Shortage of Nurses A Challenge to Health Care Setting

The roles of nurses are becoming more visible, appreciated, and addressed during times of scarcity. A nursing shortage occurs when the demand for competent nursing professionals exceeds the supply of qualified nurses. This study aimed to determine the impact of nursing shortage to healthcare setting in Batangas province, identify effects on the care rendered to client and to propose measures that lessen the impact of nursing shortage. A quantitative-descriptive research design was utilized to describe the effects of nursing shortage in the health care settings. A questionnaire was used among the two hundred forty-three (243) registered nurses working in fulltime private hospitals in Batangas province. The answers provided were tallied, tabulated and analyzed with the use of weighted mean. The entire indicators provided by the researchers were agreed by the respondents and having employment competition among hospitals nationwide got the highest weighted mean in the impact of nursing shortage to healthcare setting. Whereas, in effects of nursing shortage to care rendered to client, the increase of nurse-patient ratio got the highest weighted mean. Thus, the researchers concluded that nursing shortage greatly affects the employment nationwide. Nurses should be careful in their performance, inadequate nurse staffing leads to poor quality care given that it is a threat to face legal issue in nursing profession. Finally, the researchers recommended measures in lessening the impact of this shortage in Batangas health care setting.

Keywords – Challenges, health care setting, nursing shortage