The Nursing Workforce Shortage: Causes, Consequences, Proposed Solutions Patients need nursing care but in the healthcare setting there is shortage of nurses in the workforce. The largest health care professionals in the United States are registered nurses. In the past, there were a lot of nurses’ shortages in the healthcare setting. Therefore, to solve this problem the wages went up and more nurses started working. Also, the more nurses that is working in the healthcare setting it will be a better health outcome and good for quality care. Furthermore, in the future it will be very difficult and costly to solve the future nursing shortage. The three types of workers that are in the nursing profession is a registered nurses, licensed practical …show more content…
The consequences for the nursing shortage is that the quality care in the healthcare setting will decrease and many healthcare facilities will have to send the patients to another healthcare facility because of the lack of nurses working. Also, there are not enough students going to nursing school to become a nurse because the social media talk negative about the nursing professional it discourages young people not choose nursing as a career. According to Hunt (2009), nursing shortage has been a major issue in healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations supposed to have highly trained, full engaged nursing staff to provide care for the patients. Therefore, the shortage of nurses has increase among the rates of nurses. By 2020 the nursing shortage will get worse as the healthcare industry continues to grow and it is predicted that it will be one million shortages of nurses in the United …show more content…
Also, the nurses that are working have to work 12 hours or longer shift and some nurses quit due to long work hours and stress.
Actually, the nursing shortage affect quality care because there not enough nurses working, many of the patients cannot get the care they need, and it affect the health outcome. The more nurses that are working in the healthcare setting it will be a better outcome for quality care.
The way to address the nursing shortage is to fund more money for education and hiring more Registered Nurses (RN) to work in the healthcare setting. In addition to this, the other way to address the nurse’s shortage is to pay the Registered Nurse’s (RN) more money. If the Human Resource Department hire more people to work in the medical field we will not have so many shortages in the healthcare setting.
As a matter of fact, increasing pay and benefits, hire more nursing students that graduate from college, making the nursing job more attractive for nursing candidates can help reduce the level and cost of nursing shortage (Hunt,
Nursing shortage has been a global problem that need to be eradicated in order to promote patient care and improve care outcomes. Nursing shortage in America has caused a lot of negative impact on the nurses, patients and nursing profession. It has caused a lot of dissatisfaction on the part of the nurses and the patients (Nardi & Gyurko, 2013). Nurses are prone to injuries, stress and burn-out as a result of nursing shortages. They engaged in working long hours to compensate their coworkers and ensure completion of assigned jobs. They end up breaking down emotionally, physically and psychologically due to poor work-environment and
Current literature continues to reiterate the indicators of a major shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States. The total RN population has been increasing since 1980, which means that we have more RNs in this country than ever before (Nursing Shortage). Even though the RN population is increasing, it is growing at a much slower rate then when compared to the rate of growth of the U.S. population (Nursing Shortage). We are seeing less skilled nurses “at a time of an increasingly aging population with complex care
In 2000, it was estimated that there were 110,000 open nursing positions, by 2025, it is projected that the open nursing positions will grow to 260,000. The shortage is due to many aspects including, rising population, decreasing of new students in nursing school, decline in nursing earnings compared to other growing occupational fields, aging of nursing workforce and the aging population that will need health care services in the near future. A survey found that 55% of registered nurses intend to retire between 2011 and 2015. This is primarily the
There are a number of factors that contribute to the impact of the nursing shortage.
Snavely, T.M. (2016). Data Watch. A Brief Economic Analysis of the Looming Nursing Shortage in the United States. Nursing Economic$, 34(2), 98-100.
