Introduction
The nursing profession is massively demanding, requiring professionals to make massive personal sacrifices to achieve professional goals. The job of nurses presents significant difficulties, given the minimal goodwill of healthcare managers to hire a sufficient workforce to cater to the needs of the sick (Schwenker, 2022). Healthcare managers also fail to provide sufficient material resources as a matter of negligence, making the work of nurses tough. The low number of nurses catering to a large number of patients renders the professionals overworked, sometimes having to attend to overtime. This strains their personal lives and health, mostly predisposing them to mental health challenges. Nurses additionally suffer the risk of needle-prick injuries, which jeopardize their health (Aly et al., 2019). Nurses are also underappreciated, receiving pay that is not commensurate with the work they perform. To tackle the challenges faced by nurses, there is a need for healthcare managers to hire nurses and curb the deficit while providing the necessary resources.
Bridging the Labor Gap
Bridging the labor gap in the nursing profession involves hiring more nurses to cater to the massive number of patients in need of professional care. Increasing the number of nurses is likely to reduce the burden on practicing nurses, ensuring they remain healthy enough to discharge their mandate. Hiring more nurses means more attention is given to the patients, ensuring patient-centered care is achieved and the environment in which nurses perform their duties remains healthy (Haddad et al., 2022). Increasing the number of nurses in practice is also likely to enable the nurses to have thriving personal and social lives, hence, greater prosperity for the professionals. Increasing the number of nurses does not have to be done once; but instead, the process can occur progressively, with the healthcare managers making gradual improvements. Hiring more nurses is likely to ensure more time for the nurses to advance their education, better their skills, and serve the sick people in the community better.
Increasing the number of nurses means greater pay is directed to the nursing profession and this means that more money is dedicated to healthcare from public coffers. This could mean a greater strain on the taxpayer through increased taxation and tougher living standards. This challenge can be negated through the redistribution of funds from other sectors (Carman et al., 2020). The diversion of funds should be done after a comprehensive analysis of the budgetary allocation process to ensure this crucial sector is addressed sufficiently. This will ensure that money is taken from less impactful sectors of the economy and diverted to nursing. The controversy around such a decision is massive and an understanding of the importance of the healthcare sector will dispel the worries.
Provision of Sufficient Material Resources
The provision of sufficient material resources is an indispensable component of bettering the nursing profession as the practice is likely to serve patients better. Material resources include sufficient protection gear for the nurses to ensure their health is better catered for while attending to ill people. Nurses are usually victims of infectious diseases while discharging their mandate, and this harms their health (Aly et al., 2019). Personal protective equipment that includes scientific face masks is essential in diminishing the spread of these diseases. Nurses also require better care for their hands to ensure needle stick injuries are minimized, better protecting them from blood-borne diseases (Edmonds et al., 2020). Sufficient personal protection equipment is likely to promote closer relationships between patients and nurses, making healthcare delivery better. It additionally makes the healthcare environment in which nurses discharge their duties healthier, bettering performance.
The challenge to providing sufficient material resources for the nursing profession lies in the inadequate allocation of resources for healthcare. This challenge can be negated through the increase in personal costs incurred by the patients who require nurses to have such equipment. This will ensure that nurses are never lacking in personal protection equipment when offering their services (Moradi et al., 2021). The United States healthcare system is characterized by a robust health insurance mechanism that ensures out-of-pocket costs are minimal. The equipment used by the nurses for the care of the patients can be billed from the total cost so the insurer pays more. This will curb the problem of inadequate resources while also minimizing the wastage of this crucial equipment through efficient follow-up.
Conclusion
In conclusion, nurses are some of the most overworked members of the American labor force. They also discharge their mandate in an environment that puts a reasonable strain on their mental well-being. This environment is unfavorable for work and makes the administration of patient-centered care difficult. Tired and overworked nurses cannot guarantee sufficient effectiveness in their work and there is a need to hire more nurses to ensure the workforce meets the demands. Nurses are also predisposed to infectious diseases, amongst other blood-borne conditions, through needle pricks. This challenge can be negated through the provision of these essential personal protective equipment for the nurses. The financial challenge presented by both decisions may provide an unprecedented strain on the taxpayer. The difficulties can be combated through increased allocations to nursing by reviewing the budgetary allocation process and getting funds from other sectors. The insurer can also become tasked with the provision of personal protective equipment to better care for nurses. This will ensure a better environment for the nurses and promote patient-centered healthcare.
References
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Haddad, L. M., Toney-Butler, T. J., & Annamaraju, P. (2022). Nursing shortage. NCBI; StatPearls Publishing. Web.
Moradi, Y., Baghaei, R., Hosseingholipour, K., & Mollazadeh, F. (2021). Challenges experienced by ICU nurses throughout the provision of care for COVID‐19 patients: A qualitative study. Journal of Nursing Management. Web.
Schwenker, M. (2022). Effects of Inadequate Nurse Staffing and Need for Standard Nurse-to-Patient Ratios to Increase Patient Safety in Acute Care Settings. The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses. Web.