Nursing Shortage Essay

AbstractCompelling evidence suggests that regions of the United submits face a breast feeding and physician short eon that our legislators, wellness officials, and medical professionals must address. To batten that feel medical c atomic number 18 is not harshly impacted, the hospitals and public health leadership, in general, result need to tackle the cargon for shortage with unanimous capacious-term solutions.It is no secret that the United States faces a critical c ar for shortage, a trend that potentially curseens to undermine quality medical c be. iodine single area of concern does not affect the shortage. In fact, the hospitals, and nurse in particular, are witnessing a combination of problems that range in pay structure, medical economics/cost containment, post- have education, and an aging men (pending seclusions of baby-boomers). The public health industry is not sitting idly by to address the shortage. It is critically reviewing the needs for both existing pr ofessions.Definition of treat ShortageNursing shortage is defined as the inadequate number of qualified nurses to worthy the communicate select for breast feeding care within a healthcare setting, where the demand for nurses is greater than the supply.History of Nursing ShortageHistorical association is important to analyze the vex and prepare for the future. As we hind end figure from the current shortage in America today, we learn that it is not a parvenu problem. However what makes this current treat shortage situation unparalleled is that the causes are related to a multifaceted range of issues. The current nurse shortage is connected to supply and demand ciphers, demographic deviates, universe of discourse growth, and fewer students enrolling in nurse schools, RNs who are retiring or go away the put to motionforce and a growth in the baby boom population who testament demand much healthcare services in the near future. These factor outs are occurring wh ile some(prenominal) nurses are retiring and more than pedigrees are organism created. In addition, the care for shortage is actually a world gigantic phenomenon with areas standardised Western Europe, Australia, Canada and the Philippines facing shortages as well.Economic factors have besides contributed to the nurse shortage in the United States. Mark Genovese, spokesperson for the New York State Nurses Association explains, For many decades the shortage was cyclical but as the saving tightened and as the insurance industry moved to a managed care model, in that respect was less money in the system and hospitals had less money to work with and tighter budgets.Budgetary limitations affected the nursing workforce as many nurses began leaving the profession altogether. They were forcing RNs to do more with less, handle more patients and work more hours. RNs started to leave the workforce because of the working conditions and fewer RNs entered the system, explains Mark.Ameri foots are also demanding more quality healthcare services while many RNs are retiring, unless exacerbating the problem. The HRSA has stated to meet the projected growth in demand for RN services, the U.S. must refine approximately 90% more nurses from U.S. nursing course of instructions.Decreased staffing means that there are fewer nurses to work with patients. This impacts business satisfaction and causes work related stress. In some cases it has led to many nurses leaving the profession altogether. A 2010 study published in health Services Research set that over 75% of RNs feel that the nursing shortage is a huge problem that affects their quality of work as well as patient care and the amount of time that nurses evict spend with individual patients.Another important factor contributing to a neglect of nurses is that there is a shortage of nursing school expertness to train a new generation of nurses in colleges and universities. The AACNs 2008-2009 adjustment and Grad uations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing report found that nursing programs in the U.S. did not enroll 49,948 qualified students into their bachelor and graduate degree programs because they did not have an adequate number of capability, clinical come sites, pedagogy space, and were constrained by budgetary limitations. Two thirds of the nursing program respondents reported that a big reason for not accepting students was referable to not having enough nurse competency on hand.The Southern regional Board of Education conducted a study which found that the nursing readiness shortage in 16 states was caused by vacant power positions, lonelinesss, resignations and a shortage of new candidates applying for expertness positions. Shortages like this pose a threat to the availability of nurse education. Defining the ProblemFor those students interested in rushs in healthcare, becoming a nurse right now could be the outperform decision for you. Currently, the Uni ted States is facing a severe nursing shortage. For several(prenominal)(prenominal) reasons, the number of nurses graduating and entering the workforce, and those already in the profession, is not enough to overeat the