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Healthcare Finance

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Health Services Finance

Recruiting and Retaining Nurses

Health Services Finance HS543ON
June 16, 2011

ISSUE/BACKGROUND With quickly changing demographics, new technologies, limits on resources and public expectations the health care arena is constantly changing at a quick pace (Nowicki, p. 338). The Bureau of Labor statistics reported in April 2011 that despite the recent economic downturn and high unemployment health care is continuing to grow. It was estimated that approximately thirty seven thousand jobs were added in March 2011 alone (AACN). The staffing of registered nurses has been a long time concern due to the fact the shortage greatly affects patient safety as well as quality of care (nysna.org). Studies have shown that adverse patient outcomes have been related to the ineffective nurse staffing as patients have had longer hospital stays, increased infections, and higher mortality rates (Needleman, et al, 2002). To relieve the pressures put on an organization with the shortage many have begun to substitute people who are not as prepared to care for patients. This has been done by hiring temporary nursing services or recruiting foreign nurses who are not familiar with the facility, policies and procedures or the patients ( nysna.org). The ineffective nurse staffing also leads to retaining issues as nurses experience decreased morale, increased stress and anxiety, increased physical ailments, and burnout.
DEFINE THE PROBLEM The problem is that hospitals cannot recruit and/or retain healthcare professionals such as nurses and physicians fast enough in the ever growing healthcare field. With the baby boomers reaching retirement age and becoming eligible for Medicare hospitals need to not only recruit but retain nurses. Nurses are hard to recruit based on low enrollment in nursing school due to low numbers of nurse

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