Then and Now

¶ … Nursing is among the professions in which the evolution through time will show much difference. One factor of evolution gap in nursing that is very clear and obvious these days is the great demand for nurses, which, if we are to compare some decades ago, had not been so scarce as it is nowadays. Research and studies indicate that there are several reasons in the current nursing shortage.

Two of these, in which we are going to focus on, are the decline in nursing enrollment and the increasing complexities of the nursing responsibilities. Behind these two primary problems are several other problems causing depth in today's nursing problems and complexities. Increasing Complexities of the Nursing Responsibilities Due to the increasing shortage of nurses in today's healthcare facilities, nurses who are currently providing their service are tasked with additional responsibilities to meet the demands of healthcare service.

Because of this, the nursing responsibility, which is supposed to be just to provide healthcare to patients and assist them in their needs, is added with other duties not related to healthcare. As a consequence, nurses usually get stressed out which oftentimes results to incompetent healthcare provision to patients.

Jerry Grillo, in his Facing Up to Georgia's Nursing Shortage, indicates several problems and complexities in the nursing profession Many RNs leave, or contemplate leaving, because they are simply unappreciated and overworked, sometimes buried under busywork and non-nursing duties that remove them from direct patient care, writing reports that someone else can write, delivering orders that someone else can deliver. In the end, it is the patient who is short-changed, and the hospital is short another nurse.

Comparing the condition of a nursing profession then and now, based from the current shortage situation, it can be concluded that there is much complexity in the nursing responsibilities today than before. This is due to the increasing responsibilities tasked to nurses, and perhaps due to the increasing patients that demand more health care from the field of healthcare service.

Decline in Nursing Enrollment Despite of the emergence of new technologies being utilized in today's healthcare, which can facilitate the nursing job in the future nursing service of a student, enrollment in schools of nursing continuously decline. According to an article The Impact of Nursing Shortage on VA Hospital, the nursing workforce is aging.

Average age of a new graduate in nursing has climbed to 30.5 in 1995-2000 versus 24.3 in 1985 or earlier; One reason for such decline in nursing enrollment is the introduction of a wide range of career alternatives that, if.