Top Challenges Facing Nursing Profession 21st Century and how to overcome them
Read on to find out more about challenges facing nursing profession 21st century and how to overcome them
Long shifts, sleepless hours, and painful feet have been problems for nurses since Florence Nightingale’s time. Moreover, the arrival of the twenty-first century has brought with it a new set of obstacles that nurses must learn to conquer if they are to advance in their careers. This leaves them wondering if the challenges faced in today’s nursing can be improved using lessons from the past.
Nursing is one of the most rewarding and challenging professions in health care. With the increase in infectious diseases and overwhelming workload, nurses have voiced out feeling stressed and overworked, this also from the decrease in staff, leaving them burnout and mentally exhausted.
The following are the most common challenges facing nursing profession 21st century
Health Risks
Ever since the global pandemic of COVID-19 which took the lives of quite a number of healthcare providers. Nurses were on the front lines of healthcare. They rendered care under challenging conditions. They put their own mental and physical health on the line to help those affected by COVID-19.
The overwhelming number of patients who needed care, combined with a nursing staff shortage, was the icing on the cake of issues nurses faced.
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Lack of knowledge in information technology
One of the most challenging aspects of the Nursing profession in the twenty-first century is the increased necessity to participate in decision-making on health information technologies (HIT) In all parts of nursing, especially clinical nursing, nursing informatics which employs data, information, and knowledge to enhance patient outcomes and healthcare services.
Short-staff crisis
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a nursing shortage in the healthcare business. Stress at work can cause weariness, which can lead to medical mistakes.
Staffing shortages can lead to high patient ratios, which can be problematic in nursing and contribute to poor patient outcomes.
Reasons for the shortage include insufficient pay, nurses reaching retirement age, increase in demand for nurses amongst other factors.
Low pay and inadequate equipment for practice
The long hours and excessive workload which ends in pay that can’t cover average bills are one of the constraints nurses face in recent times, with the current short staffing leaving one nurse to care for more patients thus increase in the work stress, you’ll think the pay would be able to compensate but in reality, nurses are displeased with wages received for the endless work they go through.
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How to overcome these challenges
Every profession is faced with one challenge or the other, and identifying the challenges facing nursing profession 21st century is the first step in overcoming it. The following are ways to overcome challenges faced by nurses;
- Provision of PPE for nurses taking care of highly infectious patients
- Workplace support
- Engaging in professional development
- Prioritize sleep, exercise frequently, and eat healthily
- Pressure facility management to employ more staff
- Find flexible work schedules
- Partake stress coping and management like yoga, talk therapy, and the list goes on
Nurses who understand what it takes to provide the best care to patients qualify to be leaders, and they can take on advanced roles with the right training.
You can still leave a comment on the way forward after learning about the common challenges confronting the nursing profession in the twenty-first century and the solution to the root cause of the problem. If you found this article helpful, please share it with others using the link below.
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