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Current Issue in Nursing: Nursing Shortage
Nursing quality and adequate staffing are intertwined. Adequate levels of nurses, lower nurse to patient ratios, and also more highly trained nurses are associated with better health outcomes and lower mortality rates. But despite the fact that there is high demand for nurses, and also increased interest in entering this very exciting profession, retaining qualified nurses and recruiting new nurses is a struggle for many hospitals. Also, in a desire to cut costs, many institutions are often unwilling, despite evidence-based research supporting higher staffing ratios as leading to lower-cost and superior patient outcomes, to hire more nurses as healthcare staffing makes up as much as 40% of all intuitional operating costs (“Nursing Shortage,” 2019).
The attempt to cut costs by reducing staff levels reflects an unfortunately misguided view of the value of the nursing profession. It also reflects a misguided view of an aging patient population which increasingly consists of patients with multiple chronic conditions, many of which must be managed with long-term care and guidance. Nursing has gained respect a profession within the healthcare industry as a whole, as more nurses are performing functions once filled by physicians, but nurses must be treated with the respect they deserve in terms of reasonable patient loads and scheduling. Nurse leaders must offer realistic institutional approaches to circumvent burnout. This paper will attempt to address the causes of the nursing shortage, and also make suggestions for improving the problem. Nursing faculty shortages, an inability to admit all qualified candidates to nursing schools, combined with a dramatically expanded and diverse patient population with higher rates of chronic versus infectious diseases are all contributing to the need for more nurses, combined with quality of life issues for many nurses. There are also some positive societal shifts, such as an increase in the number of patients with health insurance, which still increases the patient load for nurses as a practical problem and must be addressed.
Synthesis of
(2007)103.6; 18-23 http://proquest.umi.com.libdb.fairfield.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=1299472971&SrchMode=1&sid=6&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1185408789&clientId=48293 Michigan Center for Nursing. Survey of Nursing Education Programs: 2005-2006 School Year. 24, July 2007. http://www.mhc.org/mhc_images/edprogramsurvey06.pdf Mancuso-Murphy, Josephine.Distance Education in Nursing: An Integrated Review of Online Nursing Students' Experiences with Technology-Delivered Instruction Journal of Nursing Education. (2007) 46.6); 252-261 http://proquest.umi.com.libdb.fairfield.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=1276790001&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1185407596&clientId=48293 Northwest Michigan College. 8/15/06. Online Nursing Frequently Asked Questions. 24, July 2007. http://www.nmc.edu/healthoccupations/nursing/online-nursing-faq.html Segal-Isaacson, Adam Ezra. Distance learning: Technology puts continuing education within reach.. Nursing. (2002) 32.1 14-17 http://proquest.umi.com.libdb.fairfield.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=98202634&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1185406422&clientId=48293 Washington State Department of Health. Nursing Care Quality Assurance
Leadership and Management Nursing Issue: Nursing Shortage and Turnover Nursing shortage and nursing turnover is a key contemporary issue that has an adverse impact on nursing with respect to health care delivery to patients. Owing to the increase in the number of baby boomers retiring, there is a major strain on the healthcare system due to their several medical health needs (Peterson, 2001). In addition to the deteriorating nurse shortage is
Nursing Shortage Issues Surrounding the Nursing Shortage In the early 2000s, national strategies to improve the nursing workforce profile were largely focused on increasing the number of nurses at the bedside through the use of sign-on bonuses and travel nurses. While these strategies tended to provide local short-term solutions, they did little to address long-term issues affecting the nursing shortage. With nursing education programs challenged to increase student enrollment, many colleges were
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.
1%." (AACN, 2008) VII. Negative Affects of Nursing Shortage on Patient Care Study findings indicate that a connection exists between adequate nursing staffing and patient care and specifically state in the findings of the latest studies published in the journals of Health Services Research (August 2008) and the Journal of Nursing Administration (May 2008) are findings that confirm previous study findings linking education level and patient outcomes. This indicates that "…efforts to
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