Nursing Workforce Shortage Paper

The Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health acknowledges the changing healthcare sector in the US and describes future vision of healthcare and the role of nurses to fulfill that vision. The United States always strives to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the entire population of the country. In order to achieve this goal an overall restructuring of the healthcare system was necessitated. Nurses are considered to be the central part of the healthcare system to provide high quality and safe patient care. Nursing in the US is the single largest segment of the healthcare workforce with almost 3 million nurses working in different areas across the county. The changing

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).

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).

Moreover, insurers are mandated to cover and provide certain preventive services such as vaccinations without additional charge. The ACA is projected to provide an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans access to health care insurance resulting in more people seeking medical care. As a result of this policy, the demand for nurses is projected to grow at a higher rate (Spetz, 2014). In addition, nurses are confronted with critical changes in health care such as providing efficient and high quality care while keeping the cost affordable. According to Vincent & Reed (2014), the policy plans to enhance the role and expand opportunities in nursing. The law provides funding to expand the number of advance practice nurses and providers. Some experts claim that the growing number of people seeking medical care will not become an issue with the projected nursing workforce due to the many opportunities for expansion as part of the ACA’s provision. In another view, the shortage of Registered Nurses (RN) is projected to intensify as the Baby Boomers age and the need for health care rises in addition to the increasing number of uninsured people that have access to health insurance. Therefore, the increase of patient load due to the extension of health care coverages to millions of previously uninsured people as a result of the ACA will be unmanageable for nurses.

The Nursing Profession has been experiencing shortages for many years. The pattern seems to be repetitive, high demand for nurses followed by phases of downsizing with a surplus of nurses. The earlier years of the nursing shortage was short compared to today’s current nursing shortage. The nursing shortage exist globally and in all nursing areas. There are several factors that are the cause of the nursing shortage of today as well in years past.

Nurses make up the majority of health care staffing with over 4 million active registered nurses in the United States. Nurses are responsible for quality patient care and constantly monitoring and assessing their patients and are often providing the majority of patient care. With such a large impact on patients and their care, it is alarming to know there is shortage of nurses both state and nationwide. The demand for nurses is high but the supply is low. This is currently one of our nation’s largest health care issues. If it is not addressed, it will not only affect our current health care system but also the economic health of our nation’s future. There are several key factors that contribute to the nursing shortage; an increase in nurses who are retiring from the work field, there is a decrease in nursing educational resources and opportunities leading in to a lower number of new graduated nurses and a high level of staff turnover. An increase in nursing shortages results in decreased quality patient care and increased risk to patients.

When the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its 2010 report, The Future of Nursing, Leading Change, and Advancing Health, many nurses felt affirmed by the spotlight this prestigious group placed on nursing. The reality is the newly designed healthcare requirements by President Obama will lead to millions of previously uninsured Americans needing care that nurses can provide. These growing demands lend themselves to different types of care providers under the nursing umbrella. There are: LPNs, nursing assistants, RNs with associate degrees, baccalaureate and master degrees, nurse practitioners,

The cyclical shortage of nurses is a complex and multifaceted problem that is caused by various factors that are related to training, compensation, and retention ("Nursing Workforce", 2012). The recent nursing shortage challenge has been more severe and lasted longer than the past nursing shortages. In the year 2000, there was an estimated 110,000 open nursing positions that implied that demand for nursing services exceeded the available supply. The shortage increased by 8.1 percent in 2008 across the long-term facilities and hospitals that demonstrated the huge need and growing problem. As a result of the trend, the nursing shortage is projected to reach approximately 260,000, which is

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

There are many key players and stakeholders that are essential for solving the nursing shortage. The America Nursing Association (ANA) has done an extensive amount of work on getting polices put in place and legislation passed. The ANA has lobbyists in both the house and congress, as well as the other agencies, that work on policies and legislation to increase the number of nurses and nursing facilities in the United States (ANA, 2017). Some ANA advocates have increased nursing education funding under the Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, in addition to funding other programs to improve resources for the nursing workforce (ANA, 2017). The ANA has also advocated for public insurance programs to give better reimbursement coding for

A continuous shortage of nursing has been the attention in the nation for many years. A significant contributor to the decline of quality care is the shortage of registered nurses. “Registered Nurses are the largest population of health care professionals” (AACN, 2014) and still there is shortage of nurses. Nurses play a pivotal role in patient care in hospitals, long term care facilities, community, hospice, schools, and at home. The care nurses provide is directly linked to the cost, availability and the quality of healthcare. Education, practice, recruitment and retention are the four main categories associated with shortage of nursing. “Under the Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, Nursing workforce development programs has helped decrease the nursing shortage and evidently improve the quality of patient care (AACN, 2014).”

Assessment of shortage severity may vary a great deal depending on the defining terms, adding to the complexity of solving the nurse shortage issue. Yet in the daily lives of nurses, there is evidence that a nursing shortage is real. The United States has become the largest global importer of foreign born nursing staff, indicating that the supply of U.S. born nurses available or willing to work at the current wage level is inadequate (Aiken, 2007). Nurses are leaving the profession partially because of the increased stress and heavy workloads signs that more help is

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

Research has indicated that the United States in the years to come is going to experience a short supply of registered nurses (RN). In the same breadth, experts have indicated that the problem is going to increase as the healthcare reforms and Baby Boomers age grows (Staiger, Auerbach, & Buerhaus, 2012). The issue is complicated further because nursing schools have limited capacity to deal with the demand increase for healthcare as the US concentrates in injecting reforms to the care sector. As a result, there has emerged a public outcry over the deficit. Ideally, such a shortage jeopardizes the safety of patients and the country’s health. Ideally, this paper will dissect the problem of the nursing shortage, causes and the possible solution to the issue.

Job opportunities for RNs (registered nurses) are expected to continue growing faster with their salaries also growing. However, the opportunities vary by the employment setting and their available geographical setting. In fact, estimates of nursing industry experts project that close to 600,000 new jobs will be generated. The reason for this growth is as a result of the technological advances in the care of patients. This has permitted more health problems to be treated and has increased the emphasis that is being placed on preventive care. Additionally, the number of old people is increasing that the number of younger people.