Nursing Shortage

Nursing Storages in the US The nursing shortage is nothing new or going away any time soon in the United States of America. The United States has seen a shortage before, but by 2025 we will see it crumble, if something doesn’t change. “Health Affairs reported that the nursing shortage will grow to 260,000 RNs by 2025 – twice as large as shortages that have occurred since the mid-1960s.”(http://www.villanovau.com) Most notably, patient safety is in jeopardy causing medical errors that otherwise would not occur. Nurses are also feeling frustrated and unappreciated within their careers causing these errors. It is important that the nursing shortage be talked about and addressed, before the impact of the shortage is too impaired to come back

A primary factor in risking patient safety is to have a high nurse-to-patient ratio. Hospitals and nursing homes must have policies and guidelines in place for the nurse-to-patient ratios, but the policies are continuously fluctuating to compensate for the shortage. In order for nurses to want to stay in this field, benefits and policies need to be modified. Everything is like a domino effect, if the nurses aren’t well rested and able to work properly the patients suffer. “Examining survey data from 95,499 nurses, we found much higher job dissatisfaction and burnout among nurses who were directly caring for patients in hospitals and nursing homes than among nurses working in other jobs or settings, such as the pharmaceutical industry.”(ncbi.gov). A burnt-out nurse and cause a cluster of errors just in one day, even can cause the death of someone. Another Point I might add is that there aren’t enough facilities to house all the desired applicants, making them turn to other careers. We need teacher, to teach so we can produce more nurses. “According to a study released by the Southern Regional Board of Education (SREB) in February 2002, a serious shortage of nursing faculty was documented in 16 SREB states and the District of Columbia. Survey findings show that the combination of faculty vacancies (432) and newly budgeted positions (350) points to a 12% shortfall in the number of nurse educators needed.”(aacn.nche.edu).We need teachers to teach and for the facilities to realize they deserve the same pay as the hospitals