Assignment: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly. Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice. Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization. To Prepare: Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs. The Assignment (4-5 pages): Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following: Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics. Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples. Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations. Resources: https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Awareness.html ***(Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.)*** This is the national healthcare issues/ stressors we examined in my assignment for Module 1 Current Healthcare Issues According to Gerardi, Farmer, & Hoffman (2018), “the American Organization of Nurse Executives has been made to increase the proportion of nurses with a bachelor of science in nursing or higher degree to 80% by 2020.” Given this, hospitals across the nation are accepting the responsibilities of identifying and developing efficient strategies towards training and providing help for nurses to achieve a higher education in their workforce. Over the last few years, the hospital facility that I work in has practiced hiring higher educated nursing staff to attend patients as opposed to those who only obtain a high school diploma. There are flyers on many of the bulletins for those who have already been employed to be encouraged to achieve a higher degree program. For those who apply for the bachelor’s program, the facility reimburses nurses for some of their tuition costs so that they wouldn’t be discouraged to attend or drop out because of finances. There are also programs that nurses can attend if they have already graduated with an Associates degree, which is called the fast-track diploma. This program is offered for a 15-month term and has options for both RN and BSN programs. Given that patient population is becoming more diverse, it is imperative that nurses are knowledgeable on the topics concerning their patients outside of health. For instance, to gain a standard knowledge of cultural backgrounds, religious affiliations as it relates to health options, and ethnicity differences (Marzuki, Hassan, Wichaikhum, & Nantsupawat, 2012). Nurses must possess more skills, knowledge, and competencies to deal with the challenges that arise in their field because of how the way our world changes so quickly. Having incompetent nurses in the field can become detrimental to the healthcare facility as well as the patients who are being looked after (Marshall, E., & Broome, 2017). This is due to the poor quality of services given to patients, miscommunication, misguidance, and misunderstandings because the nurses aren’t caught up with the nursing world as it is today that a higher degree program can help them achieve. Having a demoted workforce and nurses not understanding the patient population as what it is today can prevent patients from receiving quality care, safety measures may be at stake, and untrained staff members means more likely mistakes could occur with medications, equipment operations, and so forth. References Gerardi, T., Farmer, P., & Hoffman, B. (2018). Moving closer to the 2020 BSN-prepared workforce goal. American Journal of Nursing, 118(2), 43–45. Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer. Marzuki, M. A., Hassan, H., Wichaikhum, O., & Nantsupawat, R. (2012). Continuing nursing education: best-practice initiative in nursing practice environment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 60, 450-455. **Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs** This is the feedback I received from one of my colleagues. You do not have to respond to this. Detrice Flake RE: Discussion - Week 3 Lenick, great post. I agree that more adequate training and education should be given to nurses to help address the nurse shortage. According to Haegdorens, Bogaert, De Meester, & Monsieurs, 2017, improved nurse staffing and a higher proportion of nurses with bachelor degrees reduced the likelihood of hospitalized patients dying within 30 days of admission. With more nurses obtaining advanced degrees, healthcare facilities should offer incentives for nurses to stay after graduation. A competing need is that healthcare facilities are unable to hire adequate staff and offer competitive salaries due to financial restraints. With abundant job opportunities for nurses in this era of workforce shortages and rising demand, nurse retention and turnover are big problems. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections survey estimates there will be 204,000 job openings per year for registered nurses from 2016 to 2026. High numbers of job opening for registered nurses means employment opportunities will be plentiful (Faller & Gogek, 2018). To retain nurses, healthcare facilities should address workload issues, provide training and development, and involve nurses in decision making. Reference Faller, M., & Gogek, J. (2018). Troubling Trend: Fewer Nurses May Be Seeking Higher Education. Nurse Leader, 16(3), 186–189. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.m... Haegdorens, F., Van Bogaert, P., De Meester, K., & Monsieurs, K. G. (2019). The impact of nurse staffing levels and nurse’s education on patient mortality in medical and surgical wards: an observational multicenter study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 864. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1186/s12...