“The Global Nursing Shortage: An Overview of Issues and Actions” mentions how the global shortage of nurses is impacting the healthcare system around the world and what the International Council of Nurses (ICN) is doing to find a solution. The ICN was found in 1899 and is the world’s largest and first organization for health professionals (Oulton, 2006). Their goal is to ensure proper nursing care is given to all, logical health policies are in place globally, the development of nursing knowledge, and the presence of a respected and competent workforce. The ICN’s solution to the nursing shortage is organized into five policy interventions: macroeconomics and health sector funding, workforce planning and policy (including regulation), positive practice environments, …show more content…
There needs to be strong alliances between nursing and a broad range of stakeholders, as it can further improve growth and strengthen national nursing organizations. Moving on to workforce policy and planning, nurses need to be involved in the planning of the workforce and a better practice guideline for planning should be made. The supply of nurses needs to redistribute because currently, there are large clusters of nurses in urban areas and few in rural areas. That is a problem because, in most countries, a large portion of the population lives in rural areas and those individuals are neglected. Nurses can also use an image campaign to help the public understand what nurses do and to draw in potential recruits along with patients. In order to make the most out of nurses, education should be provided and the role of nurses should be expanded until the workforce shortage is addressed long term. Nurses should be allowed to attend policy meeting, especially when the government plans how to get the most out of healthcare spending. All of nursing needs to work together and have a united voice if progress will be made on key
Health care reform has been a major issue over the past decade. The Nursing industry has in particular experienced a period of unpredictable change. On Dec 24, 2009, a landmark measure was passed in the senate by a vote of 60 to 39. This decision to pass the health care reform will change America forever. Nurses will constitute the largest single group of health care professionals. They will have a huge impact on quality and effectiveness in health care. The nursing industry will help hold this new program together by acting as the glue (The nursing industry will be the glue holding the new health care in tact.) It is estimated that by 2015 the number of nurses will need to increase to over 4 million. Nurses are the backbone of the health care industry thus creating better polices for this profession will help ease the workload and high demand. A nurse’s main concern is always to insure quality care and the safety of their patients. Under the new health care reform several new measures have been set into place to ease the transition and improve the quality of care for all patients. One program is designed to fund scholarships and loan programs to offset the high costs of education. Nursing shortages and the high turnover has become a serious epidemic. Health care reform is supposed going to solve many of these problems.
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...
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...
Healthcare is a continuous emerging industry across the world. With our ever changing life styles and the increased levels of pollution across the world more and more people are suffering from various health issues. Nursing is an extremely diverse profession and among the highest educated with several levels ranging from a licensed practical nurse (LPN) to a registered nurse (RN) on up to a Doctorate in Nursing. Diane Viens (2003) states that ‘The NP is a critical member of the workforce to assume the leadership roles within practice, education, research, health systems, and health policy’.
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.
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).
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 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.
Nurses are being treated poorly due to the amount of work they are being forced to do this “leads to frustration and job burnouts.” (Minority, Nursing Shortage). This unhealthy work environment needs to be regulated to give nurses the proper work space so that they can do their job to its full potential which is something all nurses want not only for themselves but to
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
Like all professions and disciplines, nursing is influenced by, and must respond to global trends needs, challenges, and opportunities. These strategies will influence and shape the future of the nursing community and health care nationally and internationally. Also in a global committee health care exhibit problems some of which are political, educational, educational, nursing , environment and social issues. Therefore, improving and achieving health in a global community is of great concern to the nursing profession. Hence, “health and healing varies across countries and culture, the pursuit of healthy individuals and communities is a universal goal” (Jacobsen, 2008, p. 1). Nurses can be advocate, educator, counselor as well as an advocate to this society.
To briefly summarize, the report identifies nurses as an important factor in enabling access to high quality, affordable health care. This was supported by the development of four fundamental recommendations. The first suggests that nurses be allowed to practice within the scope of their degree. This becomes evident in the differences in state laws that pertain to nurse’s who have acquired advanced degrees, such as the nurse practitioner.... ...