Understaffing and poor job satisfaction resulting in higher turnover rates are both crucial problems in contemporary healthcare. Improving communication, collaboration, and teamwork is necessary to avoid the negative results associated with these issues. In particular, team-building exercises, orientation and training programs, and recognition and reward programs will help in preventing burnout and adverse patient outcomes.
Both poor job satisfaction and understaffing have a profoundly negative impact on the functioning of the hospital. Shortage of personnel increases workload quantitatively and makes it harder qualitatively, as nurses have to perform custodian or managerial tasks, which are inconsistent with their training (Yahchus, Ohler, Crowe, Teclaw, & Osatuke, 2017). This tendency relates directly to the second issue – namely, reduced job satisfaction that results in high rates of expected turnover. High workload and abundance of clerical tasks, both produced by understaffing, lead to lower satisfaction and a greater possibility of turnover (Hudgins, 2016).
These two factors lead to adverse patient outcomes, lower patient satisfaction, and burnout among the personnel (Yahchus et al. 2017). To prevent these negative impacts and maintain and improve the quality of care in the hospital despite the existing challenges, it is necessary to address both issues.
Improved communication, collaboration, and teamwork have the potential to reduce or even eliminate the negative impacts of understaffing and reduced job satisfaction. Collaboration between the employees is crucial, as the job satisfaction among nurses is known “to be influenced by the work climate and work relationships” (Hudgins, 2016, p. E63). In particular, the employees are likely to experience greater job satisfaction when they perceive “a strong association between ethical behavior and career success in the organization” (Hashish, 2017, p. 159).
This correlation means that communication is also pivotal for addressing potential turnover, as it ensures that the management and employees share the same vision of the working climate in the hospital. Finally, teamwork is likely the most important component of addressing both issues, as it is conducive to higher job satisfaction and retention and better patient outcomes at the same time (Yahchus et al. 2017). Therefore, bolstering teamwork, collaboration, and communication in the hospital is a necessary prerequisite of improving quality care and addressing staff shortage and poor job satisfaction.
Team-building exercises, orientation and training programs, and recognition and reward programs are the two techniques recommended to address the current challenges. With the hospital understaffed, the primary way to maintain a high quality of care is to improve the effectiveness of teamwork. Team-building exercises lead to better clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction – for instance, they reduce patient falls by approximately 60 percent – meaning that they have considerable potential to compensate for the impact of understaffing (Yahchus et al. 2017). Additionally, team-building exercises have a side effect of increasing job satisfaction and, consequently, reducing potential turnover rates (Yahchus et al. 2017).
Recognition and reward programs are also essential for job satisfaction, as they are a crucial retention strategy, especially for nurses (Hashish, 2017). As for orientation and training programs, they provide education “for both management and clinical staff,” thus ensuring that all personnel shares the same vision of how the hospital should function (Hashish, 2017, p. 163). Hence, team-building exercises, orientation and training programs, and recognition and reward programs are suitable interventions to address current understaffing and poor job satisfaction issues.
To summarize, staff shortage and low job satisfaction resulting in high turnover rates are both critical problems in the hospital. To prevent their negative impacts, such as adverse patient outcomes, burnout, and turnover, it is necessary to bolster communication, collaboration, and teamwork. Team-building exercises, orientation and training programs, and recognition and reward programs lead to better job satisfaction and partially compensate for understaffing, which makes them suitable techniques to promote a shared vision and address current challenges.
References
Hashish, E. A. A. (2017). Relationship between ethical work climate and nurses’ perception of organizational support, commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intent. Nursing Ethics, 24(2), 151-166.
Hudgins, T. A. (2016). Resilience, job satisfaction and anticipated turnover in nurse leaders. Journal of Nursing Management, 24, E62–E69. Web.
Yanchus, L. J., Ohler, L., Crowe, E., Teclaw, R., & Osatuke, K. (2017). ‘You just can’t do it all’: A secondary analysis of nurses’ perceptions of teamwork, staffing and workload. Journal of Research in Nursing, 22(4), 313–325.