Information On The Nursing Shortage
Posted in Nursing Shortage by faviola on February 18th, 2007 It is a scary thought to think that we at this time are in a nursing shortage in this country. How is this possible? With the medical field being in such demand as it is. One would think our government would step in and begin providing some sort of assistance to colleges in order to make nursing a more attractive. A job with great pay and great benefits for nurses would definitely do the trick. It is funny to see that colleges nursing programs are so impacted that a waiting list is over a 2 year wait, the only hope to get in to a program before 2 years is if you win the nursing lottery. Our government should be stepping in and providing more grants to school to open up more classes and hire more teachers in order to provide a shorter waiting time period. It is very discouraging for a person that wants to go into the nursing program to think that there is a 2 year wait before you can even get started.
I hope there are organizations out there bringing up these topics to the appropriate people that can start doing something about this nursing shortage issue.
The fundamental problem may not be supply of graduates but retention. Nurses are leaving the profession because of the stress of working in woefully understaffed facilities and because they lack administrative support or control over their environments. In many settings, nurses are responsible for coordination and continuity of their patients’ care, yet they feel they have little authority for many aspects of their job.10 Fifty-five percent of nurses would not recommend a nursing career to their children and friends.7 In a recent survey, 41% of respondents indicated job dissatisfaction, 43% showed strong indicators of burnout, and almost 25% planned on quitting their jobs in the next year. Of this last group, one third were not yet even 30 years old.11
A confluence of factors is causing the shortage of nurses. Among them are declining nursing school enrollments (down 17% since 1995), an aging workforce nearing retirement, decreases in relative earnings (the average elementary school teacher earns $13,600 more than the average RN), dissatisfaction with work conditions (largely brought on by managed care), and increasing alternative employment opportunities for women.
Health care reform is on the back burner indefinitely. By the time you read this, we will have been in Iraq for 2 months. The top priorities now are the safety of our troops and our homeland. In the nation’s capital, we’ve been encouraged to set up safe zones with sealed windows, keep supplies of bottled water on hand, and have escape routes mapped out. Yet amid our anxiety over a possible terrorist backlash for invading Iraq, our preoccupation with preparedness for a potential biological or chemical disaster, and our concern for the welfare of our troops, I want to call attention to another national security crisis that lurks in the wards of American hospitals: the deepening shortage of registered nurses (RNs).
