Mismanagement of Nurse Staffing-Administrative Issues

Nurse staffing care omission is a rising factor increasing the risk for patient safety in hospitals. Neglecting nurse staffing while scheduling their working hours could be fatal for hospital outcomes. According to a study published by the Wiley Journal of Advanced Nursing, the hospital used understaffing to reduce human resource costs and, therefore, overburdening the nurse staffing to provide utmost care to patients. However, managerial disciplines of the service industry discouraged practices as these are detrimental in the long run.

The omission in the essential care of nurse staffing weakens patient care and increases stress levels among the duty staff. While discussing the overstressed nurse staffing and missed care, it is equally important to highlight the performance of seasonal health administrators who do not have the required qualification. Replacing such administrators with qualified individuals is a durable solution to managerial challenges.

Lowering staff to maximize profit is not a long-lasting strategy but appointing the right person for the right job. So, to make hospital nursing staff more dedicated and efficient in providing care to patients, enabling a working environment is the only solution. And that comes when the medical industry will have qualified professionals to replace accidental or seasonal administrators.

 Where does the problem fall?

The epicenter of the problem is only the nonexistence of qualified health administrators in the health industry's top tiers. Medical professionals with a little bit of know-how are managing the health industry. Such administrators lack the expertise to use the nurse staffing efficiently, but their objective is to overburden the nursing staff to minimize human resource expenditure. As they don't have a professional qualification, they cannot foresee the adverse impact of ill managerial decisions on the overall health industry's overall performance.  

Healthcare Administration

The Problem – research facts and impact of problem

Nurses are subject to general stress due to rigid duty timings and hectic task management. The below table shows the research "healthy business-Managerial Education and Management in Healthcare" findings and the impact of hospital nursing staff stress on hospital management's overall performance.  

Models of Hospital Management 

Exploring the link between hospital management and professional education is essential to meet the existing and future challenges. Before moving to the link analysis, it is necessary to review the current hospital management models.  

The Interdisciplinary Model: 

A hospital manager who has academic achievements in health and economic discipline can play an essential role in addressing a hospital facility's operational and functional challenges. However, health professional thinks this Model isn't capable of steering the highly demanding health sector in the right direction. Health science, financial and administrative roles are quite different. Instead of mixing functions and operational management, a specialized academic degree could offer a durable solution.  

The Functional Areas Model: 

This Model focuses on function instead of operations. It deals with different tiers of management to deliver quality services. Provide technical assistance to improve the functionality of a hospital facility.

It support flexible management style, and more focused on effective use of human resource. Moreover, the model disintegrates the tiers and defines role of each function. Improves controls and support functional management in a hospital to enhance role of human resource.

Taking this model in account, a management team requires efficient delivery of due role. Result oriented job descriptions, training, and technical assistance are pre-requisite for the implementation of this model.

 The Tasks Model:

The tasks model is known as the human resource-centered model. The model is a component of the managerial model but does not cover the overall management. This model is more appropriated to use in Management Information System. The system can inform senior management of the progress of assigned tasks.

Managing a hospital through the tasks model isn't a balanced model indeed. Administration only focuses on assigning and monitoring tasks. There is a lot behind the curtain. Hospital management has multiple operational and functional layers. The task model has to compromise when trained functional or operational management interacts periodically. 

The Patients Centered Model:

Growing demands in the hospital industry require patients centered model instead of a functional model. The patient-centered model guides hospital management on the essential processes that lead a hospital on a performing path. According to a study conducted by BMC Health Services Research, the patient-centered model improves services and supports nurse staffing functions. The research also shows explicit improvement in effectiveness and efficiency in managing nurse staffing. The model promotes a stress-free working environment.

Nurse staffing plays a vital role in strengthening the patient center model, and hospital management cannot ignore the nursing staff if management seeks patients centered model, a successful model. Nurse staffing spends maximum time with patients, and their care means care of the patients in a hospital.

The model cannot afford to omit due care of staff serving to create enabling environment for the patients. Therefore, when we talk about this model to manage the hospital facilities, we are talking about the best managing skills of nurse staffing. 

Are you using the Right Hospital Staffing Model? 

The right hospital model is useless if the health industry lacks professional health administrators. As the staff management of the hospital is a main concerning area of health reforms. Therefore, earning a professional degree is integral for you and the health industry.

The qualification mentioned above will enable you to determine what the right hospital staffing model is? How to measure that the introduced model works well? To whom it works well- first or second, or third tier? It is challenging to answer these questions. Nevertheless, it is easy to answer if you ask management how your patient's satisfaction survey is. Every manager has a reliable response to these questions.

Let's unpack the Collaborative Staffing Model to find the positively impacted problem nurtured in hospital management. 

Collaborative Staffing Model 

Inter-professional cooperation extends patients' outcomes and raises a graph of patient satisfaction up to desires. The model reinforces the synergies to build a great team. It changed fear into cooperative behavior.

In the long run, the model is contributing to the patient-centered model. Decision-makers can not negate the importance of professional staff. Therefore, the promotion of collaboration at workplaces enhances the output of nursing staff, and uplift patients care.

 Supplemental Nurses

10 Best Practices to Manage Nursing Staff 

Conclusion 

It is difficult to respond to the question, "Are you using the Right Hospital Staffing Model? However, it can be possible when you have a professional qualification. Master of Science in Healthcare Program is essential to boost your career in the growing health industry.

Earning a relevant degree will give worth to your career. Currently, the industry is heading to health reforms, and therefore, the demand for qualified health administrative is high. Master of Science in Healthcare Administration program is mainly designed to provide well-equipped administrators to the health industry to flourish in coming decades.