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How Does Nursing Shortage Affect Patient Care?
June 22, 2021
The popularity of the nursing profession has been on a rise for a long time now. A wide range of varied job opportunities, competitive salaries, and an opportunity to help people are attractive aspects of the nursing profession.
Regardless of the appeal of nursing in Canada, there has been a persistent shortage of nurses in the country. This shortage has negatively affected patient care and the functioning of healthcare organizations. Further, it calls for prompt action centred on increasing the nursing population.
With the aging of baby boomers and many nurses nearing retirement, the shortage is expected to continue. Since this can have severe repercussions on the advancement of the healthcare system in Canada, many opportunities to study nursing in Canada have been introduced for internationally educated nurses. Canada is willing to educate, train, and employ qualified nurses for empowering its healthcare delivery.
Hence, for any international nursing student aspiring to build a successful career, now is the right time to take the leap and enrol in a nursing program.
Explained: How nursing shortage affects patient care
Current Nursing Shortage:
The ongoing and looming nursing shortage in Canada is not a new fact. It has been known for a long time now and extensive efforts are being made to fulfil this shortage, particularly after the COVID-19 widespread. When the numbers of patients increase as compared to the availability of nurses, the ability of nurses to perform their duties gets affected severely, increasing the workload. Since there are fewer nurses on duty, the active nurses have to deal with covering shifts, working for long hours, more stress, and feeling burned out. Problems faced by nurses affect patient care and healthcare delivery in different ways. Some of those are mentioned below.Nursing Shortage Affects Healthcare Delivery:
- Patient Care: The patients are at high risk when there is a nursing shortage. In fact, many times they may also be turned away from hospitals or clinics because there is a shortage of staff to meet their demands.
- Patient Satisfaction: The nursing profession begins with keeping the essence of quality patient care alive all through the treatment. The process of ensuring patient satisfaction starts when the ones who are in need feel taken care of.
- Healthcare Outcome: The nursing shortage affects both, the process of patient care and the outcomes. A high patient-to-nurse ratio is directly proportional to medical errors. When a nurse is stressed because of the amount of work to be done, there are chances of making serious mistakes.
