How The Middle Range Theory of Human Caring Can Help to Handle High Turnover Rates in Hospitals

Introduction

The use of theory in nursing shapes and molds the field in many varied ways, which can have a fundamental bearing on the direction that the practice takes in both the present and future. The application of theory allows for the creation of a model that sustains nursing as a professional field, which in turn ensures that patients receive healthcare that is of a high standard. It also can be successfully used to give viable answers to some of the practice issues facing the industry. The use of theory extends in different areas such as leadership, nursing informatics and even on a wider scale, health policy.

This paper seeks to use the middle-range theory of human caring by Jean Watson to deal with the issue of staffing that is currently present at the local hospital unit where there is a high staff turnover and a large recruit of new graduate nurses.

The practice issue and its Impact

A close reassessment of the current relevant nursing literature reveals that there is a huge problem with staffing in the hospital setting that is proving to be a difficult in nursing administration and leadership (Douglas, 2013). The fact that appropriate staffing is key to the delivery of quality healthcare to the patient means that the problem needs an effective and immediate resolution. As it has been clearly demonstrated, in various clinical settings, limited staffing reduces the quality of service delivery and in turn negatively impacts on the degree of patient satisfaction. The problem does not only revolve around the issue of inadequate number of nurses in the hospital but also involves the lack of empathy and care during service delivery, which in turn affects the level of patient care. It also has a damaging effect on the nurses who end up being highly demotivated.

Conventional methods employed over time to solve the issue mainly involve the use of monetary resources to improve the enlisting and retention processes. These methods have largely been unsuccessful and thus the need to use other avenues (Burtson & Stichler, 2013). One such avenue is the human caring theory by Jean Watson that offers a unique perspective and viable interventions in solving the problems and in turn enhances service delivery, appreciates nurses as important pillars in the health sector and ultimately enhances patient care.

Strategy in Resolving Staffing and Turnover Problem

A strategy that can be employed to resolve the issue of staffing and high turnover in the case of the rural hospital, is the affectation of a Caritas procedure similar to Watson’ proposal. Management developing activities that are aimed at improving the personal care that nurses afford themselves will achieve this. Coming up with strategies that purpose to improve working patterns is a good starting point. These strategies include reducing the number of working hours, offering mental health support services such as employing a psychiatrist for the nurses, and constructing rooms that are to be used for regeneration and remedial purposes after a tough day at the office (Watson, 2008). A nurse leader using himself or herself as an example to show how these methods can be of assistance and can go a long way in having a positive impact on the rest of the nursing team. The nurses will feel loved and cared for and this will extend to have an effect on the services that they are delivering to the patients (Watson, 2008). Ultimately, patient care and healthcare delivery will be enhanced.

A good illustration of how the theory of human caring has been used in nursing management is through having care as the basis of leadership in the nursing environment. This kind of leadership leads to an effective administration system in the nursing practice. The human caring theory gives a model where nursing managers offer the employees a platform that encourages unity and healing and at the same time permits the nurses to retrieve their true calling (Whitehead & Myers, 2016). The platform that the theory proposes will help nursing administrators to give backing to the nurses that is fulfilling and that allows them to come up with amicable solutions to practice issues.

A lot of effort should be put to improve the caring aspect of nursing practice as it is helpful in solving several practice issues such as staffing. The work that has been put to financially to improve staff enlisting and retention should be redirected to other unconventional methods such as implementation of human caring which may prove to be effective.

Conclusion

Issues in enlisting, recruitment, and retention of employees in the health sector have mainly been dealt with through monetary centered intervention such as salary increment and hefty incentives. These methods have, however proved to be myopic and uninspiring and have only provided a short term fix. The use of unconventional means, such as the use of the middle range theory, human caring, (by Jean Watson) gives nursing leadership a unique perspective of handling the issue that will provide long term and viable solutions. If the model presented by the theory is correctly applied, then he improvements will be noticed in nursing staffing as a practical problem.