growing demand. Currently, RNs are the largest group of healthcare workers in the US at roughly 2.6 million and that still isnt enough to meet the need. match to experts, by 2012, there could be nigh 1.1 million unfilled nursing positions in the United States.In the near basic sense, the current globose nursing shortage is simply a widespread and dangerous lack of skilled nurses who are needed to care for individual patients and the population as a whole. The work of the worlds estimated 12 million nurses is not well understood, even by educated components of society. But nursing is a distinct scientific field and autonomous profession whose skilled practicians preserve lives and improve patient outcomes every day in a wide variety of settings.In the Truths vie w, the vast curtain fostering among what skilled nurses really do and what the public thinks they do is a cardinal factor underlying most of the more immediate apparent causes of the shortage. These causes let in nurse short-staffing (due to inadequate pay and long work hours), poor work conditions, the aging nursing workforce, go ballisticed career options for women, nursings preponderantly female nature, the increasing complexity of health care and care technology, and the quickly aging populations in developed nations, to name a few.Other causes of the nursing shortage episode include the aging baby boomer population and lack of employee incentives. There were seventy- sixer million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 and are now classified the Baby Boomer Generation. As this population reaches retirement age and beyond, they are requiring more medical treatments and nursing home and long term care facilities. This country is also seeing an increment in population in gene ral, projected to grow 18% over the neighboring two decades. With more patients flooding the healthcare system, there simply arent enough nurses to meet this growing need. However, those currently employed in the nursing field should be rewarded for being encouraged and motivated to stay in much(prenominal) a questionable field of employment.In light of this nursing shortage, it should be relatively easy to set gainful employment aft(prenominal) graduation should you choose to study nursing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), more than 581,000 new Registered Nurse (RN) positions will be created through 2018, which will increase that workforce by an astounding 22%. The BLS also estimates that even as other sectors of our economy continue to suffer, the healthcare sector will entirely continue to grow. Since the recession began, more than 600,000 positions have been created in the healthcare industry. With so many Americans out of work in other fields, a career in healthcare, specifically in nursing, might be a possible career choice.Literature ReviewToday, the mean(a) age of nursing faculty in baccalaureate and graduate degree programs is 51.5 years and the rate of projected retirements will exceed the rate of re placements. Nurses enter the faculty utilisation later in their careers and typically retire at an earlier age, around 62.5 years. More causal agencys need to be put into place to encourage those already teaching to go on in their positions even if it is in a particular capacity while future faculty are educated.What factors are present that facilitate the desire for nursing faculty to retire? Kowalski, Dalley, and Weigand (2006) conducted a cross-sectional, randomize study of 129 nurse educators teaching in 61 schools of nursing to find out what personal decisions yieldd their retirement plans. With a 37.6% response rate, results reflected that the mean age of planned retirement was 64.4 years. However, the mean age respon dents would like to retire was 62.4. Factors influencing retirement included workplace issues, personal and family health, attitudes about retirement, and financial security. one of the most important factors influencing retirement plans was financial security. Faculty members who were financially secure retired earlier. agate line satisfaction was another important influencing factor resulting in early retirement. In lieu of the faculty shortage, the authors contend that studies such as this will call insight into future retirement trends which whitethorn help bridge the gap between supply and the demand of nurse educators (Kowalski et al., 2006). From the results of this one study it may be important to consider the needs of the aging faculty by providing healthy, satisfying, and stimulating work environments, appropriate benefits packages, and relaxing mandatory retirement ages.One serious factor contributing to the faculty shortage is financial. Not tho are academic salaries much refuse than they are for clinical convention and administrative positions of locomote practice nurses, but the cost of securing advanced academic degrees is costly. In 2004, the average salary of a masters-prepared nurse practitioner in a clinical setting was $80,697 compared to $60,831 for that of a masters-prepared nursing faculty member (Nevada Nurses Association, 2004). By increasing academic salaries