Nurses Make the Difference Essay Example

Nursing is great for so many reasons, but there is one reason that means more than any poll result, amount of money, or job security: nurses make a difference. "-Brittany Wilson, RN, BSN. Nurses are the heartbeat of healthcare, working long hours to take care of patients, including providing them with the education they need to understand their health and medical conditions. Nurses also play a vital role in spreading research into practice and leading national and international health missions and are the most trusted profession. But despite their positions, nurses are usually portrayed as self-centered, uncaring, unprofessional, and unintelligent in the media. These stereotypes demean nurses and are an insult to the years of education and hard work nurses have devoted to the privilege of delivering care to patients. Nurses are very unappreciated, but if they're going to work in a harsh environment, then at least they need to be seen and treated fairly. Although hospitals need more nurses so they can help out each patient and the staff needs to be checked just in case any laws were broken, nurses deserve respect from people and a higher wage in their payment because they are overworked, have risky jobs, are short-staffed, and the nurses get mistreated by their patients. 

You might be wondering why nurses are overworked and what dangerous jobs they are expected to perform. Nurses are expected to have unrealistic expectations, like, for example, taking care of multiple patients at the same time and working more than 12 hours. This causes them to have a lack of sleep, other work-related stressors, and burnout. Since nurses are not getting paid enough, they choose to take extra shifts so they can get more payment, but that is still not enough for them since most nurses have claimed that they have had enough. Nurses are holding a National Day of Action to demand employers and the Biden administration protect RNs. Polls show 83% of registered nurses say at least half of their shifts are unsafely staffed. Nurses are also calling on the CDC to strengthen isolation guidelines for healthcare workers and the public. More than 481 nurses across the country have died of COVID. That's just the number we know. We know the number is higher. National Nurses United petitions the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to order OSHA to issue a permanent standard. (Gonzalez par. 3-15). During the past 2 years of COVID-19, nurses have taken care of thousands of people. Most of it was unsafe due to the virus, and many want to quit because it has taken a toll on their wellbeing. How long will it take for people to recognize that nurses have gone through too much? At least they need to be protected and receive higher pay so that more nurses will come back and help with the lack of staff hospitals have right now.

Nurses who are overworked and underpaid will experience burnout and stress, and will eventually leave the field, contributing to the nursing shortage. When inappropriate staffing becomes frequent, the remaining RNs become fatigued, discouraged, and disillusioned. This repetitive situation actually "feeds itself," causing more RNs to move away from direct patient care and/or leave that care delivery setting. When nurses feel that they cannot finish their responsibilities or must take "shortcuts" in essential care activities, this "missed care" results in frustration and a sense of disillusionment with the organization (Blouin and Podjasek pg. 221). A nursing shortage basically leads to many errors and high morbidity and mortality rates for patients when nurses don’t have time to take care of all the patients and rescue them. Blouin and Podjasek stated that studies dating back more than a decade ago report that nursing work environment factors, such as staffing, work culture, job satisfaction, skill mix, and burnout, are linked to quality, safety, and patient care. Numerous studies have indicated that nurses in hospitals with inappropriate nurse-patient ratios are more likely to have higher nurse burnout, job dissatisfaction, and higher intent to leave (Blouin and Podjasek, p. 225). What the author has started shows that nothing has changed throughout the years, and since this is a reoccurring problem, things really do need to be changed. 

It would be a mistake to overlook the fact that nurses are subjected to harassment and violence from patients; most nurses anticipate being mistreated at some point throughout their careers, which is trauma in and of itself. Acts of workplace violence against a nurse can exact a heavy physical and emotional toll. Consequences can be both acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) and range in intensity from minor to serious physical injuries, from temporary to permanent disability, and from psychological trauma to death. To summarize this article, Akhtar has stated On the job, frontline employees are witnessing an upsurge in violence and aggression. A moderate or major rise in workplace violence has been recorded by 31% of hospital nurses, up from 22% in March 2021. According to an NBC study, 77% of California hospitals reported implementing no safety modifications after receiving an assault allegation. Stopgap measures were used in certain institutions, such as handing staff rape whistles and panic buttons. Hospitals, according to Erica, must also provide appropriate resources and mental health assistance for nurses. (Akhtar, par. 4-11)

This letter was signed by 200 congressmen after the last wave of the pandemic and was written by Welch. In this letter, he stated The current surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant continues to put an incredible strain on our health care system, particularly the supply of desperately needed hospital staff, including nursing staff. The situation has affected every state and every corner of the nation, challenging hospitals’ ability to care for their patients due to these dire workforce concerns. The persistent strain of the pandemic has required many hospitals to rely on nurse-staffing agencies to supply urgently needed staff to care for the increasing number of patients. (Welch par. 1), it is true in the last sentence that the hospital needs more staff to help out every patient, especially during the pandemic. Low staff can result in abandoning the patients. Welch has also started We are writing because of our concerns that certain nurse-staffing agencies are taking advantage of these difficult circumstances to increase their profits at the expense of patients and the hospitals that treat them. We urge you to enlist one or more of the federal agencies with competition and consumer protection authority to investigate this conduct to determine if it is the product of anticompetitive activity and/or violates consumer protection laws. (Welch par. 2) Welch has stated something that can be valid because they should have the right to inspect and look into the staff if they are committing illegal acts or if any laws are broken.

Although Welch’s statement on the persistent strain of the pandemic has caused hospitals to ask for more nurses to help out and take care of patients is valid, his argument fails to realize that the need for staff is not solely due to the pandemic that has gone through these past 2 years. This argument has not stated that there was already a shortage of nurses pre-pandemic and that the healthcare system is already crippled. Welch has also claimed in his argument that the nurses are taking advantage of difficult circumstances to increase profit and need an investigation. Although the point is valid that staff should be inspected in cases of any broken laws, this argument fails to realize that this is just supply and demand. If nurses got paid more, then more nurses would come back and help patients. The argument in Welch’s document was more worried about the large amount of payment that the hospital has to pay for that traveling nurse. It’s more important that nurses pay more attention to what the staffing agency is paying versus what nurses are taking home. To summarize, the solutions to improve nurse staffing are that healthcare organizations need to focus on retaining nurses, Employers should allow RNs to collaborate to design flexible staffing plans, according to the American Nurses Association (ANA). When deciding on nurse staffing, employers should consider the following factors: Patients' conditions are determined by their complexity, acuity, or stability. The degree of nursing education, knowledge, and abilities.