Acute Shortage of Healthcare Employees -Nurse Leaders

Nursing Shortage

Apart from physicians, nurses are among the essential players in the health sector. The scarcity of healthcare employees is an issue that affects people worldwide and is a concern that, if not addressed, might have major consequences on the quality of health treatment. For instance, the desire to abandon the nursing practice ranges between 4% to 54% of polls by Europe’s Council. Furthermore, nearly 72 percent of nurses consider quitting the nursing practice daily (Bouws et al., 2020). Even if the profession doubled that figure, the people would still have limited access to health care. Job dissatisfaction probably directly influences the intention to quit the profession.

1. Summary of the Article

Bouws et al. (2020) investigated fulfillment in the role of the academic nurse leader, including the impacts of staff shortages. They begin by acknowledging the importance of nurse leaders and their influence in the current nursing practice. However, nursing educators face some serious issues that threaten to influence nursing practice in a good direction, and among them is the national nursing shortage. The authors find from a literature review that even in the 1990s, there were few nurses leaders in academia, a problem that has diffused into the 21^st century.

Generally, the article is solid with a completely professional organization. For instance, the article is based on evidence from comparative analysis and theoretical sampling done from a grounded theory approach. Bouws et al. (2020) followed all the standard journal article writing guidelines, including the abstract, introduction, literature, methodology, results, and reference parts. The paper’s organization is very logical, with all its parts following one another sequentially. Bouws et al. (2020) are cautious to avoid the generalization of the nursing professionals and instead have deliberately referred to nursing leaders throughout the paper. The authors are healthcare professionals and educators from Hope College, Holland, MI, the United States of America, which gives their conclusions credibility, besides the reference page containing updated information sources.

• Critique

Descriptive Vividness

The article is very descriptive and paints a clear picture of the problem, the objectives, the methodology, and the results. It is a very straightforward article to read and understand for any student or professional within the healthcare sector. From a personal experience, reading through the article does not leave information gaps but instead enriches the knowledge available on the issues facing nurse leaders, particularly staff shortages. Every section is substantially described yet precise enough to keep the reader engaged.

Documentation of Participants

            Bouws et al. (2020) conducted the study on 18 participants, as approved by the Hope College Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB). Some participants were recruited through convenience sampling, including 5 deans or directors. Eight were included through purposive sampling based on a selection criterion. Five more were included through a theoretical sampling method, making the total sample population 18 participants. This information is clearly outlined in the journal article, and more details such as the characteristics of the sample are provided.

Methodological Congruence

Using grounded theory, the authors conduct a systematic inductive sampling, collection, and analysis of data. The theory is logical in this case, noting that little is known about nurse leaders and the literature available on the niche is limited. Besides, data was collected through face-to-face interviews, which enabled the collection of substantive amounts of qualitative data.

Ethical Standards

The participants were given the opportunity to consent to the study, putting the ethical responsibility of the authors. This was deemed appropriate, and the study was found ethical and approved by the Hope College Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB). Therefore, the authors conformed to ethical standards of research with human subjects.

Auditability

All the sections of a standard journal article are available in Bouws et al. (2020). Notably, the methodology is clear, including the research approach used, the selection of participants, the procedure, and data collection. The paper has a detailed data analysis section, with graphs and charts that make it easy to interpret the findings.

Analytical and Interpretive Preciseness

            The data analysis section is clear with sub-sections that show all the issues found in the procedures. This theming process is important since it enables readers to interpret the findings and identify how issues within the premise of data collected are interrelated. For instance, in this case, one can find how having a supportive administration and enjoying professional growth in nurse leadership, and lack of mentorship have influenced the acute shortage of nurse leaders.

Heuristic Relevance

            As mentioned earlier, the paper is very descriptive, and any reader, a student or professional, can understand the problem, the methodology, and the analysis. It is easy to understand how nurse leaders are understaffed and why the grounded theory approach is used. Besides, one can connect the paper’s literature review with the findings, which are sufficiently referenced.

• Strengths and Weaknesses

Sone of the study’s strengths includes having a standard journal writing format, a logical methodology, and a clear extensive data analysis. Grounded theory and mythology are relevant to the topic, and the procedure provides results with a high degree of validity. This study is also generalizable in the USA since participants are USA residents. Nevertheless, convenient and purposive sawmilling might have led to selection bias, influencing the direction of results obtained.

• Implications for Practice

Nurse leaders are the staff who interact with nursing students in a more philosophically influential area than the chairpersons or deans. That means nursing educators have the potential to influence the future of nursing practice more than any other stakeholder. The current acute shortage should be addressed to influence positive change.

 References

Bouws, M., Madeira, A., & Streberger, A. (2020). Fulfillment in the role of academic nurse leader: A grounded theory study. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(6), 469–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2020.03.007