Reflection on a Clinical Experience on Staffing Challenge

Reflection on a Clinical Experience on Staffing ChallengeDescription.As a requirement of my treat course, am writing an essay on an hazard that happened during my clinical experience. This was in a Tier 4 public infirmary which serves a whole county within the republic in a thickly populated argona that has a population of 10 million multitude as per the latest censes of 2009. It also serves the neighboring counties. It has all the prescribed operate of a tier 4 hospital a subprogram from an Intensive do Unit (ICU), and a Renal Unit of which those requiring this service are referred to the sp presents National Hospital and are escorted by the applys on duty.I reported to carry one and only(a) Satur daylight, a day after account in this institution for very first time on whirling as per the nursing council requirement as partial fulfillment for the nursing degree course, in a medical cellblock that had seventy twain inpatient roles the previous day. To receive us was the night duty staff who affirm that there were only 2 of us to man the ward, a occupant nurse and I.As the report was macrocosm read, I noted that 2 patients were waiting for blood transfusion and still other(a)s needed to be aid with activities of daily living, and at the same time it was reported from the outpatient department (OPD), that we ready beds to receive patients from them.After the report, those on night duty left hand and the resident physician nurse allocated the duties. She assigned me to administer medication, while she recollect outs burster of all the other duties.I asked her how this was possible of which she replied calmly and self-confidently that on this day, we were all overstaffed as around quantify during the pass only one nursing staff reports and that everything was liberation to be just fine. She was happy to have me aroundI managed to pronto mentally adjust to this new and unfamiliar setting and hoped for the best.We started off by assi sting those that involve assistance in activities of daily living and tidying up the ward and then I immediately started off with the drug round alone. closely half of the patients were on injectable medication meaning that I had to sign on time to restitute and calculate the doses as prescribed, taking care of contagious disease prevention.The administration of drugs took too great noting that those that had a prescription of eight hourly administration of drugs as per this particular institution should get their doses between 9am and 10am save by the time I was through, it was almost 12.30pm meaning that those that got drugs after 11am were cardinal hours late yet it was the best I could do given the fortune as the resident nurse was busy with new ad cathexiss and attending to those that had been complete as relatives complained of being kept too long before being attended too.FeelingsAs the report was being read, I was wondering how the twain of us were meant to mintl e all the patients efficiently and effectively in coition to patient care outcome, not mentioning that we were also meant to admit those who would present during the day. Were we going to be seasonably in administering drugs? How would we handle an emergency arising in the middle of all the procedures awaiting us? How could the nurse manager leave and be settled wherever she was with such(prenominal) a situation in the ward?As a nurse, am aware that quality of care is more big than quantity yet these twain should go hand in hand for positive productivity to be matte. Here I felt that the nurse manager had not forecasted on the staffing requirement for the unit which ought to be as indicated by the following, states,breast feeding staffing methodology should be an orderly, systematic process, based upon live rationale, applied to determine the number and kind of nursing personnel required to provide nursing care of a predetermined standard to a group of patients in a partic ular setting. The end result is a prediction of the kind and number of staff required to give care to patients (Adelotte Ro accustomll, 2009).When learning as a student it was made clear that two nurses should be assigned administration of drugs as a team so as to counter check on the same and as per the Kenya Nursing Council Procedure Manual 2010. Also with the blood transfusion pending procedure, two nurses were required.I felt very inadequate and un nimble to face the day partly beca usance I had not fully familiarized with these new milieu and to me, this was a very big institution to be have had such a noticeable shortage of nursing staff. This is in reference to this institutions mission that reads To Promote And Provide Quality Curative, Preventive And Rehabilitative wellness function for All Kenyans making me feel that the organization in this unit did not put into consideration quality of service but rather left it to fete. According to Rousell (2009), organizations exi st to bring people and material to accomplish the work of the organization which should also allow for personal adjustment, which to me did not be to be observed as this was my second day in the say hospital.I feared that I would not deliver quality services and that the patients would find fault in me as I felt I would cargo deck on enquiring from the resident nurse on areas that I was not certain. ratingWhat was positive about this situation is that I worked with what I had, here meaning limited consultation. The resident nurse was very supportive with excellent social communication skills as she treated me with respect and as her equal, and provided me with a draft orientation on how to go about it, giving me confidence to take up the task with ease. I took it positively and interacted with patients very comfortably and at the end of it all I enjoyed my achievement and felt secure to bear the same task should it so arise.Good communication skills are necessity in mentoring new staff as advantageously as goes a long instruction in removing barriers and obstacles to effective teamwork (Gullatte, 2011). This was what motivated me to carry on with the assigned activity without