Extended working hours in nursing is one of the most common working schedules in nursing today. There are various factors that lead to the establishment of these working schedules. This can be because of the low numbers of healthcare experts who are trained and employed into service. The high number of patients is also one of the factors that has led to the shift in working organization (Stimpfel, Douglous & Aiken, 2012). Healthcare organizations and administrators also do not have sufficient financial resources to staff the correct number of people who can be able to meet healthcare concerns for the patients in the society today.
There are various factors that have motivated the acquisition of the twelve hour shifts as opposed to the eight hour shifts. Some of the positive factors that have led to the initiation of the system include healthcare workers having more days off in a week. This working schedule is also likely to lead to a balanced between work and life. This is because most of the nurses are able to have sufficient time in the days they are not at work to enhance other life activities. Longer working hours also assist in promoting continuity and consistency in taking care of the patients. This is because there are more interruptions in healthcare because of change of shifts.
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However, the twelve hour working shift has a lot of influence in an organization’s practice. This is because of the effects that are related to the working schedules. This programs presents a lot of challenges to healthcare and nursing. In other circumstances, they are very ineffective in service delivery. This is because the length of time in which healthcare experts work is very crucial towards determining the quality of healthcare services. This is because working schedules dictate the working environment and influence how the healthcare procedures and operations (Stimpfel, Douglous & Aiken, 2012).
Healthcare experts are involved in vigorous activity in their place of work. This makes to get tired over short periods of time. When the experts are subjected to twelve hour working schedules, they are likely to get fatigued. This is likely to reduce the quality of service given to the patients. This is also one of the factors that can lead to the reduction of safety among the patients and nurses. This also leads to commitment of a lot of errors and thus leading to the reduction of the quality of service. This is the major cause of injuries and lack of adequate service for patients (GNA, 2011).
There are various factors that affect the level of service delivery in healthcare. Some of these factors lead to increased injuries and fatalities as a result of the practices. These form the major risk factors in healthcare. Lack of nursing experience is very dangerous in healthcare. Fresh nurses should be taken through orientation programs that will assist them to be fully integrated into the healthcare system from their theoretical perspectives (GNA, 2011). For operation in the intensive care units, prolonged professional and educational development should be conducted on the nurses to increase their level of competence and service delivery.
Information technology is one of the most practical way to increase efficiency and accuracy in service delivery in healthcare organizations. This includes the application of health information systems. These systems can be used in the acquisition of the evidence based practices that can be used to increase patient safety. Health information systems are very important because they reduce the level of manual services in healthcare (Stimpfel, Douglous & Aiken, 2012). This is because most of the systems in the healthcare procedures are automated. Therefore, some of the best practices that can be applied to reduce the safety risks and errors include short time shift schedules and automating health operations to reduce tedious working processes.
