Risk management plan proposal for selected topic

Risk Management Plan

The nursing shortage is a well-known problem in many segments in the health care industry. It can often difficult to find a sufficient supply of well-trained nurses sufficient to meet staffing requirements. Nurses are a vital part of the health care system, and a shortage of trained nurses can leave the hospital vulnerable, and due to the shortage of staff there is often a heavier workload expected from the existing employees. One of the major concerns about the shortage of nurses and the consequent workload on the serving nurses and staff is that it can ultimately effect the maintenance of safety practices in the organization. This in turn, can leave the organization perpetually in a state of risk. Overworked nurses, or nurses who have to attend to an increased number of patients, often have to make sacrifices and cannot give adequate attention to each patient as is warranted for proper nursing care. Therefore, the safety of patients is affected and consequently the organization and stakeholders in a more general sense.

One issue related to the rationing of care is the bad publicity that is associated with it. The idea of healthcare rationing is often an emotional and/or politically charged issue in many circles, the frequency of patterns of implicit rationing are not well-understood. However, despite the perceptions of the rationing of care, it is actually a fairly common process. One study conducted in Texas found that some degree of rationing on at least one of the nursing care activities was reported by almost all of the respondents and most rationed multiple activities; also rationing preference patterns favor completion of activities directed to meet immediate physiological needs over other activities (Jones, 2015). Nurses must decide, on a personal level, where to best devote their time at many points throughout the day and what priorities to give to certain issues that they encounter.

Despite the fact that implicit rationing is prevalent, there are many instances in which this practice can be exaggerated due to the lack of resources that can put the organization at risk. For example, studies into nursing care rationing indicate that nurses always ration their time and care, resulting to serious threats to the quality of care and patient safety; for example, patient mobilization, hygiene, feeding, communication, patient support, teaching and discharge planning, surveillance and care documentation are regularly lacking or omitted (Papastavrou, 2013). It is often the case that the level of appropriate care is something of a subjective metric, however with less resources available, it is more likely that an implicit rationing of care can be construed as practices that are more consistent with neglect and poor health outcomes that can leave an organization and its stakeholders liable for any significant problems or errors that could result from such a situation.