Please see attachment

This assignment is a four part assignment which two parts is already completed leaving part 3 to be completed and then part four will be the final piece (
part 1, 2, and 3 together to make the final piece) I have attached part 1 and 2 which is already complete, so you have an idea and must follow topic.

****************Part 3****************

· To assess a clinical issue that is the focus of the Quality Improvement Project. ( The clinical issue I choose is nurse shortage during this pandemic and the burnout nurses are enduring from it.) which is already showed in part 1 and 2!!

· Create an outline of the action plan for the project.

· Evaluate the clinical project.

Content Requirements:

1. Identify stakeholders that will be impacted by the quality improvement project.

2. Identify and discussed resources including budget needed to implement the quality improvement project.

3. Develop an action plan for change including a proposed implementation timeline

*This part is to be 4-6 pages in length, excluding the title, abstract and references page.

*Incorporate a minimum of 3 current (published within last five years) scholarly journal articles or primary legal sources (statutes, court opinions) within your work.

*Journal articles and books should be referenced according to current APA style (the library has a copy of the APA Manual).

*This paper should be formatted per current APA and references should be current (published within last five years) scholarly journal articles or primary legal sources (statutes, court opinions)

******

Part 4 ( please use the attached part 1, 2 and 3 and use to complete part 4 which is the final piece.

· Putting it all together for the final Quality Improvement Project.

Content Requirements:

1. A description of the clinical issue to be addressed in the project.

2. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis for the project. Analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to the quality improvement process.

3. An outline of the action plan for the project.

4. An assessment of clinical issue that is the focus of the quality improvement project.

5. Discuss stakeholders and decision makers who need to be involved in the quality improvement project.

6. Discuss resources including budget, personnel and time needed for the quality improvement project.

7. Discuss potential strategies for implementation and evaluation.

The final piece Must include the below:.

· The final project is to be 8 – 12 pages in length and formatted per current APA, excluding the title, abstract and references page.

· Incorporate a minimum of 12 current (published within the last five years) scholarly journal articles or primary legal sources (statutes, court opinions) within your work.

· Journal articles and books should be referenced according to the current APA style (the library has a copy of the APA Manual).

Part 1- (Already complete)

Abstract

The covid-19 pandemic is presenting a great issue to the provision of quality healthcare services to the patients. The process of dealing with the covid-19 pandemic requires well-being of the nurses both physically and mentally. The mental and physical issues caused by the nursing shortages affects the delivery of quality healthcare services and improvement in the safety of the patients during this pandemic. The shortages of numbers increase the possibilities of medication errors and this tampers with the quality healthcare services delivered to the patients. It increases the risks of infections for both nurses and patients thus extending the chain of covid-19 transmission. 

Nursing shortages in the covid pandemic

​ The identified clinical issue is on how nursing shortages during this covid pandemic is putting nurses and patient at risk within the healthcare facilities. Nursing shortages are described as a situation whereby the demand for the nursing professionals like the registered nurses is exceeding the supply either locally, nationally, or globally. COVID-19 has affected millions of individuals in the entire world and this has overwhelmed the healthcare systems of the nations. It has also affected healthcare providers like the nurses who are considered to be on the frontline in helping to protect the lives of every individual who is affected. Nursing shortages are amongst the issue that affects the performance of the nurses in the facilities. Due to the rise in the number of patients who are visiting the facilities for chronic illness, both nurses and patients are highly exposed to the risk of covid infections (Arabi et al., 2020). 

The need for change 

​ The risk of nurses to covid infection is associated with the shortages in nurses. The shortages of nurses imply that they are working under a high level of pressure and this is affecting the mechanisms of dealing with COVID-19. The severity of nurse shortages affects the process of handling emergencies and disasters. Many healthcare facilities were not prepared for this pandemic hence are considered to be less resilient. The shortage of nurses is considered to be a lower level of resilience and this affects the sustainability of the healthcare services as well as the well-being and health of the nurses. When nurses are working under pressure, it is becoming hard to follow the strict guidelines and adhere to the protocol that is set to help in handling the patients (Arabi et al., 2020).

