The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) define clinical practice as nurses’ ability to
perform safe and effective nursing practices using professional values, skills, knowledge, and
attitudes. It may also mean a range of roles, responsibilities, activities, and functions that are
within the scope of practice of registered nurses in health facilities. There are different issues that
nurses face while executing their mandate to patients. Some of them include bullying and
harassment, workplace violence, long working hours, workplace hazards, staff shortage, and
inability to meet patients’ expectations. This paper aims to discuss three clinical practice issues
that I have encountered in my nursing career, discuss what is being done with regard to each
issue, and recommend what could be done to improve the situation.

One of the clinal practice issues that I have encountered in the nursing profession is long
working hours. I selected this issue because nurses are often required to work for long shifts to
fill up the gaps created by staffing shortages. Studies reveal that more than half of hospital nurses
in the United States work more than 12 hours a day while as they are required by law to work for
not more than 8.5 hours shifts (Rajan, 2017). Working for long hours increases the risk of
making medical errors, which increases patient mortality rates. It is also associated with patient
dissatisfaction and poor health care outcomes. The long working hours in the United States is
occasioned by nurse shortage, which is caused by high turnover rates, lack of potential educators,
and unfair workforce distribution. Currently, health facilities are enticing nurses with free gifts
and paying the nursing fee for people as a way of combating the nursing shortage. The most
effective interventions for this issue include investing in training and development, embark on
nurse engagement techniques, and provide enough compensation.

The second clinical practice issue that I have encountered is bullying and harassment by
patients. I selected this issue because it is faced quite often by practicing nurses. Studies reveal
that nursing is among the professions with rampant cases of bullying and harassment. The
bullying and harassment may stem from colleagues or patients. According to Rajan (2017),
registered nurses who experience bullying and harassment are more likely to express intentions
to leave their job. This would in turn increase the rate of nurse turnover and as a result reduced
quality of care. The American Nurses Association continue to encourage practicing nurses to
abide by the ANA code of ethics, which highlight the roles responsibilities, and duties of each
nurse during practice. My recommendation is that nurse leaders should come up with a toll-free
number and give it out to nurses so that whoever is harassed or bullied can report. Firm actions
should be taken against all the perpetrator to prevent future cases of bully and harassment. APA