Essay On Nursing Shortage

While there is a nursing shortage throughout many sectors of healthcare there seems to be an especially hard-hit in specialty areas. There is a wide range of specialties available in Illinois but there are going to be some shortages of specific specialties in the near future. These specialties are ICU, acute care, psychiatric, home health, and community health nursing (Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation, 2015). There are a few contributing factors to shortages in these areas; these factors are aging workforce with many nurses in these specialties getting ready to retire, less school clinical experience in these specialties, and expansion of these services (Agosto, 2017). It is common that younger nurses are attracted to these locations because of increased technology, abrupt changes to schedule, and the fast paced work environment; with many middle aged students entering school, filling these specialty vacancies is difficult (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, n.d.). In the past with diploma schools there had been plenty of time spent in specialties, but with bachelor programs there is not as much time spent in specialties making them intimidating for students to enter (Agosto, 2017). Furthermore often job requirements are that there is two years of experience prior to getting a job on the specialty floor; so getting

A recent study showed that compared to urban areas the nurse population ratio in rural areas is lower. Also noted is that rural nurses are less educated and more likely to work outside of the hospital setting. Reasons for this are unknown, but can be deducted from the fact that many rural hospitals are not staffed adequately causing job dissatisfaction and high turnover rates (Van Oostveen, Mathijssen, & Vermeulen, 2015). With Illinois being a largely rural state this is a concerning factor that needs to be