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It is no secret that America is facing a shortage of nurses. The current shortage is very real and it is not like any that has been experienced in the past. There is evidence to support the shortage in that there are fewer nurses entering the workforce. With the reduced number of nurses entering the workforce, America is left with an aging nursing workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be about 1.2 million vacancies emerging for registered nurses in the years 2014 and 2022 (Snavely, 2016). By the year 2025, the shortfall of nurses will be more than twice as large as any other nursing shortage that has ever been experienced. The looming shortage is mostly due to the rising incidence of chronic diseases, the limited capacity of nursing schools, and an aging workforce. It is reported that there are around one million registered nurses who are over the age 50 years, which means that one-third of the current nursing workforce is going to retire in the next 10 to 15 years. By the year 2024, it is projected that nearly 700,000 nurses will leave or retire from the labor force.
The aging of nurses is the most critical problem that is facing the nursing...
The current average age for registered nurses is 47.3 years, and the registered nurses who are aged below 30 years representing less than 10 percent of the working nursing population. This clearly demonstrates the huge shortage that we are facing and how this shortage is going to continue. Because of this shortage, there are some hospitals that have been forced to close some units, cancel surgeries, and divert patients because they do not have the adequate number of professional nursing personnel to run the facility.
It is not that there are no nursing graduates who are joining the industry. It is estimated that nearly 155,000 new nursing graduates entered the nursing workforce in 2017. This shows that the number is growing, but the nursing education has not kept pace meaning that there are many more nurses who could have entered the labor force in any given year. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has reported that American nursing schools are turning away students. For example, in the year 2013, the nursing schools turned away 79,659 qualified applicants for graduate nursing programs due to insufficient faculty numbers,…
References
MacLean, L., Hassmiller, S., Shaffer, F., Rohrbaugh, K., Collier, T., & Fairman, J. (2014). Scale, causes, and implications of the primary care nursing shortage. Annual review of public health, 35, 443-457.
Snavely, T. M. (2016). A brief economic analysis of the looming nursing shortage in the United States. Nursing Economics, 34(2), 98.
Nursing shortages and high nurse turnover are very common issues faced in the health care industry. This instability of workforce in the health care industry in many countries is raising questions about performance of the nurses and quality of the patient care. Gray & Phillips (1996) pointed out that nursing turnover has a negative impact on the organization's ability to meet the needs of the patients and provide them quality care.
Nursing Shortage Background and Current Reality The shortage of nursing staff in the workforce has become a global crisis. Numerous research articles and even books have been written on the subject from all around the world, all giving causal factors and possible solutions. As far back as 2002, "90 nurses' organizations, representing 69 countries and every geographic region of the world, reported shortages in their countries" (Clark & Clark, 2003). Moreover, the
Nursing Shortage The issues and challenges orbiting around the world of professional healthcare are no secret; one of the major obstacles that have received a great deal of media attention in recent years has been the nursing shortage. The shortage persists in North America and has even been found to be affecting Europe. Much literature has been written about this subject and a range of theories exist regarding the reasons
nursing shortage in Ontario has the potential to have a catastrophic impact both on the health of patients and the health of nurses. Nurses as a whole are committed to providing excellent care and upholding the standards of their profession. However, when they are operating in facilities that are chronically understaffed, achieving this goal can seem impossible. Nurses are forced to oversee insupportably high patient loads and to work
A summary of the issue and the middle-range theory that could be used There has been a disturbing trend of both surplus and shortage of nurses at different times throughout the healthcare workforce history in the US. There was a nursing shortage in the early parts of 2000s (Snavely, 2016). While there is already a moratorium regarding nursing shortage at the moment, the situation is likely to worsen in future because
Abstract Globally, a nursing shortage is impeding the advancement of healthcare systems around the world. The nursing shortage refers to any situation in which the labor market cannot keep up with patient demands. Causes of the nursing shortage include poor working conditions leading to high turnover rates, insufficient nursing education programs, and lack of incentives for nurses to work in areas of critical concern. Effects of the nursing shortage include further