ABSTRACT Nursing is one of the largest groups of healthcare providers giving high quality direct care in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and in home care. Due to vast reductions in nursing students, coupled with other challenges presented by a growing nursing shortage, this has resulted in fewer nurses working longer hours and caring for even sicker patients than before. This set of circumstances compromises the care of the patient and contributes to the nursing shortage by creating an environment that drives nurses from the bedside and into other professions or out of nursing, due to being burnout. Nurses are a peculiar group of people in a profession that has several different fields and has roles for different …show more content…
Nursing shortages are appearing to be a global concern as well. The shortage of nurses has caused a widespread and dangerous deficiency of experienced nurses who are needed to care for individual patients as well as the population as a whole. According to an article written by Littlejohn (2012) the nursing shortage needs appropriate intervention in order to prevent a serious public health crisis. Nursing is one of the largest groups of healthcare professionals whose has over 3.1 million Registered Nurses, but there are still not enough to care for the growing number of patients. AMN (2012) Study by Hecker (2004) suggested that in the year 2012 there would be a deficit of more than one million nurses. The shortage of nurses has put the patient as well as nurses at an increased risk for injury. There are several causes for nursing shortages. Shortages are caused by sudden population growth resulting in a growing need for health care services. There are also, a declining amount of new students in nursing. According to American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), nursing schools in the United States turned away almost 80,000 applicants in 2012 due to insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, and classroom space. AACN (2014) Baby boomers are getting older. According to the American Nurses Association (ANA), over a 10 year span, the average age of employed Registered Nurses has increased from 42.7 years in 2000 to 44.6
Low nursing school enrollment. The projected demand for nursing services is not being met with the low enrollment. In 2011, the AACN reported there was only a 5.1% increase in enrollment in entry-level nursing programs.
According to an article submitted by Rosenfeld, 2009, the growing trends of an aging population require the need for more nursing services. In addition, there are insufficient numbers of facilities to train new nurses (Rosenfeld, 2009). The above issues pertaining to nursing shortages have created what is called a “nursing crisis” which have caused and will continue to cause dramatic shortages on a national basis.
The nursing shortage is an accumulation of multiple factors. The four primary contributions to the shortage include the aging registered nurse workforce, declining nursing school enrollments, the changing work climate, and the poor image of nursing (Love et al., 2006, p. 558). When it comes to the aging workforce, approximately one-third of the nursing workforce was over 50 years of age in 2000 and that fraction has increased to two-fifths in 2014 (Nevidjon and Erickson, 2001). Over half of registered nurses intend to retire between 2011 and 2020
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).
The US healthcare system is no stranger to nursing shortages. It is a recurring problem we have been faced with for the past seven decades. However, what we will be faced with between now and 2025 is a predicament of far greater proportion than ever encountered before. “Considering the impact this prolonged shortage will have on the USA health care system, nursing and other health-related organizations have even brought their concerns to lawmakers in the central government for immediate consideration” (Janiszewski Goodin 335). This quote is from 2003 and sadly, the state of today’s nursing shortage is still blatantly apparent. Not necessarily because nothing was done back in 2003 to fix it, but
There are numerous issues that cause the nursing shortage of today. “Baby Boomer” nurses are aging, retiring or coming to the end of their careers which will cause a rift. Many nurses are choosing to leave the nursing profession for other careers because of job dissatisfaction or
The projected 29 percent shortage in 2020 is the result of a 40 percent increase in demand between 2000 and 2020 in comparison to a projected 6 percent growth in supply (Projected Supply, Demand, and Shortages of Nurses, 2002). One of the biggest components is the increasing numbers in the elderly population. According to the University of Illinois College of Nursing, a report was issued stating that "the ratio of potential caregivers to the people most likely to need care, the elderly population, will decrease by 40% between 2010 and 2030" (Nursing Institute at the University of
Is the nursing shortage in the United States real? The answer to that question is not as simple as it may seem. The nursing shortage greatly depends on the constant changes in healthcare coverage, for example Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements but it is also based on the rising number of the aging population. Although many sources predict that the nursing shortage is expected to get worse overall throughout the United States. There many other sources that we must consider when debating whether or not there is a big deficit. There are over 3 million nurses in America and they make up the largest segment of the health-care workforce in the U.S. (Grant, 2016). Nursing is one of the largest number of healthcare professionals in the United
The reasons behind this supply shortage come from a broad range of issues that include: steep population growth, a diminishing pipeline of nursing students, an aging workforce and a large amount of retirees that will require intensive health care services. These issues are occurring just as the majority of nurses are retiring and job opportunities within health care are expanding.
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
There are various factors that are contributing to the current nursing shortage and turnover. Apparently the major contributing factors in the USA are a population of nurses that are getting older without adequate replacement, there are fewer than expected faculties dedicated to nursing, there are more career fields opening up particularly for women hence the alternative choices instead of nursing, federal government's failure to fund the nursing education across the country, generally unpleasant working conditions and terms, poor retention of the nurses as well as an overstretched hence overworked nursing staff.
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
(Rosseter, 2014) According to the AACN, the plan to fix the nursing shortage, is to come up with strategies to encourage students to enroll in nursing school. Colleges are now offering both fiscal and emotion support to students enrolled in nursing programs across the country. Obviously, this is a great plan to better the future, but in regards to our scenario, the problem at hand is the current staffing issue.
One influencing factor in the nursing shortage is the aging Baby Boomer population, where more older people will need more medical care and hence more nurses. At the same time, the nursing population itself is also aging, with more nurses nearing retirement age. These two factors are likely to create a tandem shortage for the coming years.
In today’s society, the medical field is constantly thriving with technological improvements and the growth of educated individuals that contribute to the well-being of others. Nurses make up the largest majority of the industry, and with that, nursing is the fastest growing occupation. Nursing is a job that allows people to not only take care of the sick but also to experience, learn, and further their interests of the human body.