Nursing Shortage the Objective of This Work

Nursing Shortage

The objective of this work is to research the current nursing shortage and identify two articles published in nursing journals related to the nursing shortage. One of the article should discuss approaches to resolving the shortage and the other should discuss a perspective on the recruitment and impact of foreign nurses. The implications of the information gained in this brief study of the two articles introduced at the beginning of this work in writing is quite simply that foreign nurses who are professional, ethical, and educated and trained and who as a result are deemed to be competent will serve excellent in the U.S. healthcare field and fill a much needed role in what is a partial solution to the nursing shortage. The nursing shortage must be addressed through discovering how healthcare employers can provide an environment that is conducive job satisfaction among employees. Job satisfaction is key in attracting and retaining nursing professionals.

Nursing Shortage

Objective

The objective of this work is to research the current nursing shortage and identify two articles published in nursing journals related to the nursing shortage. One of the article should discuss approaches to resolving the shortage and the other should discuss a perspective on the recruitment and impact of foreign nurses.

Introduction

This work is a review of two journal articles and specifically an article entitled "Are Immigrant Nurses a Threat to the U.S. Nurse? published in the Journal of Nursing (2008) and an article published in the American Journal of Nursing (2009) entitled 'The Nursing Shortage'. The first article serves to inform the reader of the number of nurses working in the healthcare field in the United States and highlights the fact that the demand for nurses is higher than the present supply of nurses available. The second article written by Potera (2009) has as its purpose to relate information relevant to the working shortage and the impact of this shortage on the healthcare filed and the population in general. The first article questions whether immigrant nurses present a threat to U.S. nurses and states that the total of nurses in healthcare in the U.S. has "decreased from 2,669,.603 in 2000 to 2,262,060 in 2001. " (Journal of nursing, 2008)

I. The Core Issues

Foreign nurses have been recruited from the countries of India, Japan, the Philippines and other various African countries for more than half a decade. Core issues are stated to include "clinical competencies of the immigrant nurses, their cultural sensitivity and ethics has been a hot topic in the process of recruiting foreign nurses." (Potera, 2009) The debate persists related to this issue with some claiming a "brain drain of healthcare professionals in low income countries" while others emphasize the strengthening the education system in the U.S. For nursing professionals.

The second article written by Potera (2009) reports that the nursing shortage is being addressed by individual U.S. states including Kansas with a 10-year $30 million matching grant program" which is reported to capable of raising the number of nurses and expected to "education 250 new RNs yearly and ultimately reported funding 500 RNs the first year. Some hospitals are redesigning workloads and offering busy nurses concierge services for dry cleaning and movie tickets. The report shows that 200,000 employees at 423 health care organizations were those found to be 'least satisfied' in a Press Ganey survey. (Potera, 2009)

II. Conclusions

Conclusions reached by the first report in this study include that nursing professionals experience such as "frequent schedule changes, overloads, burnout, shift work, lack of appreciation by superiors and colleagues, lower wages, short staffing and poor working conditions…" and as well the profession has not been of the nature that has attracted the younger generation. Retention is another challenge in resolving the nursing shortage and this as well is due to the previously identified reasons. In regards to foreign workers, it is concluded that as the corporate health care market trends like any other market, "there is no doubt that only competent foreign candidates who can accept and adapt high professional standards will find their way into the United States." (Journal of Nursing, 2008) The report of Potera (2009) does not actually state a conclusion but simply avers to the very large group of unsatisfied nursing professionals presently in the healthcare field workforce.