NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2  Needs Analysis for Change

Student name

Capella University

NURS FPX-6008

Professor Name

 Submission Date

Needs Analysis for Change

Patient and safety outcomes and the financial success of a health care organization all suffer from inadequate and unstable staffing. The negative impact of this on nursing manifests as overwhelming work demands, nurse burnout, and compromised safety and quality of care (or the absence of safety and quality of care) (Abdulai et al., 2025). Some health care organizations may use overtime and temporary staffing to fill the staffing gap, but this may increase the health care organization’s financial burden. Adverse outcomes of health care, such as medication errors, hospital-acquired infections, patient falls, and other mortalities, were linked to inadequate nurse staffing (Gatome-Munyua et al., 2025). This assessment of the staffing shortage will evaluate the impact and cost of clinical and economic outcomes to the health care organization and the cost of maximizing the strategy of workforce planning and retention in order to achieve the goal of delivering safe and quality nursing.

Summarizing the Chosen Economic Issue and Its Impact 

The shortage of nurses impacts the nurse, patient, and health care organization. As the patient population increases, the nurse’s workload increases. Over time, continual increases in nurse work demands will lead to nurse physical and mental exhaustion and reduced job satisfaction, which impacts nurse (and therefore) patient care (Abdulai et al., 2025). Poor staffing results in the overwhelming of health care workers, injuries to patients, constant reliance on overtime and staffing agencies, and a significant increase in costs (Yu et al., 2024). High turnover of nurses along with poor workforce stability has led to an increased focus on the financial challenges of attracting and retaining qualified nurses.

Impacts on Colleges and Organizations

The nursing shortage has negatively impacted my experience in several ways. The most impactful has been the constant assignment of very large patient loads to nurses and the increasing demand to do more work. Very large patient loads can elevate the stress, fatigue, and emotional exhaustion experienced by nurses. Also, because of the shortage of staff, there has been poor communication and a lack of collaboration both inter- and intrateam, which impedes the already inadequate staffing level to meet the demands of the patients for safe and competent nursing care (American Nurses Association, 2023). The cumulative effect of these barriers has caused low staff morale and staff dissatisfaction, which, if the organization is un- and/or under-resourced or un- and/or under-staffed to meet the demands of the community, can negatively impact the services offered in the healthcare system.

Rationale for Pursuing the Issue

It is critical to address nursing shortages and elevated costs of labor because of their effect on patient care and the financial health of a care organization. High turnover among nursing staff creates a cycle of cost for the health system from recruiting to training employees. This also increases the burden on remaining employees. For vulnerable populations, the staffing cost cycle also increases the burden on nurses to care for a growing number of patients who wait even longer to receive care (American Nurses Association, 2023; American Heart Association, 2022). This highlights the need for healthcare organizations to strengthen both their workforce planning and retention strategies to ensure an adequate number of nursing staff to care for their patients, while also providing a sustained, high-quality, and cost-effective healthcare service.

Existing Gap in the Issue

One major reason for the national Registered Nurse (RN) shortage is the combination of growing health care demands and declining RN supply. This also includes patient care needs in health care institutions. Increasing patient care needs can be attributed to the aging of the population, the rapidly expanding elderly population, and the chronic disease incidence (Gatome-Munyua et al., 2025). Also, the inability to retain and recruit qualified nurses increases the shortage of RNs. This also impacts the nursing labor cost. The rising cost of nursing labor, retention strategies, and long-term workforce commitment will assist in providing and maintaining a stable workforce and improve quality patient care.

Identification of Disparity

There are more pronounced gaps in health care now that there is a nursing shortage coupled with high costs of recruiting new nursing staff. These gaps in health care affect vulnerable populations including low-income, rural, and racially diverse groups. As if this situation is not serious enough, the vulnerable groups mentioned earlier have insufficient resources and qualified health care staff to provide even the basic health care services. The cumulative effect of these problems results in increased health care service delivery time and a system of care that is overloaded and fails to provide minimal care during the COVID-19 Pandemic (American Heart Association, 2022). Lack of adequate staffing in the health care system results in fragmented care for people with serious health care needs and results in increased health care service delivery time. All these problems contribute to negative health outcomes and increased health care disparities in the population.

