What do you feel is a major challenge facing nursing today - Essay Example

Insert Introduction The major challenge currently facing nursing is the challenge of meeting patient expectations. Research indicates that generally one out of three patients who stay at least overnight in a hospital end up complaining of the nurses’ unavailability or poor/ slow response to patients’ needs, requests and emergencies. As the population of the elderly nurses continues to soar and as healthcare costs continue to rise, this problem is going to worsen and deteriorate further. Questions linger as to what will happen when majority of elderly nurses begin to retire (Zhan, 68).

The current situations as it is has seen nurses being stretched thin, with very unworkable shift programs rendering them largely unable to meet the needs and demands of their patients, even as they themselves would wish to and are capable of. In addition, the current overcrowding of the Emergency Departments as a result of blood tests and other diagnostic procedures continue to slow patient flow and retards performance and availability of nurses. This development above is aggravated further with the recent trend in nursing, where advanced degrees are no longer optional.

Nurses are now forced to pursue master’s degree which only eventually scares away potentially great workforce, and thereby consequently reducing number of nurses and exacerbating short staffing in medical centers. Competition for human resources by other less strenuous and well-paying courses has also seen to a shift in interests from this field, over time (Zhan, 70-80). The challenge of meeting patient expectation however does not solely lie with the mechanisms surrounding nursing and the circumstances that continue to impact it.

Instead, it is also a result of patient factors and diversity issues. This is not to imply that nurses are allowed to be negligent and incompetent but on the contrary argues that even the best efforts by nurses can go amazingly unnoticed and unappreciated by patients whose demands are “out of this world”. Patients may also have issues they may take out on the nurses particularly during their hospital visits. Nurses may therefore feel fatigued as a result, and in the process even the best and dedicated nurses are left reeling and battered in thoughts of inadequacy, unprofessionalism and low self-esteem.

This can produce a negative effect on general performance and injure good relations of nurses toward their patients (Zhan, 83-85). Some of the few solutions that can be implemented to correct this problem are: to embark on a rampant promotion of nursing as a career in institutions, through campaign programs to lure the young; to keep available nurses happy and valued with reduced workloads and better pay; to embark on short term and long term endeavors to increase staffing; to conduct extensive nurse training programs; and to and minimize the time taken for nurses to train and be certified to practice while not compromising on the quality of training and nurses produced (Zhan, 345-400).

Works CitedZhan, Lin. Accelerated Education in Nursing Challenges, Strategies, and Future Directions. New York: Springer Pub. Co., 2012: 67-96 & 345-400. Print.