​ Nursing shortages not only affects the physical well-being of the nurses but also their mental health. This exposes patients to an increased rate of errors such as exposure to nosocomial infections like COVID-19-associated hospital infections. These infections are then passed from one patient to the other and then to the families. The infection is also passed from one nurse to another nurses. This problem makes it impossible to break the chain of COVID-19 infections (Arabi et al., 2020).

The best practice to the issues 

​ Several solutions can help in dealing with the issue of nurse shortages during this covid pandemic. According to Legido-Quiley et al (2020), it is important to recall the retired nurses who are experienced in handling emergencies and pandemics. In this case, the retired or the staff nurses who are well equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes are called upon to help in the provision of holistic care for the patients who are infected with covid-19. This solution is important since it ensures that the healthcare facilities increase their abilities to receive more patients (Legido-Quigley, et al., 2020). 

​ Another solution is for the financial department along with the CFO to work together and find a good enough pandemic salary to offer current employees and new ones in order to keep them from seeking employment elsewhere. Also, calling volunteers like the nursing interns and student nurses who are in the final semester of nursing school and ready to have an experience of working in a clinical setting is also a good idea. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that nurses are having clear plans for the management and supervision of the volunteers when identifying their roles and tasks that are supposed to be accomplished. The nursing experts must be brought on board to help in dealing with emergencies and dangerous situations. These nurse experts can help in outlining the potential risks from the pandemic and help in the creation of the long-term plan that is important in the modification of the risks (Thobaity et al., 2019).

References 

Arabi, Y. M., Murthy, S., & Webb, S. (2020). COVID-19: a novel coronavirus and a novel challenge for critical care. Intensive Care Med., 46(5), 833-836. doi:10.1007/s00134-020-05955-1

Legido-Quigley, H., Mateos-Garcia, J. T., Campos, V. R., Ge-Sanchez, M., Muntaner, C., & McKee, M. (2020). The resilience of the Spanish health system against the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e251-ee252. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30060-8

Thobaity, A. A., Alamri, S., Plummer, V., & Williams, B. (2019). Exploring the necessary disaster plan components in Saudi Arabian hospitals. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 41, 101316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101316

PART 2

Abstract

The study is meant to help in analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that define the current situation of nurses’ shortage during this pandemic to enable and promote the provision of quality healthcare services and to develop suggestions. The study herein is qualitative research. During this covid-19 pandemic, it has been difficult to handle the situation as the number of infections is greater than the number of nurses available. A large number of infections is more than the estimated nurse-patient ratio (Renato 2018).

Strengths of the nurse shortage solutions

In this case, the retired or the staff nurses who are well equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the provision of holistic care for the patients who are infected with covid-19. The retired nurses provide efficient knowledge and skills in handling patients due to the experience and familiarity in dealing with such matters. This is a positive impact that helps in solving the problem of nurse shortage and provide the current nurse with the overtime experience on how to handle difficult situations without falling victim one same.

This solution is important since it ensures that the healthcare facilities increase their abilities to receive more patients and attend to a large number of sick people being brought in without much strain as work will be subdivided because there are enough personnel.

Another proposed solution is that the financial department along with the CFO to work together and find a good enough pandemic salary to offer current employees. This is because nurses have a lot of work to do and therefore require a lot of motivation not to give up (Butt 2015). Paying nurses, a fair amount will encourage them to be more committed in their job and promote service provision. Salary increment will also lead to a rise in a student willing to venture into the nursing field and this will help improve the healthcare department by quality service provision while keeping them from seeking employment elsewhere

Using student interns as volunteers during this intense moment will also help in providing the nursing department with extra personnel and the government will also be able to save money of having to employ more nurses and use the funds in providing medicines and other health equipment (Prosen2021).

