Plan to Remedy Nursing Shortage Background of the Problem There is s

Many health care settings have attempted to reduce the problem of nurse shortage by hiring unlicensed personnel to handle supportive services (Evans, 1991). An example of this response to the nurse shortage problem was provided in the developed action plan. Specifically, the plan was constructed in relation to an ambulatory care setting make the decision that RNs and LVNs providing support services to Advanced Practice Nurses should be replaced by unlicensed personnel.

In essence, the developed plan proposed that following replacement of LVNs and RNs with unlicensed personnel, a pilot study be conducted and evaluated to determine its effectiveness as a response to the shortage problem. The research proposal presented here consists of a study designed to evaluate the pilot project.

Raffel and Raffel (1994) have stated that the nurse shortage places in jeopardy both the quantity and quality of patient car

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by unlicensed personnel. Both dependent measures (measures of shortage and job satisfaction) will be collected for both groups of nurses prior to the change in skill mix and then again following the change in skill mix. In terms of design variables, it can be stated that the study will have one independent variable which will be the Skill Mix variable with two levels: (1) Skill Mix Unchanged; and (2) Skill Mix Changed. There will be two dependent variables in the study. These are the measures of nurse shortage and job satisfaction. Sample Based on the recommendation of the health care setting administrator, two units will be selected, one of which will experience replacement of RNs and LVNs supportive services with unlicensed personnel, and one of which will not experience replacement. The Advanced Placement Nurses Working in both of these units will serve as subjects in the study. Measures Nurse Shortage. According to several researchers (Aiken & Mullenix, 1987; Evans, 1991; Prescott, 1987, 1989), nurse shortage is conventionally measured as the number of full-time vacancy positions a health care setting has for RNs. Therefore, this will be the measure used in the study to assess the degree of nurse shortage expe
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Approximate Word count = 1371
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)