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Nursing shortage concerns
Nursing shortage concerns
Job satisfaction in nursing: A concept analysis
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Nursing Shortage 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 the nursing shortage include demand, supply, educational preparedness, and job satisfaction. Demand The demand for nurses is growing at an alarming rate. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nursing employment rates will increase by 26% from 2010 to 2020. Meeting the projected demand for nurses will require a significant amount in nursing graduates to fill these spots. In addition, filling the occupancies with the aging nursing workforce will also need to be addressed. This coincides with the increasing need for the nursing faculty. . In addition, health care reforms are providing more people with health care. Therefore, causing a huge upsurge need for more nurses. Aging Workforce Many nurses are simply getting old and retiring from their professions. The overall nursing workforce age has risen steadily from 49 years of age in 1993 to 54 in 2004 for doctoral faculty and 46- 50 years of age for master’s faculty (“American Association”, 2005). Barely nine percent of the curr... ... middle of paper ... ...ook Handbook: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2012, March 29). Retrieved October 28, 2013, from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Registered-nurses.htm Report to Congress on Nursing Faculty and the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program: The Forum, Findings, and Recommendations. (2010, April). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-authorities/intergovernment-personnel-act/nursing.pdf So, you’re a new nurse. Now what? | Scrubs – The Leading Lifestyle Nursing Magazine Featuring Inspirational and Informational Nursing Articles. (2010, October 21). Retrieved from http://scrubsmag.com/so-youre-a-new-nurse. -Now-what/ Wood, D. (2009). Why Have Nurses Left the Profession? - Nurse Zone. Retrieved November 3, 2013, from http://www.nursezone.com/nursing-news-events/more-news/Why-Have-Nurses-Left-the-Profession_29118.aspx
Daniel P. Wright, K. M. (2010). Strategies for Addressing the Nursing Shortage: Coordinated Decision Making and Workforce Flexibility. Decision Sciences , 373-401.
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 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...
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Employment Projections 2012-2022 released in January 2014, the Registered Nursing workforce is the top occupation in terms of job growth through 2022. It is expected that the number of employed nurses will grow from 2.71 million in 2012 to 3.24 million in 2022, an increase of 526,800 or 19 percent. Growth will take place for a number of reasons: demand for health care services due to increasing life expectancy; chronic conditions, such as arthritis, dementia, diabetes, and obesity; and the number of individuals who have access to health services.
Recent literature reports that there is a nursing shortage and it is continually increasing. Data released by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011) projects that the shortage, would increase to 260,000 by the year 2025. AACN (2011) also reported that 13% of newly registered nurses changed jobs and 37% were ready to change within a year. A study conducted reports that there is a correlation between higher nursing workloads and nurse burnout, retention rates, job dissatisfaction and adverse patient outcomes (Vahey & Aiken, 2004). Among the nurses surveyed in the study, over 40% stated that they were suffering from burnout while 1 in 5 nurses intended
What is happening to our health care system? Things are not looking up for those in the nursing profession as the nursing shortage is expected to intensify. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections, in 2022 there will be 1.05 million job openings Registered Nurses (RNs). Currently the turnover rates in hospitals are 8.9% to 34.3%, with a national turnover rate on average of 16.5%, a 1.8% increase from 2012 (Colosi, 2014).There are several factors that affect the shortage, such as: lacks of instructors to enable more people to enroll in nursing school, people are coming up for retirement, and an increase in turn over (Rosseter, 2014). Now is the time for leaders and managers in nursing to step up and not only recruit
The risk for patient health has been increasing while the nurse staffing levels are decreasing, throughout the world patient care is at risk due to the shortage of staffing in the nursing industry. Many, including the nurses who are being greatly impacted by this situation believe that changes need to be made to increase nurse staffing levels to better the lives of every individual involved in such a massive problem that can affect many innocent lives. Although, some might argue against finding a solution to the problem and bettering the staffing levels by stating that the nursing field doesn’t have a low employment rate and is projected to grow in the near future, however, the situation remains to be impacting nurses and patients in negative
The nursing shortage most likely does not mean a great deal to people until they are in the care of a nurse. The United States is in a severe nursing shortage with no relief in sight due to many factors compounding the problem and resulting in compromised patient care and nurse burnout. Nursing shortages have been experienced in the past by the United States and have been overcome with team effort. However, the current shortage is proving to be the most complex and great strides are being made to defeat the crisis before it becomes too difficult to change. Researchers anticipate that by 2010, the United States will need almost one million more registered nurses than will be available (Cherry & Jacob, 2005, p. 30).
"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.
Since the 1990’s, the interest in nursing and the profession as a whole has decreased dramatically and is still expected to do so over the next 10-15 years according to some researchers. With this nursing shortage, many factors are affected. Organizations have to face challenges of low staffing, higher costs for resources, recruiting and reserving of registered nurses, among liability issues as well. Some of the main issues arising from this nurse shortage are the impact of quality and continuity of care, organizational costs, the effect it has on nursing staff, and etc. However, this not only affects an organization and community, but affects the nurses the same. Nurses are becoming overwhelmed and are questioning the quality of care that each patient deserves. This shortage is not an issue that is to be taken lightly. The repercussions that are faced by both nurses and the organization are critical. Therefore, state funding should be implemented to private hospitals in order to resolve the shortage of nurses. State funds will therefore, relieve the overwhelming burdens on the staff, provide a safe and stress free environment for the patient, and allow appropriate funds needed to keep the facility and organization operational.
The need for quality nurses nationwide continues to be a topic of hot debate in the healthcare field. As Americans continue to age and as the elderly population increases due to medical advancements, the need to sustain and retain the nursing workforce will be an area that is intently watched and regulated. According to the Department of Health & Human Services (2013), there was a 24.1% registered nurse (RN) workforce growth in the 2000s. None-the-less, the Bureau of Labor (2014), projects that sixteen states are going to experience an RN shortage by 2025 and it was stated that,
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
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
Nurses are considered as the largest population of professionals in the health care systems. The nursing population currently confronts sever shortages especially of younger and RNs nurses that could threaten the quality of care and patients’ safety, nurses’ job satisfaction, and organizational productivity. According to Flinkman and others’ fact that “Most countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have reported a nursing shortage, which is predicted to get worse because the current nursing population is aging”. Even nursing education institutions could not fill healthcare organizations demands of graduated nurses because they also suffer from shortages of nursing faculty (Erlen, 2004).
The nursing community is rapidly growing and in needs of nurses to take over positions of the older nurses who are retiring, but there is a shortage of nurses due to the shortage of teachers to teach larger groups of candidates who want to become part of this Discourse community. Tiffin, Charles PhD “Beyond the Bedside: The Changing Role of Today’s Nurses” The nursing field is growing so fast, also more opportunity for more health care professionals to advance in their careers. Technology is also allowing this discourse community to create opportunities.