Summary

Schools have presently begun graduating enough nurses to prevent future job deficiencies. Partly due to the increasing demand for nurses. However, the National Health Service (2011) states that 10,000 nurses retire each year. A number expected to increase by 40,000 new nurses every year by 2025 (Sephel, 2011) due to the unsatisfactory staff levels nurses are being subjected to. A solution that can help improve this current problem is increasing the number of immigrant nurses.

The study organized by Baumann and his associates shows that Candian born applicants or applicants with Canadian experience are often favored over immigrant job applicants who frequently end up being overlooked (2021). This study has found that the education, work experience, and skills of immigrants are in many cases ignored, undervalued, or not accurately assessed by those that oversee hiring. It is important for healthcare organizations to learn to value and produce diversity in their practices and cultures to be able to provide a solution to the present shortage of healthcare workers.

Problem

Burnout, lack of residency programs, transition shock, lack of training support available, doubts about one’s own abilities and difficulty adapting to the nursing culture are all things that have contributed to present job shortages in nursing. Aiken and his associates (2002) observed that when nurses begin to be subjected to unsatisfactory staff levels, they tend to leave their job positions, resulting in the turnover rate for new nurses being high. Earlier published research showed the need for nurses in 2025 to be between 500,000 to 1,000,000 (Sephel, 2011), without including the net of dropouts, retirement, and graduation rates. The growing supply of nurses with an almost complete lack of transition training is an issue that will cause frustration among new graduates, if not solved. This could lead to negative effects on retention and supply; if not taken care of, it could result in a severe and long-term shortage of healthcare workers which will raise the possibility of missed care or patient mortality (Kaihlanen et al., 2020).

Solution

Vision

Increasing professional satisfaction among nurses is essential to maintaining presently experienced nurses. This is not possible if organizations cannot hire more nurses to reduce stress, overwork, and burnout causing high turnover rates. It is a necessity now more than ever to find a solution that can solve this problem in a quick manner, to allow for time to fix all the other existing problems that are leading to these turnover rates and low increasing levels of job satisfaction.

Objectives

I believe that the best approach to the current shortage of healthcare staff would be to increase the number of immigrant nurses. According to Baumann and his associates, this increase would strengthen and support the healthcare system by providing the ability to care for a diverse population that is constantly increasing (2021). Their study demonstrated how providing employment to immigrant nurses should not be hard since there are many benefits that come with the jobs such as quality of life, financial stability, personal and family security. Other benefits that were discussed include immigrants being provided with means to connect with their communities and contribute to the current economy.

An important benefit that comes with an increase of immigrant nurses is that, as Baumann and his associates stated, immigrant nurses can strengthen the competence of their respective organizations helping a large variety of people and increasing cultural capacity in their respective  work environment as they often have unique experiences from which everyone can learn. A diverse health care system can help make sure health organizations are prepared to respond to unusual scenarios.

Human Resources

Baumann and his associates found that the majority of Internation Nurses entered this country under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, a program that selects immigrants based on their ability to contribute to the economy and their skills (2021). Their study showed that even though this program was created for the purpose of providing quick access to jobs, immigrants often find themselves stuck looking for employment even with the profession being in high demand. Baumann and his associates estimated that immigrants, because of the challenges they face with employment, experience an annual wage loss of more than $12 billion. They found that Immigrant nurses with at least some Canadian experience are more likely to find employment. These hiring practices end up resulting in discrimination amongst immigrant healthcare workers. An immigrant nurse experience is as good as canadian experience; this is an important concept that must be understood to be able to increase the number of immigrant nurses and decrease the high turnover rates that are being experienced by today’s society.

Conclusions

There is a current shortage of healthcare workers that is having negative impacts in the workforce. A first step to solve this problem should be increasing the number of immigrant HealthCare workers. Baumann and his associated have proved that accelerated hiring, diversification, and integration of skilled immigrants should be a priority when planning to increase the immigration of healthcare workers and a concern due to the current high demand for healthcare workers in the workforce that will continue to get worse if nothing is done about it.

References

Aiken, L., Clarke, S., Sloane, D., Sochalski, J., & Silber, J. (2002). Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288(16), 1987-1993. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/195438

Baumann, A., Crea-Arsenio, M., Ross, D., & Blythe, J. (2021). Diversifying the health workforce: a mixed methods analysis of an employment integration strategy. Human Resources for Health, 19(1), 62–62. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-021-00606-y

Hairr, D. C., Salisbury, H., Johannsson, M., & Redfern-Vance, N. (2014). Nurse staffing and the relationship to job satisfaction and retention. Nursing Economic, 32(3), 142–147. https://go-gale com.sandford.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=AONE&id=GALE%7CA375581349&v=2.1&it=r&enforceAuth=true&linkSource=delayedAuthFullText&userGroupName=pet28417

Kaihlanen, A.-M., Elovainio, M., Haavisto, E., Salminen, L., & Sinervo, T. (2020). Final clinical practicum, transition experience and turnover intentions among newly graduated nurses: A cross sectional study. Nurse Education Today, 84, 104245–104245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.104245

Sephel, A. (2011). Digging deeper: nurse excess or shortage? The effect on a new nurse. Journal of Professional Nursing, 27(6), 390–393. https://www-sciencedirect-com.sandford.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S8755722311000494