Applying Nursing Theory to Resolve Staff Shortages Essay

Description of the Problem

Staff shortage in nursing has been a global issue for some time, particularly for American mental health institutions. It has had a significant negative impact on the quality of psychiatric nursing care, the well-being of practicing nurses, and the American healthcare system in general. A study by Jun et al. (2021) shows that burnout among nurses correlates with lower quality of care and patient safety rates and negatively impacts the working environment and morale inside their unit. Despite governmental economic support and universities encouraging the pursuit of a nursing career, professional dissatisfaction of the nursing staff, high burnout rates, and stressful working environments contribute to a growing number of retiring nurses. Specific challenges associated with psychiatric nursing cause high turnover rates leading to a constant lack of young qualified, and motivated staff (Wampole et al., 2020). The economic implications of high nurse turnover are significant, costing $37,700 to $58,400 per nurse (Jun et al., 2021). For the United States, a loss of up to forty billion dollars annually is estimated as a result of burnout-induced nurse turnover. This situation leads to a closed circle of increasing burnout rates among practicing nurses, having severe consequences for patients, nurses, and the nursing care system (Fontaine et al., 2021). Those include job dissatisfaction, feelings of low personal accomplishment, loss of confidence, a decline in general health, patients’ dissatisfaction with the quality of nursing care, increased patient injury and mortality ratios, and increased malpractice claims. Issues associated with nurses’ burnout can severely affect the American healthcare system locally and nationally.

Nursing Theory

Kanter’s theory of structural empowerment is a potential tool to resolve at least partially the issues contributing to the nurses’ burnout and subsequent staffing shortages. According to the theory, properly structuring the work environment makes nurses feel empowered to implement their duties in ways that coincide with their views, methods, and expected goals. The guiding principles of the theory are recognizing each member’s strong sides and preferable methods of achieving a common goal, understanding personal and collective responsibility and involvement, mutual respect, and collaboration. Structural empowerment includes access to information and resources, receiving support, and having the opportunity to improve professionally. Access to information implies having the required knowledge for the job. Access to resources involves having the necessary material means and time.

Receiving support includes feedback and guidance from colleagues. Opportunity to improve refers to the opportunity for growth and movement within the organization and to increase relevant skills. Giving nurses decision-making autonomy, access to information and opportunities, necessary resources, and support grants them strong motivation and job satisfaction (Zhang et al., 2018). As a result, nurses show a high job attitude, and professional and personal confidence, leading to a healthier and more sustainable working environment.

Application of Theory

We selected Kanter’s theory of structural empowerment to propose possible solutions for the issue of staffing shortages in psychiatric nursing. Creating a sustainable and comfortable working environment for nurses is essential to avoid conditions that lead to professional burnout. The selected theory provides a framework for developing a strategy to create such an environment (Al-Hammouri et al., 2021). The proposed strategy involves the following steps.

Compensating tuition and certification training costs, encouraging online courses and mobile educational applications, and providing on-site interactive training for practicing nurses are essential. These steps aim to provide the new and practicing nursing staff with relevant knowledge and skills, promote self-education, and engage them in a broad discussion on new and existing nursing practices.

Material encouragement can involve a bonus pay system for nurses who wish to improve their qualifications and show the best results at later evaluation. Providing privileges for the nurses’ families, subsidizing materials for professional practice development, and equipping the work area with modern equipment would encourage the staff to engage in work with more comfort and dedication (Whittaker et al., 2018). These measures can be implemented by a joint effort of regional governments and health institutions, potentially attracting agents from other areas, including IT specialists, social workers, education facilities, and medical equipment manufacturers.

A healthy work environment should be promoted by encou