The understaffing of nurses is an issue that has rapidly affected the nursing field of both Australia (locally) and the rest of the world (globally) (Oulton, 2006). The issue has resulted in nurses not being able to successfully achieve our duty and work requirements, comprising the needs and safety of the patients in our care (Twigg, Duffield, Thompson & Rapley, 2010). Due to the issue hindering the role and outcomes of the nurse’s work, nurses cannot successfully contribute to the common good and human dignity (Donley, Grandjean, Jairath, & McMullen, 2006), therefore to address the limited amount of these throughout the issue of understaffing, possible solutions should be explored using advocacy and community engagement.
The issue of understaffing
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As previously discussed, the common good and human dignity hold an important role in the nursing profession and in the role of nurses as well as their influence on patients and their outcomes (Donley et al., 2006). These two CST’s are therefore necessary to be included in the possible solutions to fix the issue as a result of being majorly affected by the issue. Therefore, it is ideal that the possible solutions theorized for this issue include all four CST’s as it will allow for nurses to broaden and regain the importance of their role and influence on others such as their patients, patient’s family and the nursing community (Donley et al., 2006). Through using these CST’s in the solutions, it will reduce the issue of understaffing by increasing the common good and human dignity through the promotion of the positive effect it has on patient’s outcomes and the role of …show more content…
The nursing profession and community engagement are also related to the use of nurses continually educating patients, family members of patients and other staff, in turn, creating awareness of the community, the nursing profession also engages in various areas of the community such as universities, for example letting nursing students into hospitals or other nursing facilities to engage in the community and use their knowledge practically (Beagley, 2011). Due to the issue of understaffing, nurses often do not have the time to sit down with patients to create a therapeutic relationship and educate them correctly as well as not having time to educate the university students on placement (Winslow, 1976), due to this, the principle of community engagement is hindered and therefore should be included in the possible solutions.
• Come up with ways to address this challenge - ways to increase the common good on the issue and fix the issue