TaMia Artis
Allyson Daly
English IV
7 December 2017
The Problem of Nursing Drought
The nursing profession has experienced continuous shortages many times in the past which can be linked back to WWI. The pattern has recurred, swarms of nursing come in and out resulting in a lack of nurses to help healthcare systems function smoothly. The underlying question is what is causing the nursing shortage and how can the issue be solved. The influences of a declining number of applicants to nursing schools, an aging workforce, and a baby boom generation that will need a vast amount of care are all contributing factors to the shortage. Writing in the journal Commentary, Nevidjon & Erickson state “From an economic perspective, this shortage is being driven
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However, the the outside world doesn’t always acknowledge the skill and knowledge nurses have obtained through education and experience. In order to bring a better image to the public, nurses have to be more engaging to show what their work actually entails. Places where medical surgery, examines, etc. take place often get a bad reputation especially hospitals and nursing homes when it comes to nurses. The public views the nursing world as neglectful and uncaring. It is the job of the nurse to care for the patient but in some instances you find some trained unprofessional nurses who change the public's opinion on such matters. In order to make the image look better and bring in potential nurses to fill these vacant spots is by being visually open to tell those who may be interested about your job field and what it consists off. As a child I always thought the hospital was where everyone went to pass away which in some instances may be true but that's not always the case a hospital or any healthcare system is a safe haven built for your health and well …show more content…
The profession is growing immensely through vast technology. The new development in this field takes a lot off the plate of the nursing resulting in them being able to focus on more important mechanics (Future of Nursing) Hospitals have started using robots to take on some of the basic jobs of nurses for example, delivering meals, medicine, medical records, and various supplies needed throughout the hospital. (Future of Nursing) With this in mind it give nurses more time to spend on caring for the patient. In the same way computer technology can be used to program paperwork to cut back on wasted time that could have been put towards a patient. Huston states, “A handful of healthcare providers have showed concern about the lack of emotion in robots, technology should not and could not replace human elements.”(Huston) I agree that robots lack a sense of emotion, but would it not be better for them to do certain jobs to give the patient and nurse more time to fix the problem at hand and care for the patient
There is a surge of retiring nurses and a rising number of patients. Hospitals are scrambling to fill the tens of thousands of nursing positions, therefore, asks the question as to
There are many who believe that the next shortage will be worse and the demand for nurses will increase. There will be more jobs available especially with the baby boomer nurses retiring. Wood believes that when nurses retire, the next shortage could be even worse than the previous shortage. According to Wood this would lead to an “intellectual drain of institutional and professional nursing knowledge” (Wood, 2011, para 15). Staiger agrees as well that a shortage of nurses is expected again when nurses retire and since the economy will be more stable full-time nurses will go back to being part-time (Huston, 2017). Huston expects for the supply of nurses to grow minimally in the next couple of years and for a large number of nurses
There are several factors that are considered the causes of the nursing shortage. Literature suggests that the shortage is linked to factors related to current population trends and the nature of the health care e...
"Projected Supply, Demand, and Shortages of Registered Nurses: 2000-2020." American Health Care Association. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Jul 2002. Web. 10 Mar 2012.
The nursing shortage is divided into four different categories. The four categories are as follows; "willing nurse" shortage, funding or perceived funding shortage, shortage of understanding that nurses are needed to deliver care, and nurse education and empowerment shortages (What is the nursing shortage and why does it exist?., 18 October, 2007). To be able to repair this major problem, all four segments of shortages need to be addressed. The first nursing shortage, A "willing nurse" shortage, is the simple fact of not enough supply to fill the demand of nursing positions. This shortage occurs either because there are simply not enough nurses to fill the open positions, or because experienced nurses are opting out of nursing and the willingness to provide care due to the current occupational environment. The second nursing shortage is the funding or perceived funding shortage. This shortage is merely due to nurses not feeling as if they are being compensat...
... & Abrahamson, K. (2009). A critical examination of the U.S. nursing shortage: contributing factors, public policy implications. Nursing Forum, 44(4), 235-244. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6198.2009.00149.x
The term “nursing shortage” is not new to America. In fact, the United States has
In spite of the shortage among nurses, there are number of options and recommendations that can better help to maintain an adequate staff level and provide greater strategies needed to increase nursing. The choices open to cover for insufficient staff range from reallocating and postponing work, relocating staff within unit or from other units, to employing temporary additional nurses according to Buchan and Seccombe (1995). In health care, some of these options may not be available because ...
The shortage occurred in the United States and other continents like Asia and Africa. During this time, some of the nursing positions were cut because of the managed care demands that curtailed both the private and public sector about the issue of insurance reimbursement rates in most of the hospitals (MacLean et al., 2014). Most of the decision-makers in the hospitals did not have a good understanding of the issue of nursing, and they implemented plans that increased the workloads of the individual registered nurses. Currently, the nurses that remain underpowered lack professional resources of fighting efficiently against the
Many health care professionals are wondering why shortage transpired when managed care cost initiatives, implemented throughout the country, are dramatically decreasing the length of patient stays (Upenieks, 2003). In fact, such a situation should be resulting in a nursing oversupply. As the nursing shortage ensues, the need for recruiting and retaining highly skilled nurses committed to the organization will become necessary to maintain high-quality patient care. The recent national nurse shortage has resulted in higher nurse workloads; fewer support resources, greater nursing dissatisfaction, and burnout, making it more difficult to provide optimal patient care (Upenieks, 2003). The primary role of nursing is to provide the best possible care to patients.
The prolonged shortage of skilled nursing personnel has been a serious concern to the healthcare industry, and this shortage has impacted the quality of care delivery. In addition, nursing turnover has also exacerbated the problem of nursing shortage. Nursing shortage has been blamed on many nurses retiring and less younger nurses joining the occupation. There is also an increase in life expectancy (baby boomers) leading an increase in both physical and mental ailment with subsequent demand in nursing care. Nurses are also leaving nursing profession because of inadequate staffing, tense work environment, negative press about the profession, and inflexible work schedules. Even though nursing is a promising career and offers job security, the
Nursing has always been a key career in the health care system. Although it is not often focused on media and stories surrounding health care, nursing is a career of great importance. If any patient was asked about their experience at a hospital or a care center, many would mention the capability and care that they received from the nurses. The health care system could not function efficiently, if at all, if nurses were not present to perform their part. Nurses are more than just physicians, support staff.
According to the American Nurse Association, nursing has the second greatest job growth in all US professions. However, the number of nursing shortage is only increasing as the years go by. During the hard times that many Americans have been facing in this economy, there have been lots of nurses whom have been let go from their work field, have re-entered their field just so they can provide for their families, or even nursing students whom have felt discouraged from entering their field professionally because of the nursing shortage situations. To specify in a field, the reason for nursing shortage in the OR can be because of lack of peroperative education or experience, nurses wanting to work in other areas, or the trouble of drawing nurses into this field.
Solutions for the nursing shortage beyond implementing safe nurse staffing ratios include: ongoing long-term workforce planning; institution of an education and practice system to promote more equitable compensation in the health care community based on a better understanding of the educational preparation required for different health care roles; implementation of specific strategies to retain experienced nurses in the provision of direct patient care, investigating the potential for using technological advances to enhance the capacity of a reduced nursing workforce; and advocate for increased nursing education funding under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act and other publicly funded initiatives to improve
A lot of people question if the robot really creates a more efficient workforce. There are opposing viewpoints that even believe that a robotic nurse could never replace a human nurse