complaining.The nurse delegated this task to me which is an efficient time cin one casern tool and made me comfortable by reassuring me that she would be accountable and responsible to everything that I did and that she would be present in the ward in case of anything. I learnt that self-confidence coupled with a pleasant confident manager is in itself very motivating and felt I would use this skill in future.The patients were very relaxed and some going out of their bureau to assist me lift those that needed a little help as they took their medication. It made me realize how passionate patients can be once they wait and get to know one another and that they feel helpful once they are allowed to assist.What was negative is that it took too long to accomplish one appointee and that almost three quarters of the patients got their treatment late and did not chew up a voice, maybe because they do not know of the right to timely services or are too intimidated to do so. This to me was an respectable issue that needed to be addressed as the full service of medication was compromised as a direct result of understaffing. One of the ethical issues in nursing is distributive justice meaning giving a person that which is deserved (Sullivan Decker, 2007). They did not deserve to get medication late.remnant setting for both long and short term are stated in price of what the patient and the nurse leave behind accomplish providing counselor-at-law and vision for actions and time frames (WHO, 2010).This to me had not been factored in as the duties were being prepared which left room for risks arising that would cost the patients a lot in terms of long recovery time plus maybe subject them to long hospital stay.This hospital is a t for each oneing institution whereby nursing and other health service providing students come for practice and internship during the weekdays and I could not experience why all the students in all the basic schools are allowed weekend offs. To the best of my understanding, this was the best time to introduce students to the unique working times of health care workers as health issues are not adjust by the time of the day but rather by the enquire of the services.I am looking at an opportunity of balancing students passim the week in contrast to allowing them to overcrowd specific days as had been the case the previous day and overworking the resident nurse over the weekend. I feel that this would have eased the burden had students been allocated weekends as part of their training.I strongly agree that,Addressing the nursing shortage requires a resolution to the total number of nurses but also the level of nurses education due to the fast growing demand and complex patient care, technologies, and a widening scope of knowledge and expertise (McHugh, 2010).ConclusionAt the end of the day I was left with mixed feelings on one hand that I had provided services to the best of my ability given the preponderating constraints, and on the other, that the patients didnt get the kind of quality care meant to be rendered due to staffing shortage.I feel that since decision making is a make function in management, this institution, should as a temporary measure structured students in rendering services during the weekends under supervision as happens during weekdays starting time off with simple tasks and scaling up responsibilities as they gain confidence.I feel that the nurse managers and the administration ought to call in the policy makers in this county with a well-defined document ,in it the international standards of staffing as per the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations in the Workload Indicators Staffing Needs (WISN),It is a method of clement resource management tool that provideshealth managers with a systematic way to make staffing decisionsIn order to manage human resource well and is based on healthworkers workload with activity (time) standards applied for eachworkload component (WHO,2010).The manager should at this sitting have make up out the external standards of nursing as developed by non-nurses here meaning the county government in question as I suppose they also do have expected practice by the same. This is in confirmation by Burkhardt Nathaniel,( 2008) who have demonstrated that External standards of nursing standards are guides for nursing developed by the government or institutions describing expectations of agencies or groups that utilize services for nurses. This could go a long way in advocating for hiring of more nurses and is a better platform to effecting productive changes in the running of health services than the industrial actions that nurses undertake due to frustrations other than strikes.According to Rousell (2009), on that point is strong evidence that adequate number of nursing staff unattached to care for and coordinate care among the disciplines has an impact on patient outcomes.I want to acknowledge here that from accounts from fellow colleagues, nursing shortage is felt in most institutions but this particular experience was almost horrifying. runThe action plan for me and the entire team is to acquire the WHO, WISN manual and use this tool to make a workable staffing outline and call in the county health committee and present our findings in comparison with the actual on the ground and help make recommendations so that as the policy makers figure for the next financial year, they be advised by this document which will have been prepared by the stakeholders in addition to re- distributing student nurses end-to-end the week.ReferenceBurkhardt, M.A, Nathaniel, A.K. (2008).Ethics and Issues in Contemporary Nursing. (3rd ed.).United Kingdom Delmar.Gullatte, M, M. (2011), Nursing Manageme nt Principles and utilize (2nd ed), ONS AtlantaMcHugh, D. (2010), Hospital Staffing and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Implications for policy DOI 10 111/J 1525-1446.2010.00877X Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc 2998349Tomey, A, M (2009), Nursing Management and leadership (8th ed) Mosby, Indiana.WHO, (2010). Workload Indicators of Staffing Needs (WISN), ISBN ISBN 978 92 4 1500197.