satisfaction and thus reduced turnovers among nurses. I would thus expect nurse managers to embrace their roles in leadership by instance ensuring that the nurses are satisfied by affecting their retention. The Nurse Reinvestment Act have outlined five major functions in addressing the issue of nurse shortage and turnover which involve scholarship for future nursing students with loan reimbursements and public business announcement to entice individuals to register in nursing programs. They as well award grants for long-term training and tracking staffing reimbursement programs for those who choose to teach nursing curriculum (Westphal, 2008).

Despite the fact that both nurse leaders and managers are tasked with the role of embracing effective leadership in the institution, nurse leader has a bigger role to play by ensuring that they influence other nurses through effective communication so as to retain their careers. Nevertheless, I believe that nurse managers can be of help by augmenting the staff work morale on the units. This means that nurse managers are equally responsible for curbing the issue of turnover as they ensure that the nurses are well contended by raising their morale by for instance improving the benefits and compensations awarded them.

Often, fresh nurse graduates are anxious when allocated tough assignments and thus may require help. Both nurse managers and leader should not overlook the work load and should be consistently on the move to supervise the new recruits and offer assistance whenever needed. As Huston (2014) reveals, embracing the method of Management by Walking Around which involves moving around to ensure that all is well not only guarantees safe

work but also promotes a good working relationship between the employees and their supervisors. It also promotes equality since the employees are treated fairly ultimately reducing dissatisfaction that is deemed as one the main causes of employee turnovers.

For nurses managers and leaders, being effective and having a focused, insightful philosophy facilitates ongoing personal as well as professional learning while at the same time creating and developing practitioners to be competent in demonstrating their succession towards learning results and required standards. In the nursing shortages and turnover, I expect the nurse leaders to be accountable for hiring applicants and upholding staff retention since they are responsible for creating a satisfying work environment.

They should thus encourage other members of staff to have increased learning, and making sure that employees have access to training and education opportunities, and mentoring professional development while encouraging fairness in staff selection and recruitment. Nurse leader influences other members of staff to achieve the set goals (Huber, 2014). In the scenario of nurse shortage and turnover, the role of a nurse leader becomes very essential. This is because he or she has to improvise other ways of hiring and retaining nurse and communicating a sense of purpose to them.

Alternatively, the nurse managers are responsible for coordinating and integrating resources by developing staff friendly programs, delegating tasks, making the right decisions where necessary, and ensuring that there is enough staff on the ground always (Huston, 2014). While I expect the nurse leader to build trust, motivate other nurses, sustain commitment, and assist in breeding new leaders, I expect the nurse manager is to guarantee that the workload is not too hefty to the nurses

since this might result in employee turnover. All in all, nurse managers and leader ought to embrace a continued learning process for nurses to advance skills in the nursing practice.

I chose nursing as a profession since I have an inborn desire to help people. I believe that I have a role in providing save patient care to the public by using the set clinical judgments in meeting the needs of my patients. Through this, I prefer the transformational approach of leadership whereby the focus is based on motivating as well as constructing relationships between the members of staff so that the vision and mission of the health care institution can be achieved. Transformational leaders have excellent communication skills which they use to entice their fellow workers to have a better perception of circumstances (Huston, 2014). This approach is best suited as it allows me to pay attention to the major reasons that contribute to the issue of nurse shortage and turnovers. In my opinion, however, the working atmosphere needs to be enhanced to offer the staff a conducive environment whereby nurses can dedicate their entire time to serving the people.

In conclusion, leaders and managers in the health care institutions ought to work jointly in utilizing the solutions to solve the increasing tendency of nurse’s shortage and turnover that is being experienced worldwide. They should both embrace efficient leadership to ensure that they retain nurses in their institutions. While nurse leaders should be focused on empowering, inspiring, and motivating other nurses, nurse managers should be able to solve problems in the institution whenever they appear.

References

1. Huber, D. (2014). Leadership and Nursing Care Management. London: Elsevier Health
   Sciences.