Literature Review Nursing Shortage

Nursing shortages have always occurred in cycles. Recently, the shortage has become worse due to the implications of managed care as a way of controlling escalating health care costs. While the shortage did ease some during the recession of 2009, there is still a shortage in some areas of the country (Cherry & Jacob, 2014). Increased student enrollments and government policies have helped with the shortage, but the occupational outlook for nursing jobs is expected to grow faster than any other occupation through 2018. So it is essential that the supply of nurses increases to keep up with the demand. The current shortage is due to several factors. First, new nurses are needed to replace “baby boomers” who will be retiring in the near future. Second, as the population ages, there will be a demand for more healthcare, leading to a demand for more nurses. Third, new advances in patient care will lead to more people in the healthcare system needing more specialized care, and lastly, the affordable care act places a large emphasis on preventive care, leading to more people desiring wellness visits (Cherry & Jacob, 2014). Finally, according to Dall’Ora, Chiara, Griffiths, Peter, Ball, Jane, Simon, Michael Aiken, Linda H. (2015), “shifts lasting 12 hours or longer were associated with a 40 percent greater level of job dissatisfaction and a 31 percent higher risk of planning to quit. Job satisfaction and burnout in the nursing workforce are global

Nursing shortage has been a global problem that need to be eradicated in order to promote patient care and improve care outcomes. Nursing shortage in America has caused a lot of negative impact on the nurses, patients and nursing profession. It has caused a lot of dissatisfaction on the part of the nurses and the patients (Nardi & Gyurko, 2013). Nurses are prone to injuries, stress and burn-out as a result of nursing shortages. They engaged in working long hours to compensate their coworkers and ensure completion of assigned jobs. They end up breaking down emotionally, physically and psychologically due to poor work-environment and

Current literature continues to reiterate the indicators of a major shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States. The total RN population has been increasing since 1980, which means that we have more RNs in this country than ever before (Nursing Shortage). Even though the RN population is increasing, it is growing at a much slower rate then when compared to the rate of growth of the U.S. population (Nursing Shortage). We are seeing less skilled nurses “at a time of an increasingly aging population with complex care

An article in the Health Marketing Quarterly written by Mark Somers, Linda Finch, and Dee Birnbaum (university instructors in schools of management, nursing and business fields in the U.S.) asserts that the nursing shortages of "highly trained nurses and of nursing faculty" is close to a level that could be termed a "crisis" (Somers, et al, 2010). The expected gap between supply and demand will expand to more than a million nurses by 2020, Somers explains, which is twice the shortfall had had been projected just two years prior to this article's publication (292).

The United States healthcare industry faces many challenges everyday, such as the rising cost of care, medical errors, access and quality problems etc. Within the next few years, the United States will experience a shortage of Register Nurses (RNs). “Registered Nurses are considered one of the largest health professions in the health care industry. The Nurses duty is to provide direct patient care and can be done in a hospital, public health facility, nursing home and many other different settings. Other services included are patient education on disease prevention, administering treatments and promoting a healthy lifestyle.” ("The Future of the Nursing Workforce: National- and State- Level Projections 2012-2025”) The shortage will occur due to Baby Boomers aging and the demand for health care will dramatically rise. With the baby boomers aging, Registered Nurses are at the top of the list for demand in health care. Unfortunately the supply and demand does not meet. “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections 2012-2022 released in December 2013, RNs will increase of about 526,800 within that time frame but will still have job openings of 1.05 million by 2020)”("Nursing Shortage") Indicating that there is no growth between 2012- 2022. There are multiple factors to this shortage and one of them is that nursing schools across the nation are struggling to increase the capacity of students to meet the rising demand. Considering the fact

The American Nurses Association say the shortage is the product of several trends, including: a diminishing pipeline of new students to nursing, a decline in RN/CNA earnings in comparison to other career option, aging nursing workforce and an aging population that will require health care services (Writer, 2016). With the shortage of staff and the baby boomers turning sixty and many already in retirement, healthcare staff members are going to have to pick up more shifts and a tougher workload. Healthcare industries need to focus on recruiting and retaining staff because hiring more nursing staff is expensive in the short term. But having too few staff leads to being burned out. Having the right amount of CNAs and nurses is essential for manageable workload distribution. Facilities need to prevent and protect current employed nursing staff from being overworked and stressing out because good health care workers only quit when they are overwhelmed. Most are afraid that they are not providing the best care anymore and feel like they can not do what they love the most anymore (Cimiotti, 2017).

