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The Nursing Shortage

explanatory Essay
1263 words
1263 words
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For many years, the nursing shortage has been a relevant topic in today’s society. The nursing shortage is defined as a lack of trained nurses to provide care for ill individuals. Nursing schools inability to grow programs quickly enough to meet demands (Nursing Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014). The shortage is not only an issue in the United States but all over the world. This problem affects a wide range of people from current registered nurses, patients, and other members of the healthcare team. According to the Nursing Association of Colleges of Nursing (Rosseter, 2014), the nursing shortage is due to the expansion of healthcare and nurses who are baby boomers beginning to retire. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment reports, …show more content…

In this essay, the author

  • Describes the nursing shortage as a lack of trained nurses to provide care for ill individuals, and the inability of nursing schools to grow programs quickly enough to meet demands.
  • Analyzes how the media portrays nurses' inability to provide adequate patient care and the public is unaware of the responsibilities, medical knowledge, and skills required for proper care.
  • Explains the reasons for the nursing shortage, such as an increase in the number of nurses and the lack of compensation for nurses.
  • Explains that the shortage is due to more opportunities in fields other than nursing, and people aren't pursuing nursing at all.
  • Explains that more people are applying to nursing school, but schools are unable to accept them because they don't have the faculty to teach them.
  • Explains that nursing schools turned away 79,659 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2012 due to insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, and clinical preceptors.
  • Explains that one-third of the nursing workforce is over 50 years of age and the average age of full-time nursing faculty is 49 years.
  • Explains that job satisfaction is a major concern for the shortage of nurses. staff nurses were the least satisfied in all nurse specialties.
  • Explains that healthcare corporations do not want to improve the quality of environment health care workers are working in, which has led to nurses encouraging students to not pursue a career in nursing.
  • Explains how hospitals are offering sign on bonuses and relocation packages to increase the desire for people to become nurses.

2). The purpose of this paper is to discover the issues of the nursing shortage affecting society, the solutions to overcome the shortage, and how the shortage affects quality of care. Issues of the Nursing Shortage that affect today’s Society The media frequently portrays nurses’ inability to provide adequate patient care. People do not feel it is safe to be admitted hospitals. Unfortunately, the public is unaware of the responsibilities, medical knowledge, and skills required for proper care. The media presents a false view of nursing responsibilities, roles, and professional issues (Nevidjon & Erickson, 2000) Several other causes have been attributed to the nursing shortage. An increase in the number of nurses is needed. Sadly, there is little increase in compensation for nurses. In addition to no growth in pay, the level of stress, responsibility, and demand nurses is increasing. Unfortunately, patients are the ones who suffer. When a hospital does not have the proper nursing staff to care for patients, it results in poor patient safety and patient outcomes (Buerhaus, Donelan, Ulrich, Norman, DesRoches, & Dittus, 2007). Nursing salaries compared to other professions has remained stagnant. For example, a registered

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