Demand for Highly-Qualified Nurses is on the Rise

729 Words2 Pages

Today nursing is recognized as a promising career and has gained much significance over the years, several programs for becoming a nursing professional are being offered by universities, community colleges and hospital based schools. Since the mid 20th century, demands for nursing professional have been on an up rise, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of nursing graduates in the last decade (NLN, 2010b). The focus of nursing education have shifted to new dimensions such as community health, public health, primary care, geriatrics, disease prevention, health promotion and other areas rather than being limited to a particular area. And this is mainly to prepare nurse to deal with evolving health care system.

Demand for nurses produced high amount of entry-level nurses, the study emphasizes highly educated nurses are preferred to handle today's today’s health care challenges. By 2020 the nursing work force should consist of 80% BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) prepared nurses. Achieving this targeted BSN level nursing workforce involves, the use technology (simulation, online education programs) and providing upgrade options for existing associate or diplomas holders and financial support from educational institutions, nursing employers and other healthcare organizations. Furthermore, the curriculum should be made future proof to facilitate academic advancement.

However, the achieving the above targeted workforce population is not an easy mission. Factors that affect the achievement of this goal are shortage of qualified faculties, salary disparities, incompetent curriculum and inadequate workforce planning. Certain initiative that were taken to overcome these hurdles are, 1) Inception of VANA (Veterans Affairs...

... middle of paper ...

...ain leadership skills, importance of taking responsibilities should be cultivated in nurses right from the beginning of their career. Partnership with other health care professionals and exposure to leadership can be created at entry level and in other educational environments. To meet the demands of our evolving heath care system, nurses have to be capable of performing in a leadership role in all environments specifically in delivery and transformation of heath care.

Conclusively, a combined effort from all the involved personals, government and health care organizations is required to implement the recommendations highlighted in this report. From the above-mentioned transformations, as a registered nurse I have been enlightened to utilize education as a tool attain a position where I can be involved in becoming a catalyst to this health care industry reformation.

Open Document