1
Development of Organizational Policies to Address Competing Needs
NURS-6053N-42: Interprofessional Organizational and Systems
Leadership
, 2
Developing Organizational Policy to Influence Nursing Shortage
Every healthcare organization adopts specific policies and practices that guide the
administrative decisions for attaining specific goals. Organizations often need to develop
resolution strategies or plans when encountering health care issues that may affect organizational
growth. Nursing shortage continues to be a national issue affecting healthcare facilities in the
United States, which triggers the development of policies to satisfy the competing need of
providing quality cost-effective care as well as that of the nursing workforce, which provides the
services. The purpose of this paper is to describe policies and practices that could be adopted to
address the competing need of providing safe and quality care to patients and the need of the
employees who provides the services while considering the scarce resources to keep the
organization in business.
Competing Needs and Nursing Shortage
The primary aim of the healthcare establishments is to provide the target population with
quality, efficient, and safe patient care as possible, but the shortage of nurses is influencing the
attainment of this aim. According to the American Nurses Association (2015), a code of ethics
for nurses with interpretative statements specifies that nurses have the ethical obligation of
implementing and maintaining practices that support safe and quality healthcare. The increasing
nursing shortage affects the provision of quality care to patients as well as the economic growth
of the health care organizations. According to the Agency for Health Research and Quality
(AHRQ) (2019), a disproportionate nurse-to-patient ratio compromises the provision of quality
care, which affects patients’ safety and outcomes. The nursing shortage may be the contributing
factor that forces the healthcare organization to be allocating an increasing number of patients to
a nurse to provide care or due to an organizational intention for profit maximization, especially
Development of Organizational Policies to Address Competing Needs
NURS-6053N-42: Interprofessional Organizational and Systems
Leadership
, 2
Developing Organizational Policy to Influence Nursing Shortage
Every healthcare organization adopts specific policies and practices that guide the
administrative decisions for attaining specific goals. Organizations often need to develop
resolution strategies or plans when encountering health care issues that may affect organizational
growth. Nursing shortage continues to be a national issue affecting healthcare facilities in the
United States, which triggers the development of policies to satisfy the competing need of
providing quality cost-effective care as well as that of the nursing workforce, which provides the
services. The purpose of this paper is to describe policies and practices that could be adopted to
address the competing need of providing safe and quality care to patients and the need of the
employees who provides the services while considering the scarce resources to keep the
organization in business.
Competing Needs and Nursing Shortage
The primary aim of the healthcare establishments is to provide the target population with
quality, efficient, and safe patient care as possible, but the shortage of nurses is influencing the
attainment of this aim. According to the American Nurses Association (2015), a code of ethics
for nurses with interpretative statements specifies that nurses have the ethical obligation of
implementing and maintaining practices that support safe and quality healthcare. The increasing
nursing shortage affects the provision of quality care to patients as well as the economic growth
of the health care organizations. According to the Agency for Health Research and Quality
(AHRQ) (2019), a disproportionate nurse-to-patient ratio compromises the provision of quality
care, which affects patients’ safety and outcomes. The nursing shortage may be the contributing
factor that forces the healthcare organization to be allocating an increasing number of patients to
a nurse to provide care or due to an organizational intention for profit maximization, especially
