Nursing Shortage Essay

According to Suzanne Gordon “ whether young or old, nurses are disillusioned because they believe that health care systems guided by bottom-line concerns simply don’t recognize the specificity of their work” (234). Nursing is more demanding than many other professions or occupations, due to the combination of difficult patients, exhausting schedules and arduous physical work (Gordon 235). It can take a significant emotional toll on many, hence the higher levels of burnout. Job dissatisfaction as a result of increased workloads and unreasonable demands, such as inappropriate nurse staffing levels, was cited as the number one reason that drives many experienced nurses to leave the profession (Sanford 38+). Studies have shown that such working conditions also affected the retention of new graduate nurses by leaving their first hospital jobs within two years of graduating (Sanford 38+).

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

Transitioning from nursing school to working in a hospital setting can be a challenging time for a new graduate. Due to the nursing shortage, new graduate nurses are being hired with little to no experience. This is overwhelming for new nurses, especially when they are not getting adequate support or training from the hospital. The amount of stress, pressure, and lack of training is leading to a high turnover rate for new graduate nurses. With patient acuity on the rise, new graduate nurses that are filling these vacancies in the hospitals, need to be competent nurses to provide proper and safe care to the patients.

The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) (2009b) predicts a shortfall of nursing staff equivalent to 60, 000 full-time positions by 2022. In 2011, there was a deficit of 22, 000 registered in Canada, as reported by J. Shamian, past-president of the CNA (Winston, 2011). A healthcare human resource problem, such as the supply of professionally trained registered nurses requires long-term resolution strategies. The CNA suggests that newly registered professional nurses are not yet employed to their full potential in community settings: A shift is needed towards providing increased care in community and home care settings with a focus on health promotion and disease in order to support sustainable healthcare in Canada (CNA, 2012).

31,000 were prelicensure applicants” (as cited in Ganley & Sheets, 2009, p. 401). As more

Population in Canada continues to increase as per Statistics Canada (2013). To provide quality nursing services for such a population we need sufficient nursing workforce. According to Little (2007), by 2016, Canada will face a nursing shortage of 100,000 nurses. The major reasons for this being unemployment of immigrated internationally educated nurses in Canada and emigration of Canadian-educated nurses to countries like USA. According to College of Nurses of Ontario [CNO]a (2007), as stated in Blythe, J, et al. (2009), in 2007, 11% of registered nursing workforce in Ontario constitutes Internationally Educated Nurses (IEN). Most of the IENs are left unemployed after they migrate to Canada because of rigid requirements of language skills, licensure exams, variability in nursing education across countries etc. (Blythe et al., 2009). Between 1997 and 2000, of the 25 506 foreign-educated nurses applying for licensure in the USA, approximately 22% were Canadian applicants, most of whom were new graduates (Buchan et al. 2003 as in Hall et al., 2009). If immigration of IENs can be made more beneficial to Canada and Canadian nurses are provided better incentives to practice in Canada, then nursing shortage that we are currently facing can be avoided.

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

Introduction explain, research of the article is clear. For example, in the United States, nursing workforce projections indicate the registered nurse (RN) shortage may exceed 500,000 RNs by 2025 (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2010; Cipriano, 2006; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). In 2008, the national RN vacancy rate in the United States was greater than 8% (AACN, 2010). Statement of the Problem: Introduction did not explain “why nurses are leaving from the bedside nursing. The problem statement could be worded more clearly and directly. The introduction is completed with a clear statement of purpose for the current study

According to JAMA , a study report describe nurses as being emotionally exhausted and unsatisfied with their time & work quality as they work scheduled is overloaded with more patient care; Dr. Linda Aiken found that “failure to retain nurses contributes to avoidable patient deaths”(JAMA,2002). Another impact of the nurse shortage affecting patient’s quality of care is: the high rate of turnover and opening positions. In 2007 AJN, Dr. Kovner found that 37% of the nurses were thinking of alternate jobs positions. A national poll of nurse recruiter found 16.1% of vacancy rate and 13.1% of turnover (Hodes Group, 2005). The nursing shortage have baffled experts to recognize the gaps by addressing the need of more training, increase resources, work load of staff-patient ratio and quality of care (Sultz & Young,2014).

