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Shortage Of A Nurse Essay

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The World of Nursing:
What Is Causing the Shortage?
One of the few careers left in the United States that is said to be everlasting, seems to be getting a taste of reality. What once was a thriving career has steadily begun to struggle with a call to arms. Hospitals around the world are finding that the need for nurses is increasing as new nurse graduates are decreasing. Nursing schools are unable to produce enough new graduates to meet the need. Which causes a need for adequate instructors with the knowledge necessary to educate nursing students. Even with the rate of nurses graduating each year with Bachelors and Associates, why are we in such a drastic need for nurses? Has the population and illness increased so fast that our current …show more content…

For instance, a certified nursing assistant (CNA) completes all the daily living tasks with the patients, assists with turning schedules on complete patients (those individuals without the ability to move), and gathers information for the nurses. The nurses monitor the patients, providing proper medication and are the messengers to the doctors. The doctors, of course, have the ultimate say of the patients’ care. But if the CNAs were decreased or no longer available to assist the patients with the daily living tasks and gather information for the nurses. Then the nurses would have to take over these duties on top of the duties they already preform.
As an example at any given hospital, on any given floor, there are anywhere from 4-6 patients to a nurse and 8-10 patients to every CNA. The total amount of patients per floor could range between 20-30 patients. There are some occasions where a nurse and nurse aid may take a much higher patient load then what is recommenced but the California Assembly Bill 394. “This bill mandated the maximum levels of patients per nurse in the hospital setting” (Cook et al., 2012, p.3). If the CNA was not there to assist the RN, then the RN would be required to complete all duties to the patients. With that large of a patient to nurse ratio and the amount of duties required by the hospital, it would be physically impossible to provide adequate care to the patient, especially since the majority of patients in a hospital are

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