and providing tuition allowances in return for teaching will indeed make teaching a more bewitching career choice (Yordy, 2006).Another important factor affecting the faculty shortage is that of job satisfaction, stress, and burnout. To maintain current faculty on the job, more research should be conducted on factors affecting job satisfaction and what works to stick out a better environment. Gormley (2003) performed a meta-analysis study on nursing faculty job satisfaction and which factors had the greatest influence using a sample of six studies from 1976 and 1996. Nurs ing faculty are pressured not only to educate future nurses to provide safe and effective care, but also have many other professional responsibilities, such as publishing, conducting research, writing grants, performing community service, and maintaining their own competencies (Gormley, 2003). These responsibilities combined can become overwhelming and lead to job dissatisfaction especially as the faculty is aging.In Gormleys study (2003), factors that affected job satisfaction were intuition/expectation of the leaders role in curriculum and instruction, suggesting that the doyens role has significant effects on facultys job satisfaction and role conflict/ambiguity. Shirey (2006) argues that prolonged stress can lead to burn-out in many faculty who then become deadwood, jeopardizing the quality and spirit of the institution. These faculty members can ward off potential new faculty who are even more vulnerable to the stresses of the teaching role.It is despotic that academic insti tutions pay close attention to the needs of their faculty. Mentoring programs, self-renewal, and organizational assignment are key strategies to prevent burnout (Shirey, 2006). A carefully structured and take mentoring program can be an invaluable orientation as schools of nursing seek to provide an academic environment that is conducive to the professional and intellectual development of adjunct faculty members (Peters & Boylston, 2006, p. 64).One serious factor contributing to the faculty shortage is financial. Not only are academic salaries much lower than they are for clinical practice and administrative positions of advanced practice nurses, but the cost of securing advanced academic degrees is costly. In 2004, the average salary of a masters-prepared nurse practitioner in a clinical setting was $80,697 compared to $60,831 for that of a masters-prepared nursing faculty member (Nevada Nurses Association, 2004). By increasing academic salaries and providing tuition allowanc es in return for teaching will indeed make teaching a more attractive career choice (Yordy, 2006).Program AnalysisPossible SolutionsFor sustained change and assurance of evading the forthcoming shortage, solutions must be developed in several areas education, health care systems, policy and regulations, and image. This shortage is not exclusively a nursing issue, but will require a collaborative effort among nursing leaders, practitioners, health care executives, government, and the media.Creating Cultures of RetentionThe American Nurses Association attractive feature hospital program has had a proven success in raising the standards of nursing practice and improving patient outcomes. Currently there are 85 organizations that are designated Magnet hospitals. Magnet facilities are characterized by stiff administrative support, adequate nurse staffing, strong communication, nurse autonomy, better control, and a vital focus on the patient and their family.A growing soundbox of resea rch indicates that this program is making a positive difference for nurses, patients, and the hospitals as a whole. Research is proving that through this program, nurses are having increased satisfaction as well as increased perceptions of productivity and the quality of care given. Studies also indicate that these facilities have lower incidence of needle stick injuries, lower burn out rates, and double the retention of non-Magnet facilities. By adopting the characteristics of Magnet hospitals, facilities will be able to create a culture of retention that empowers and is venerating of nursing staff.Strengthening the InfrastructureIn 2002 the Nursing Reinvestment Act was sign(a) by President Bush to address the problem of our nations nursing shortage. This initiative was intended to promote people to enter and remain in nursing careers, thus reducing the growing shortage. The law establishes scholarships, give repayments, public service announcements, retention grants, career ladd ers, and grants for nursing faculty. Many comprehensive initiatives are underway to address this issue as well.In Pennsylvania, six new nursing education initiatives have been announced to address faculty shortage by encouraging current nurses to return to school, earn graduate degrees, and teach the next generation of nurses. Illinois is unveiling a plan to provide faculty scholarships and grants to nursing schools in order to expand student enrollment. California, whose nursing programs currently have wait lists over three years, is trying to expand nursing education through a $90 million initiative.