Analyzing the Aging Workforce and its Impact on ICU Nursing Shortage

This essay addresses the critical issue of nursing shortages in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), focusing on the aging nursing workforce as a primary contributing factor. The paper highlights the imbalance between retiring nurses and new entrants, leading to work overload and job dissatisfaction among remaining staff. It discusses how the physical and mental demands of ICU nursing can lead to early retirement for older nurses, exacerbating the shortage. The essay also examines the role of clinical leadership in fostering nurse retention, emphasizing the importance of training nurse leaders to motivate and equip their teams. Policymakers and governments are encouraged to support nursing leadership development to address staffing gaps and encourage new nurses to join the profession, ultimately mitigating the challenges posed by the aging workforce in healthcare.

Running head: AGING WORKFORCE AND NURSING SHORTAGE IN ICUS
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Aging Workforce and Nursing Shortage in ICUs
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

AGING WORKFORCE AND NURSING SHORTAGE IN ICUS
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Aging Workforce and Nursing Shortage in ICUs
Nursing shortage is a pressing issue in healthcare, and it is exacerbating the quality of
service delivery in intensive care units today. Even though the shortage of nurses is recognized
at the global level, different interventions at the national and global level have failed to yield
lasting solutions to this problem. This paper discusses aging faculty workforce as the leading
cause of shortage of nurses in ICUs and how nursing leadership has been used to counter the
challenges associated with shortage of nurses today.
Question 1.
Aging faculty and workforce in nursing has accelerated the shortage of nurses in
healthcare today due to an imbalance between the population of nurses that retire and those that
join the workforce. According to Uthaman, Chua, and Ang (2015), many nurses opt to retire at
the age of sixty years compared to other professions due to the mental and healthcare demand
from patients. A low number of nurses working in ICUs lead to work overload for the available
taskforce, making the available nurses to suffer from job dissatisfaction. Joseph and Huber
(2015) explain that although old nurses are skilled and experienced, they are vulnerable to
mental and physical demands in nursing. These demands may make them to opt to leave the
career early, leading to shortage of workforce in the healthcare environment. Additionally, aging
renders some tasks less desirable and others complex to perform for nurses, making them to opt
out of the profession. A study conducted by Halter et al. (2017) found that a high turnover of
nurses in healthcare was attributed to high turnover or early retirements that translated to an
imbalance in the ratio of turnover to that of replacement.
Question 2.

AGING WORKFORCE AND NURSING SHORTAGE IN ICUS
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Despite the challenges that have emanated, policymakers and governments have worked
hand in hand to solve the problem of understaffing in healthcare. Joseph and Huber (2015)
explain that clinical leadership has been used to foster retention of nurses in healthcare. In this
context, learning institutions have been encouraged to nurture nurse leaders so that they can
motivate their followers and equip them with skills so that they can fill the gaps when the old
populations retire. When nurses are trained as leaders, they are capable of identifying the gaps in
healthcare and making informed decisions at the community level. Nurse Managers and leaders
can also motivate students on attachment placement by educating them about the gaps in
healthcare and how they can join the profession to address the challenges (Kodama & Fukahori,
2017). Nursing leadership will help in addressing the gaps in nursing by motivating the
upcoming population of students and nurses to venture in this profession to addressing the
current challenges in the healthcare setting.
The healthcare sector is facing significant challenges due to the aging population of
nurses. The rate at which nurses are retiring does not match their rate of replacement. Institutions
and governments are using clinical nurse leadership and management to encourage student
nurses and current Registered Nurses to stick to the profession to slow reduce the level of
understaffing.

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References
Halter, M., Pelone, F., Boiko, O., Beighton, C., Harris, R., Gale, J., Gourlay, S., & Drennan, V.
(2017). Interventions to reduce adult nursing turnover: a systematic review of systematic
reviews. The Open Nursing Journal, 11, 108–123. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5725565/
Joseph, M. L., & Huber, D. L. (2015). Clinical leadership development and education for nurses:
prospects and opportunities. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 7, 55–64. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5740995/
Kodama, Y., & Fukahori, H. (2017). Nurse managers' attributes to promote change in their
wards: a qualitative study. Nursing Open, 4(4), 209–217. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5653397/
Uthaman, T., Chua, L., T., & Ang, Y., U. (2015). Older nurses: A literature review on
challenges, factors in early retirement and workforce retention. Healthcare Proceedings,
25(1). Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2010105815610138