According to an article submitted by Rosenfeld, 2009, the growing trends of an aging population require the need for more nursing services. In addition, there are insufficient numbers of facilities to train new nurses (Rosenfeld, 2009). The above issues pertaining to nursing shortages have created what is called a “nursing crisis” which have caused and will continue to cause dramatic shortages on a national basis.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) we are currently experiencing a nursing shortage. It stated that this nursing shortage is currently different than the past shortages. The present nursing shortage is due to fewer nurses entering the workforce due to unacceptable conditions, and the ones that do enter the workforce are not prepared to provide patient care in a changing health care environment. One would think, if they graduated from a nursing program, and passed the NCLEX licensure exam, how is one not prepared to provide excellent patient care? I believe it’s not that the individual is not qualified for the job, they may be lazy or even overwhelmed with too much work, due to the shortage. With there being
It is likely that most people have heard about the nursing shortage for years now, and perhaps they believe it’s been fixed. However, the nursing profession is experiencing a reoccurring deficiency. According to Brian Hansen, (2002), there was a nation wide shortage in 2001 of 126,000 full-time registered nurses, but the shortage will surge to 808,000 by 2020 if something isn't done. This pattern is a persisting cycle of high vacancies followed by layoffs and a high over supply of registered nurses. Various factors contribute to the lack of nurses within the health care facilities, but today’s shortages are a little different. Many feel that this scarcity is severe and long-drawn-out. The four major issues contributing to
We hear nurse’s talk about how rewarding their profession is but what they seldom talk about is how it can be very challenging as well. There seems to be many issues existing in the nursing profession. One of the most affective issues in nursing is the decreasing number of staff nurses. With inadequate staffing, nurses are demanded to have more responsibilities thus causing more stress on the nurse. This increase in responsibility causes nurses to neglect many aspects of their patients’ care. Patient care is suffering from the shortage of nurses as there is an increase in adverse patient outcomes due to the shortage. Also, there is evidence that there is a positive relationship between the number of staff and the effectiveness of their teamwork. The more staff available the more likely nurses will work together as a team. A new act is being implemented to help with the nursing shortage. This act is called the National Nursing Shortage Reform and Patient Advocacy Act. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of nursing shortage and how the National Nursing Shortage Reform and Patient Advocacy Act is an example of evidence-based practice.
We now know that the shortage of nursing is the shortage of care at the bedside and in all the clinical settings. And this has nothing to do with and is totally independent of the national supply of nursing. Solving the shortage of nursing care requires a different intervention than solving some workforce shortage. Ultimately there is not enough of budgeted positions for nurses and other caregivers. It is just plain and simple. It is all a matter of how much money and how we’re spending the money that we have. (Professor Linda Aiken: Nurse-patient ratios will save lives,
Rachel Gotbaum did an interview on nursing shortage in 2007. There were multiple interviews with health care professionals through her interviews she found that “In the next decade 80 million people will retire. She has stated that since health care changes constantly that nurses need to continue their education no matter how old or how many years they have been in the medical field. When medicine is involved you should always be up-to-date on the latest technology and diagnosis. Nurses may become suddenly ill or injured were they are no longer able to give care anymore. You can never plan if an
The nursing shortage is no longer a projected problem in the healthcare industry in the United States, this problem is present and is not phasing out anytime soon. Addressing this challenge would improve job satisfaction, reduce burnout in the profession and ultimately improve retention.
To find solutions to both the barriers and Challenges to the problem of the nursing shortage by itself a challenge. To solve these issues, there will have to be proper step that need to be taking. One of the first step to overcome that the problems, is that government are needed to be in the limelight to solve the problem of lacks of funding for nursing. Huber (2010) explained how this solution is great help for many healthcare services that have low capacity of training their employees. With government provide fund to institution, it will help institution to hired more trained professional, so they could satisfy nurse within
Improving education and training is one of the strategies to address nursing shortage. Increase in federal funding to compensate current faculties and graduate students faculty is essential in addressing the issues. This will decrease vacancy rates and help to improve workload. Development of a program among regional and statewide nursing schools is another factor to consider. This promotes joint efforts with faculties allowing them to make use of resources efficiently which also assist in students nurse advancement. Moreover, it
According to Paller (2012), the nursing shortage in different countries for example the United States tends not to be the only growing problem, but has also become a complex one. Nursing shortage and nurse's turnover has become the worsening predicament in the health care industry in the United