It is likely that most people have heard about the nursing shortage for years now, and perhaps they believe it’s been fixed. However, the nursing profession is experiencing a reoccurring deficiency. According to Brian Hansen, (2002), there was a nation wide shortage in 2001 of 126,000 full-time registered nurses, but the shortage will surge to 808,000 by 2020 if something isn't done. This pattern is a persisting cycle of high vacancies followed by layoffs and a high over supply of registered nurses. Various factors contribute to the lack of nurses within the health care facilities, but today’s shortages are a little different. Many feel that this scarcity is severe and long-drawn-out. The four major issues contributing to

According to the Nursing Economics, the nursing shortage is caused by an aging workforce, attrition of older nurses and lack of young people and minorities attracted to the nursing profession. Some solution they offered involved factors that affect job satisfaction and work environment (Allen, 2008). Along with solutions like recruiting from the new student population, removing barriers to admission, working with the media to explain partnerships between a university and hospital, new programs and accelerated nursing programs, increased access to clinical settings, and a restructured learning with technology and other simulators. The short-term strategies were broken down to 5 main points, looking at non-traditional resources for faculty instruction,

However the problem shouldn’t be seen as the result of a single factor. It turned out that it is a combination of different factors which today give rise to the lack of health care providers. The nursing shortage is due to a combination of negative reputation, declining enrollment and faculty and increases of the population.

Even though nurses are considered the largest group of professionals in the health care system there is a global nursing shortage. In addition to the nursing shortage, there are nurses terminating their job, profession, or are leaving the workforce of nursing completely (Flinkman, Isophkala-Bouret, & Salantera, 2013). “The youngest generation of nurses are the most willing to leave the job and the nursing profession” (Flinkman et al., 2013, p. 2). It is estimated that 17.5 percent of registered nurses who are newly licensed leave their first nursing job within the first year of employment and those leaving within two years is 33.5 percent (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014). Additionally, those reporting that they were “ready” to change their job was 37% (Fears, 2010). According to Barron and West (2005), the percentage of those parting from the nursing profession for a superior job was highest at the age of 32. Hospitals nationally reported that their annual turnover for registered nurses is between 1 and 20 percent, but with 14 percent as the average (Rapheal, 2011). The Bureau of Labor Statistics (n.d.) estimates that there will be a necessity to replace 525,000 nurses in the labor force by the year 2020.

The global nursing shortage leads to the development of strategies which primary focus on nursing staff attraction and retention. According to Quill, a nursing shortage continuously increases due to obvious reasons such as burnout, retirement, long shift hours, underpayments, injuries, and overall job dissatisfaction. “As of 2010, 40% of registered nurses in the USA are older than age 50 and planning for retirement” (Quill, 2012). Quill points out that nursing shortage was considered as a “global crisis” in 2002. Moreover, in the USA, the shortage reached 150,000 in 2012 and expected to be increased to 800,000 in 2020. Therefore, in 2001, more than 66 countries initiated positive changes in policies to better address staffing issues

There are always going to be sick people or people that need care coming in to receive treatment. The shortage of nurses can also be caused by the hospital and other facilities resistance to hire new and upcoming nurses. This can be because of a desire to save money for the hospital or even because management is unaware that there is a shortage of nurses because they are not working the floors and they do not know what is going on in the hospital. One of the reasons that nurses plan to leave the work field is because of the harsh working conditions. Nurses could be exposed to infectious diseases in pediatric areas, and emergency rooms.

According to Paller (2012), the nursing shortage in different countries for example the United States tends not to be the only growing problem, but has also become a complex one. Nursing shortage and nurse's turnover has become the worsening predicament in the health care industry in the United

As a first-year nursing student, I cannot count the number of times I have been asked, "Why nursing?" Many people in my life are under the assumption that there are too many nurses in our country, which is not the case. While the nursing shortage is a current issue, it is certainly not a new one. According to Donald E. Yett, a professor at the University of Southern California who is an expert on the economics of medical care, the nursing shortage issue dates to the 1940's leading to The Nurse Training Act of 1964 (p. 190). While the issue was well known it steadily grew out of control, despite all efforts made against it. When the Nurse Training Act of 1964 was signed, the issue was the lack of nurses and nursing graduates (Yett, 1966). However, according to Aiken, Cheung, and Olds (2003), writers for Health Affairs a peer-reviewed healthcare journal, today nursing school is very competitive, with high enrollment and graduation rates (p. 647). The issue that our country is facing now is that the demand for nurses is growing, we aren't producing enough nurses to meet the demand due to the lack of educators available to take on such high volumes of students, and we are experiencing high nurse turnover and retirement rates (Aiken, Cheung, Olds, 2003). For one to better understand the article "The Nursing Shortage and The Nurse Training Act of 1964," one must examine the quality of care, lack of nursing educators, as well as nurse work environments.

A problem that is hindering the nursing field is the shortage of nurses. Nursing shortages have a negative impact on nurses that overwork. Nurses that usually work long period of hours under stressful circumstances results in exhaustion, hurt, and job discontent. Research shows that with a 20 percent increase in new nursing positions and a third of all current nurses are expected to leave by 2020 which will require the United States to hire another million registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses, such as practitioners in the next years or so (Health line). The shortages due to these problems will get worse and hinder the upcoming nurses later on in the future. With these shortages nurses stress the quality of time they have to spend on a certain task as well as being discontent with their jobs because of the shortages happening in the world today.