By some experts' estimates, there will be a shortage of nearly 350,000 nurses (RNs) by the year 2020. And while this is significantly lower than earlier estimates, this is still not good news. The nursing shortage in the United States is coming right at the time when baby boomers are aging and the extension of the national average life span. Who is going to care for these people when they become older or have health problems? That's the biggest concern for health care professionals today.
Why are there so few nurses?
The first question that most people have when it comes to the nursing shortage is - why are there so few nurses? It doesn't seem to be an unpopular profession, so why aren't more men and women choosing nursing for their career path? There are a number of possible answers.
Lack of funds for education costs
Scheduling difficulties
Overworking of current nurses drives them out of the system
Aging of nurses leads to retirement
Longer life spans of patients, leading to more patients
Health care systems' reliance on LPNs, MAs, and home health care aides
Educational costs for college are skyrocketing for all majors and professions, making it difficult for anyone to obtain a college education. Many people who consider the nursing field can not afford the classes they need to take and they do not want to take out student loans to cover the costs.
Nursing classes are sometimes scheduled at odd hours of the day. It makes it difficult for those with job and family responsibilities to make their classes.
Some current nurses are quitting their jobs to take on a new career. The lack of nurses means more responsibility for current nurses, which can lead them to feeling burnout and frustrated.
Of course, many current nurses are nearing retirement, which is further creating a shortage in the nursing field.
The longer life spans of patients are leading to more patients than ever, which is also contributing to the shortage of nurses. This is making it very difficult for nurses to keep up with their workload.
And finally, the health care system's desire to cut costs has led to increased hiring of LPNs and MAs. While these medical professionals are helping to ease the workload, there is still a driving demand for qualified RNs.
What is this doing to our Healthcare System?
To say that the lack of nurses isn't significantly affecting the health care system is untrue. Since there are fewer nurses, there are a number of effects being felt by patients, doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies.
Less one on one patient care
More burnt out nurses
Less attention to patient needs
Problems with medication dispensing
More medical errors
Patients are beginning to notice that they aren't able to have that one on one care that helps them feel more comfortable when they are ill. Nurses have a number of patients to take care of and are often unable to stay with one patient for a long period of time.
What is being done about the problem?
Since the problem is hard to avoid, the next obvious question is - what is being done to help increase the number of nurses? There are several different tactics hat are being implemented:
More scholarships for nursing students
Better scheduling for nursing classes
Lower cost nursing degrees
Hiring bonuses for nurses
Advanced accelerated nursing degree programs
Higher salaries and benefits for new nurses
Though the nursing shortage is much smaller than it used to be due to these efforts to keep bringing in new nursing students, there is still much more to be done.
You might call this a lesson in mind over matter and attitude. In most cases, minds were running amok, without direction, in raw fear states with many nurses breaking down in tears.
Speaking for myself, I was on the verge of tears for a four hour period the first evening I had to deal with it. I was working in the emergency area of our hospital, and it was busy.
Help was just a phone call away, and I did call, particularly when I had no idea how to admit or discharge a patient.
The fact that everyone else was in a state of near panic placed a dark vibrational cloud over the entire hospital.
I came to accept a common site: of doctors and nurses huddled over a computer, making sense (or nonsense) over data placed in the computer, and by trial and error, were deciding what to do next.
By the end of my first four hours of a twelve hour shift, I had an AHA experience. An inner voice of calm penetrated my psyche and seemed to whisper,"This isn't so bad! You can do it!"
I began to draw on my already growing experience with computers, and put some missing pieces together.
I noticed the IPROB Help Team, besides the nurses who had helped bring the system to our unit, were Israeli men and women. Detached from our pain, they answered questions calmly.
And I liked them.
They were an amazing group who helped create IPROB about ten years ago. This team goes to the Hospitals that are going "live" and answer questions and ease the transition.
I decided to engage in conversation with them.
Do you have IPROB in Israel?
No, the system is too expensive for the frugal consciousness there, they said.
Do you like the Universal Health care system in Israel?
We absolutely love it, they said.
Do you all have to serve in the military?
Yes, a mandatory 2-3 year (or more) stint is accepted by all.
Are you afraid to go out in the streets? Is it dangerous?
Not one of us had ever experienced terrorism, they said.
Or so they said.
The horror of terrorism wasn't exactly the correct aura we needed to create on top of the underlying fear surrounding IPROB.
The subject of terrorism was quickly dropped.
We were smack in the middle of a volatile environment.
People all have full and challenging lives. The reality of yet another stress-or seems to be effecting older nurses, in particular.
They (we) are questioning whether or not we want to live in a fast paced technological workplace, with computers sucking out our vital energy.
We question whether or not we want to retire sooner than later.
This is a problem in light of the nursing shortage.
Electronic charting in the medical record is sweeping the medical industry.
How many older nurses are retiring earlier because of it?
And as we know, the retirement of older nurses is bad news for health care to begin with.
If nurses are retiring sooner than later because of systems that challenge a person's ability to cope, then we are in for a nursing shortage crisis that far surpasses what we had predicted.
Both Grant Eckert & Kate Loving Shenk are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Grant Eckert has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Security, Depression Cure and Mortgage. About Author : Grant Eckert is a writer for Tafford Uniforms. Tafford Uniforms is a leading provider of . Grant Eckert's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.
Kate Loving Shenk has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, self improvement and motivation and Pixel Advertising. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover Your Calling and Destiny." Click here to find out how to ord. Kate Loving Shenk's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.