Involving nursing experts to help in dealing with emergencies and dangerous situations can help in outlining the potential risks from the pandemic and help in the creation of the long-term plan that is important in the modification of the risks (MARTIN 2010).

Weaknesses of the proposed solutions

The weaknesses related to this suggestion is that the nurses shall be required to work overtime due to the increased number of patients leaving very little time for the nurses to rest and attend to their activities or even spent time with their families.

Salary increment is a benefit to the nurses but has its weakness in that it shall lead to inequality and wage distortion in various medical and allied positions. Using student interns as volunteers have its shortcomings in that the students are not working under contract this in case they mess or commit a certain wrong to a patient there shall be no recourse. The volunteers are not expecting to be paid and thus they are not going to provide efficient services to patients as they lack motivation and likely not to assist the health sector much (Khanlou and Orazietti 2020).

Opportunities that may arise from the suggested solutions 

To avoid using retired nurses and the pressure of nurse’s shortage, the society shall realize the need for nurses, and this shall encourage more people to join the nursing platform. The suggestions shall present opportunities for research as they create a wide research area. It shall also provide student volunteers or interns with the ability to solve problems and be able to think practically through the nursing profession and work under expert guidance.

Implementation of these suggestions shall provide a very large working field where patients can share their situations with nurses easily. The experience shall provide an opportunity for the nurses to perceive and serve as life coaches to patients.

Threats against suggested solutions.

Using retired nurses to solve the shortage of nurses has got its shortcomings too, retired nurses are often old. Old age is associated with a low immune system as there is a reduction in the production of the B and T cells by the bone marrow and thymus making them vulnerable to the underlying pandemic. We could thus lose important people in the society as the pandemic would be a threat to their immune system. The suggestions also pose a high risk for contracting occupational Illness or contagious diseases for example COVID-19, the safety equipment provided is not enough to be used by every nurse (Rani 2020).

The nurses shall also face a high rate of exhaustion experience as the high number of patients being brought in shall require attention and this demands that the nurses be on their feet most of the time working up and down to help the patients this it’s so tiresome.

The nursing experience shall also sleep deprivation and biological arrhythmia to personnel.

Conclusion and suggestions.

According to the qualitative research which was carried out through the analysis of the SWOT to provide an actual plan for quality improvement, the data helps to determine that there are opportunities under the nursing profession and it is thus important to deal with nurses shortage by trying out the use of experts in the field and recalling retired nurses in times of need to present their expertise in the field once again and the strength in using student interns as volunteers shall encourage students to get the urge to take the opportunity presented to them and this shall settle the issue of nurse shortage especially during pandemic when their services are most needed.
References.

Renato, De Oliveira Marcos. 2018. “What Are the Main Obstacles For The Shortage Of Nurses In The USA?”. Nursing & Care Open Access Journal 5 (4). doi:10.15406/ncoaj.2018.05.00149.

Butt, Manzoor. 2015. “Training Community Based Nurses in Impoverished Areas Of Developing Countries: A Practical Solution To A Rapidly Emerging Global Shortage Of Health Workers Force”. Middle East Journal of Nursing 9 (2): 31-35. doi:10.5742/mejn.2015.92652.

 Prosen, Mirko. 2021. “Strengthening Nurses’ Resilience and Reducing Burnout During The COVID-19 Pandemic”. Kontakt. doi:10.32725/kont.2021.001.

MARTIN, SHARON DEZZANI. 2010. “Nurses’ Ability and Willingness to Work During Pandemic Flu”. Journal of Nursing Management 19 (1): 98-108. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01190.x.

 Khanlou, Nazilla, and Brenda E. Orazietti. 2020. “Article Reprint: Nurses Respond To COVID-19 Pandemic: Mental Health Support for Frontline Nurses”. INYI Journal, 27-28. doi:10.25071/1929-8471.24.

Rani, R. Golda Sahaya. 2020. “Meticulous to Nurses Protection: COVID-19 Pandemic”. Journal of Medical Science and Clinical Research 08 (06). doi:10.18535/jmscr/v8i6.122.