Respond to your colleagues who chose a different national healthcare issue/stres
Respond to your colleagues who chose a different national healthcare issue/stressor than you selected. Explain how their chosen national healthcare issue/stressor may also impact your work setting and what (if anything) is being done to address the national healthcare issue/stressor. Include at least 2 scholarly sources of evidence, cited within the body of your discussion responses & at the end of your posting: The healthcare stressor I’ve selected is staffing shortages in the healthcare field. Frontline nursing staff have been on the decline for many reasons: the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing burnout and mental health crisis, and financial factors. Staffing shortages related to frontline staff can have a cascading effect on the quality of healthcare provided, leading to global health issues and coverage for all individuals (Tamata & Mohammadnezhad, 2023). Staffing shortages in healthcare lead to an exacerbation of social determinants of health in our communities. Social determinants of health (SDOH) are nonmedical factors affecting health outcomes, such as where people are born, where they work, live, and age. Economic policies, agendas, social norms, racial and ethnical prejudice, global warming, education, and politics affect SDOH (CDC, 2022). Nurses play a vital role in political change and initiating policy changes. Frontline staff are the first to realize when issues arise within current policies and procedures. When critically low staffing occurs, it can take time to determine what changes need to be made to improve patient outcomes related to current procedures vs outcomes that come from short staffing. With a lack of staff to advocate these political issues, it is impossible for change to be initiated to improve population health (Flaubert et al., 2021). Staffing shortages can create instability within healthcare systems, which can contribute to the inability of workers to initiate change for better healthcare, education, health protection, and growth (Greco et al., 2022). A lack of educational advancements, development, and health protection within healthcare systems can lead to a lack of proper care for patients and worsening patient outcomes. In my current healthcare system, in response to reduced staffing, they have implemented incentives for picking up shifts. These incentives involve increased PTO, as well as hourly rates. With more staff willing to work, this allows for better ratios among staff. One downfall that can occur with this is nursing burnout. My healthcare system has added increased areas throughout the hospital for breaks that allow staff to “step away” from everyday stressors and practice techniques related to deep breathing and self-awareness to calm themselves. Healthcare stressors can contribute to even greater exacerbations related to SDOH. To combat this, it is vital for healthcare workers, leadership, and our communities to intervene and make changes in policies and procedures to promote better healthcare for all.