Nursing Shortage: An Unaddressed Curse

The assignment content discusses the issue of nurse shortage in the United States. The shortage is attributed to factors such as lack of faculty, inadequate training and education, demographic changes, and low salaries for educators. To address this issue, various solutions are proposed including subsidized funding, increase in wages, hiring minority and immigrant nurses, and campaigns for improving the image of the profession. The approach that best fits the author's personal and professional philosophy is increasing funding towards payment of higher wages to registered nurses.

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NURSING SHORTAGE
ESSAY

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Issue of Nurse Shortage
The nursing profession requires consistent and persistent motivation along with the commitment
in order to stay in the profession as a nurse (Rafferty A, Clarke S, Coles J, Ball J, James P,
McKee M, Aiken L. , 2007). With the increase in demand for the health services, and also with
the aging population, more nurses are required to resolve the conditions on a daily basis. Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act made easy access for the patients so the demand is on the
rise, but with the shortages in nurses, the effect of it on the health care industry acts like a curse.
The factors which are contributing towards the nursing shortage cannot be described in a single
word but are multifarious. The most basic factor is the shortage in faculty which ultimately
resulted in turning away the potential students. But, again it is noted that the training and the
education which are provided to a health worker takes too long a time but is not only the time
taken in training or invested in training, but also the demographic changes which is barring the
increase in the workforce of the nurses (Buchan J, Calman L. , 2006). But, the most dominating
problem in United States is the inability of the nursing school to support the increase in
enrolment, since they phenomenally lack the nursing school faculty. American Association of
Colleges of Nursing (AACN) recently found that, a vast majority of qualified applicants from
baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs were turned away, and the reason so provided was
that, there is lack of sufficient faculties or clinical sites or there is not enough space in
classrooms, there is lack of clinical preceptors and finally there is constraints with regards to
costs (Kane RL, Shamliyan TA, Mueller C, Duval S, Wilt TJ., 2007). Again, the low salaried
educators do not want to impart the training and education needed for a nurse, and also the
nurses who are matured and grown- ups are entering the career development in late point and not
at the early stages, so this increases the inability to fill the roles for the faculties, again when the
individuals are starting the career development at a later stage, then the chances of the retirement
increases ( U.S. Census Bureau report on An Aging Nation: The Older Population in the United
States, 2014). Due to the raised acuity in hospitals there is a declining length of stay since the
new technology does the rapid assessment, with the benefitted treatment, along with the
subsequent discharge. The aging workforce is at the verge of retirement (1 million registered
nurses will reach retirement age within the next 10 to 15 years- The Health Resources and
Services Administration). So, based on this the health care facilities are responding to the cost
pressure and are reducing the staff, but have incorporated a mandatory overtime policy, which if
amalgamated can be a plausible explanation for deciding factor to be on the negative side, to
come in to the profession.
Nursing leaders and managers approaching the issue of Nurse
Shortage
A range of solutions can be approached by the Nursing leaders and managers for solving the
nursing shortage problem which includes the subsidized funding, along with the increase in
wage, to hiring minority and immigrant nurses, also with the campaigns for improving the image
of the profession (Funding Resources for Future Nurse Educators- The American Association of
Colleges of Nursing (AACN), 2017). It is recognized the need to increase funding for nursing

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education, directed toward nursing faculty as well as students. Nursing schools are in to the
formation of the strategic partnerships to seek private support in order to expand student
capacity, as the example is provided by the University of Minnesota who recently in 2013
announced partnership with the Minnesota VA Health Care System to substantiate expansion in
enrollment (University of Minnesota announced partnership with the Minnesota VA Health Care
System to Educate More Nurses, 2013). ACA included the loan programs to nursing students as
well as the faculty which are situationally designed to overcome and alleviate the shortage. The
Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program (NELRP) is helping to alleviate shortage of nurses
by a loan repayment offering for up to 85 percent of those outstanding loans to the registered
nurses and also to the advanced practice registered nurses. The Nurse Faculty Loan Program
(NFLP)’s only intention is in increasing the number of qualified nursing faculty so that the
education of the nurses can be facilitated. Payment of higher wages can also address the issue of
nurse shortages, and in so doing the nurse leaders and the manager must increase the wages of
the registered nurses. If the minorities can be increased, that is those minority people who can
become registered nurses can uplift the supply thereby creating an additional benefit towards the
improved delivery of culturally sensitive care. By hiring the foreign nurses can also cause to
address the shortages and this recruitment will not be a new thing in the United States, because
around 24, 400 foreign nurses came under the temporary work visas to work in the United States
during 1989. Finally, for improving the image of nursing, there can be strategies which might be
developed which will encourage nurses towards communicating in a frequent manner which can
then help them to launch professional advertising campaigns towards the promotion of the
profession.
The approach which best fits my personal and professional philosophy
of nursing
I personally think that, increased funding towards the payment of higher wages to the registered
nurses is a practical approach to draw towards the profession. At the day end, people wants to get
motivated and if there is an option to earn more, then the motivation will get created and in so
doing the desire to join the profession will get increased for the freshers, on the other hand, when
the wages are increased for the faculties then they also will render their best service in teaching,
training and educating a potential nurse.
References
U.S. Census Bureau report on An Aging Nation: The Older Population in the United States.
(2014). Retrieved from
https://www.census.gov/population%20/projections/data/national/2012.html
1 million registered nurses will reach retirement age within the next 10 to 15 years- The Health
Resources and Services Administration. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://bhw.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/nursingworkforce/index.html

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Buchan J, Calman L. . (2006). The Global Shortage of Registered Nurses: An Overview of
Issues and Actions. Geneva . International Council of Nurses.
Funding Resources for Future Nurse Educators- The American Association of Colleges of
Nursing (AACN). (2017). Retrieved from http://www.aacnnursing.org/News-
Information/Fact-Sheets/Funding-Resources
Kane RL, Shamliyan TA, Mueller C, Duval S, Wilt TJ. (2007). The association of registered
nurse staffing levels and patient outcomes: systematic review and meta analysis. .
Medical Care, 1195-1204.
Rafferty A, Clarke S, Coles J, Ball J, James P, McKee M, Aiken L. . (2007). Outcomes of
variation in hospital nurse staffing in English hospitals: cross-sectional analysis of survey
data and discharge records . International Journal of Nursing Studies, 175-182.
University of Minnesota announced partnership with the Minnesota VA Health Care System to
Educate More Nurses. (2013). Retrieved from
https://www.minneapolis.va.gov/features/Minneapolis-VA-and-University-of-Minnesota-
Educate-Nurses.asp