Grand Canyon University: NRS 451V
July 7, 2013
Nursing leadership as well as managers are constantly struggling with staffing issues; it is rare to hear a nurse manager say, “I have more staff than I know what to do with.” That would be a dream I am sure for any manager. Imagine coming to work and not wondering if you have enough staff to cover the number of patients. Imagine working with a group of confident nurses that are secure in their skills and practice. Now we come back to reality, there are 5 licensed nurses for 40 cardiac telemetry patients. You fear there is going to be a drastic occurrence with a ratio of 8 to 1. You try to keep morale high as well as fears …show more content…
Management sees this as a financial drain, nursing leadership sees this as an unknown nurse coming in to help, but this person is also making double what regular staff is making and has to minimize the negative comments that occur. One example; “ She is making double what I do, why should I have to continue to take 8 patients and still work weekends, make them do it.” A good manager in this writers opinion would reply with, this person makes more than you, yes, but they are only here temporarily, this person gets paid more to give up their home and not know where they will be 10 weeks from now. Travel nurses; also do not receive any type of hospital benefits, management is looking for stable, local staff to take this persons …show more content…
It gives employee 's the chance to move up levels and know what goals need to be accomplished in order to move to the next level. A new employee would be considered a white belt, just learning company policies and procedures, where as a seasoned employee could be a black belt confident in skills, policy and procedure, looking to improve them to a champion level within the company. Currently at this writers present job she is a white belt. Although confident in nursing skills, this is still a new company with new policies and procedures to learn.
In conclusion, travel nurses or any type of contract employee is needed. Help is not always readily available, but is always needed. Contractual employees provide a great service to an emergent need. Current staff needs to feel confident that they are not being replaced by contract employee 's only that these staff is there to help while there is the need. Once the need is no longer there the contract staff will leave and the team will become even stronger working together as a group, and also that knows, no one is being given more than the