There are many issues faced in areas where subacute care is needed, but one of the main ones is that there is a shortage with nurse
There are many issues faced in areas where subacute care is needed, but one of the main ones is that there is a shortage with nurses. There is a shortage of nurses and this is probably due to the fact that depending on where they live they are under paid. Not only are they under paid but even though we are now in 2019, female nurses get paid less than male nurses and also suffer discrimination and abuse mostly from patients. Due to the shortage of nurses, there nurses face working longer shifts than they are supposed to which is also a hazard to themselves, the patients, and the work area. When nurses work very long hours without a break they are at risk of making unintended mistakes whether it be giving wrong medication, writing the wrong thing on the patient’s chart, mixing patient’s up, etc. It’s a bad situation when there are many people who need to be taken care of and there aren’t many nurses, the wait time is longer and this is when patient’s become frustrated and abusive towards them. I believe that being that nurses are always needed, something should be done about the nurse’s pay in order to call more attention to the position and get more people interested again like they used to be. Programs should also be made available. When I had to choose a high school at the end of middle school, we were given 4 programs to choose from, medical, law, fashion, and shop. Many of the students who took the medical program went on to good schools with the help of the medical program director and ended up working in the medical field. I feel that programs like this should continue to be offered.
· One of the most discussed issues involving Human Resources and healthcare today is staff shortages. According to the text, subacute care is comprehensive, cost-effective inpatient level of care for patients who have experienced an acute (or traumatic) event. Therefore, patients in subacute facilities demand a higher sense of urgency when providing care. For example, two patients are admitted into a subacute facility for multiple wounds and maintenance of antibiotic therapy. The task of providing quality care for these patients may require nursing staff to be in each patients’ room for 45 minutes to an hour. That’s 2 hours one nurse is off the floor while other nursing needs still require attention. Subacute facilities suffering from staff shortages poses a huge problem to the maintenance of quality care for the patients and the overall wellbeing of the facility not only for the facility but the staff working under those conditions.
Because nursing staff are under intense pressure to continue to meet the demands of these patients with little to no support can lead to other issues such as high staff turnover rates, burnout, low patient turnover rate. Solutions to the issue of staff shortages are pretty obvious. Facilities must be willing to encourage their employees with generous and competitive salaries and benefits packages for new employees. This would work to resolve the high staff turnover rate. Maintain a consistent but vigorous hiring process. Keeping staff in constant rotation can help offset the staff shortages while lowering the turnover rate and increasing productive and patient satisfaction. Thank you