The absence of nursing services coupled with the limited financial and transportation resources means that care is virtually non-existent for many. This is a particular concern for many members of ethnic and racial minority populations as these individuals face the most inequitable access to health care (Pittman et al, 2021). Many of these organizations have few resources for the recruitment and retention of staff in these nursing shortage areas (Woodward et al, 2023). A sustainable approach to the nursing shortage requires investment in placing and staffing a nursing workforce policy that mitigates disparities in access to nursing care.

Finding Peer-Reviewed Sources

A major reason that labour shortages impact the cost of labour and the safety of health care services is that there are fewer nurses providing the services. This not only causes more clinical incidents (falls, medication errors, etc) but means that there is an increasing workload for each nurse, with fewer colleagues to assist. According to the literature, hospitals that have low nurse staffing have much higher adverse event rates compared to hospitals with high nurse staffing levels, and this demonstrates the relation of adverse events and patient safety with low levels of hospital nursing staff (Peng et al., 2023). Evidence indicates that insufficient staffing contributes to inefficiency in the provision of fundamental aspects of patient care, compounded by declining patient safety.

Other major healthcare systems employ similarly well-trained staff on-site to elevate health outcomes. To mitigate the risk of preventable adverse events and to improve the quality of services offered, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has guidelines on optimal nurse staffing (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2021). The Joint Commission recognizes that inadequate nurse staffing levels directly correlate with an increase in hospital patient mortality. Research results show that the mortality risk of patients increases by 7% for each 1% increase in the nurse-to-patient ratio (National Nurses United, 2021). Hence, these results convincingly illustrate the necessity of incorporating workforce planning to sustain safety and quality in healthcare services.

Predicted Outcomes and Growth Opportunity

The positive impacts of resolving the nursing shortage and the high cost associated with nursing may yield the best outcomes for the patients and the nursing professionals offering the care. Enhanced quality of care will derive from increased patient safety and reduced patient harm that occurs as a result of overly burdened nursing shifts. The pressures that nurses experience during work shifts directly influence patient safety and the quality of care. There will be a reduction in the length of stay (LOS) in healthcare facilities and treatment costs as nurses are integrated and optimized within the healthcare delivery systems. Additional nurses improve clinical outcomes and the overall cost of the healthcare system (Bhati et al., 2023).

Additionally, nurse-to-patient ratios demonstrate how an organization integrates within the broader health care ecosystem and showcases their commitment to patient care and satisfaction. Even distribution of nurses and staff’s daily workload will create opportunities for improved interaction and communication between the nurses and staff delivering care to the patients. This will assist in delivering care to the patients in a more coordinated manner, providing an exceptional experience to the patients (Bhati et al., 2023). More space will improve the operational capacity of the organization, enhance the experience of the patients, and add more revenue to the organization. These changes will develop trust in the health care system and improve the ability of the health care system to be sustainable and successful.

Cost Benefits for Patients and the Organization

There are evident negative effects on the economy and productivity of healthcare organizations when there are extreme shortages of nursing staff and high costs for staff nurses. Insufficient staffing of nurses adversely affects the operational costs of the healthcare system due to unnecessary and excessive costs of extended patient stays, negative patient outcomes, inefficient and ineffective use of system resources, and increased costs to the healthcare system. Increased cost challenges of healthcare are budgetary constraints and inadequate productivity of the system. Inefficiencies in the system occur when the right personnel are not assigned, resulting in a negative impact on the potential to improve the healthcare organizational revenue (Bhati et al. 2023). The quality of healthcare is enhanced by the improved planning and management of the healthcare workforce.

Conclusion

These affect care, staff effectiveness, and the sustainability of the health care institution and should be accounted for when addressing the nursing shortage and the increased cost of labor. An example of a good solution would be developing staffing strategies that broaden the range of services to include commitment to the continuous development of staff and to incorporate the employees’ as well as the patients’ preferences and choices. Health care systems also benefit from retention and turnover strategies as they complement each other to ensure efficient and effective health care services are delivered in a safe and timely manner to the communities.