Have you ever thought about the role a nurse has between his or her client? A nurse’s role is more than just helping clients when they are not feeling well. In 2007 there were a reportedly 12 million nurse’s employed (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). That is a large amount of nurse’s that are employed in the world. A nurse protects, promotes, optimizes health and ability, prevents illness or injury, alleviates suffering through treatment and diagnosis of human response, and advocates in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations (Amercian Nurses Association, 2012). A nurse stands for many good qualities but, why is there a big shortage of nurses?

Hospitals nationwide are experiencing nurse shortage and increased workloads because of shorter hospital stays, fewer support resources and higher acuity in patients (Vahey, D. C., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., Clarke, S. P., & Vargas, D., 2004). Higher nurse workloads are directly associated with job burnout and job dissatisfaction which in turn causes more voluntary nurse turnover and relates to the increased nursing shortage. According to the Missouri Hospital Association the turnover rate of nurses has increased by fourteen percent in the last five years (Browning M., 2012). Nursing shortage is a real threat to the patient population. According to the Quality Health Outcomes Model by the American Academy of Nursing by Donabedian, effects of the healthcare interventions are characterized by the environment the staff works in (Vahey et al., 2004). Donabedian describes that quality metrics can be divided into three broad categories, structural, process, and clinical.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Projections 2010-2020 published in February 2012 indicated that registered nurses are the top occupation with respect to job growth through 2020 (Nursing shortage, 2012). These projections also indicated that the number of active nurses will increase from 2.74 million in 2010 to 3.45 million in 2020, representing a 26% increase of 712,000 nurses; however, these projections also highlight the fact that there will be another 500,000 replacements needed during this period, meaning that demand for registered nurses will continue to outpace supply through the year 2020 (Nursing shortage, 2012). The results of a series of surveys conducted by the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Federation of American Hospitals, and the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems show that more than half (60%) of all tertiary healthcare facilities in the United States have experiencing increasing registered nurse vacancy rates since 1999 (Velez & Strom, 2012).

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors influencing the decision of registered nurses (RNs) to leave clinical nursing. This research has lot of significant for nurses and other people in medical profession. In United States and in other parts of the world, there has been a shortage of Registered Nurses. It has been anticipated that this shortage would increase to 500,000 in US alone by 2025. Therefore, research must be undertaken to determine the underlying factors that force nurses to leave.

The World Health Organization reveals that most countries across the globe are experiencing nursing shortage regardless of their economic standing (Senior, 2010). In Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information [CIHI] (2006) projected a shortage of 113,000 nurses across the country by 2016. On the other hand, the province of Ontario continuously faces shortage in nursing workforce (Koroll, 2014) as CIHI (2012) reported that the number of nurses per 100,000 Ontarians dropped from 718 to 699 on 2009 and 2012 respectively. The province ranked as second to the lowest nurse to population ratio in the country with seven nurses for every 1000 residents (Greenway, 2014) and that it requires 18,000 nurses to address the health care needs of the public (Ontario Nurses Association, n.d.). Basu and Gupta (2007) also explained that more nurses are retiring while the demand for their service is increasing due to the escalating aging population, advancement in healthcare technology, increasing healthcare complexities, and negative perceptions of nursing conditions. The shortage of nurses causes long wait and frustrating wait times in any healthcare setting, decrease quality in patient care, and poor working conditions in the nursing profession (Canadian Nursing Association [CNA], 2015; Ogilvie, 2014). It progressively becomes worse yearly (Russel, 2008) and if no realistic and achievable measures to be implemented, the needs of the growing and aging population would be

An article in the Upstate Business Journal discusses why the raising of hospital standards for nurses could leave South Carolina in a nursing shortage. Hospitals in South Carolina and other states are requiring their nurses to have a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) or return to school within a specific amount of time to obtain their BSN. Hospitals are making this switch because studies have shown that more nurses within a hospital system with a four year degree or higher, increases positive patient outcomes. Unfortunately for South Carolina, this switch could decrease the amount of qualified nurses in their state. SC does not currently have the educational capacity to educate this increase number of nurses returning for advanced