Nursing Shortage and Strategies to Address the Growing Crisis in Healthcare

Introduction

A nursing shortage is where the demand for nursing professionals exceeds their supply, which can be in a given healthcare facility, whether in a local scenario or nationally or globally. This can be measured through the number of job openings that call for a higher number of nurses who are working in healthcare than the ones who are available or even the ratio between nurses and the population. This is a problem that has become rampant in both developing and developed countries all over the world. Since the Second World War, hospitals in the U.S. have had to deal with a cyclical shortage of nurses. The national supply of nurses cannot meet the high demand nationally. This recurrent shortage of nurses in the U.S. means that the quality of patient care will go down. This is a complex issue that is multifaceted, and there are many causes.

Causes of Nursing Shortage

The recent shortage is due to multiple cumulative factors. This includes the population growth that has been observed recently and it is very steep. This means that the number of people in need of care from nurses is increasing at an alarming rate, but the number of nurses is not increasing enough to meet the high population. The other cause of the shortage is a continuing diminishing number of new students who enroll in nursing. This means that there will be an inflow of new nurses into the healthcare industry to replace the nurses who are retiring. A decline in RN earnings relative to other available careers is yet another reason. Nurses opt to switch to other careers that attract better pay and hence leave gaps in hospitals. An aging workforce is also another reason; just like other careers, the nursing profession is affected by the aging population, meaning that nurses continue to retire, and with no fresh graduates to take up the positions of these retired nurses, it translates to an inevitable shortage. There is also the fact that there is an overall rise in the aging population, which requires a lot of healthcare services. This calls for great attention, which may even mean personal nurses, meaning the patient-nurse ratio has to be balanced. This, however, is not possible as there are few available nurses, hence the nursing shortage. All these issues take place when the job opportunities that are found within the healthcare industry expand, and at the same time, a large number of nurses retire (KaiserEDU.org, 2012).

Impact of Nursing Shortage

The issue of nursing shortage is a very serious one that needs to be looked into very urgently. The magnitude of the shortage can be seen. For instance, in 2002, it was estimated that the shortage of the estimated nurses was 125,000, which can be translated to 65% of the full-time equivalence. This shortage is expected to go higher by 2020, ranging from 400,000 to 808,000, due to the fact that there is a limited entry of new nurses into the profession. According to reports by the American Health Care Association that was released in July 2008 shows that there are more than 19,400 opportunities in the nursing industry, and at the same time, an additional 116,000 positions were open in 2007 according to the same association. This means that the total opportunities are 135,000, an approximate vacancy of 8.15%.this is a very high percentage, meaning that the healthcare industry is seriously in need of nurses. It is also speculated that there are over 900,000 nurses who are aged above 50 years and are on their way to retirement, which means that a huge gap will be left with these nurses upon their retirement.

Negative Consequences of Nursing Shortage

This means that the issue of nursing shortage has to be looked at. If not, then it means that there will be a negative impact on patient outcomes, which will eventually contribute to errors in the medical field. Furthermore, a lower patient-to-nurse ratio in the surgical and medical teams means that patients will have low mortality rates. Therefore, if the nursing shortage is not looked into, it means that the patient mortality rate will go up, and at the same time, the low rates of nurse retention will lead to patient deaths that can be prevented.

Therefore,there are strategies that can be implemented so as to deal with this issue; solutions should focus on increasing wages and recruitment of nurses even if it means outsourcing from other countries such as Canada, Great Britain, India, African countries, and so on. The focus should be on retaining the nurses who are currently in job positions and encouraging the people who left the nursing career to get back. The primary retention strategies are the improvement of their working conditions and enhanced education and professional development (KaiserEDU.org, 2012).

Implementation of Solutions

These solutions require economic investments as well as contributions from the lay public. When addressing this issue there is the requirement of efforts that aim to recruit as well as retain nurses and, at the same time, strengthen the capacity of nursing schools. These strategies call for the supply of educational facilities with ample faculty and funding, as well as the improvement of aid in terms of finances for students, such as scholarships that target groups that are underrepresented, like minorities and even men. Therefore, many stakeholders, as well as the government, should invest financially to ensure that these strategies are a reality. The lay public should be involved in these efforts since they are the ones who feel the impact of the nursing shortage.

Reference

KaiserEDU.org. (2012).Nursing Workforce. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from http://www.kaiseredu.org/Issue-Modules/Nursing-Workforce/Background-Brief.aspx

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