Nursing Shortage
The demand for nurses will continue to expand as 78 million baby boomers reach 65 years of age in the next three decades. Seniors, aged 55 and older, are particularly sensitive to the shortage's impact on the quality of the health care system. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected in 2005 that more than 3.1 million registered nurse jobs would be available by 2014. Hospitals are under pressure to keep control of their bottom lines, and nurses account for a large part of their budgets. The seven authorities under Title VIII provide the largest source of federal funding that focuses on the nursing shortage. Currently, there are critical needs for experienced nurses in the operating room, critical care, and neonatal care arenas. We're not being compensated for the care we give," said Marylou Arroyo, a pediatric nurse who plans to retire next spring. Registered nurses and chief nursing officers share common perceptions, but physicians and chief executive officers do not. I see it as our responsibility to capture the attention of elementary school students to show them what nursing is about. However, increased stress levels and growing stories of nurse burnout make incentives like these only a short-term solution. As the number of faculty conducting research decreases, the knowledge base behind nursing practice threatens to stagnate. Short-term financial infusions such as scholarships and loan forgiveness, though helpful, will not fix this deeper problem. In fact, educators say that students often have their minds made up by fifth grade about desirable and undesirable careers. The shortage is expected to grow to 29 percent by the year 2020, most noticeably in 44 states plus the District of Columbia. Just as the baby boomers are starting to need more care, the pipeline is running dry, and it's going to get much, much worse. The process was called NS4, for the Nursing Shortage Strategy Sessions, and this report presents the findings of that process. These issues are occurring just as the majority of nurses are retiring and job opportunities within health care are expanding. Nurse shortages have led hospitals to close beds, reduce admissions and surgeries and to divert patients from emergency rooms. In November 1980, 25.1% of employed RNs were younger than 30 years old; as of March 2000, that figure dropped to less than 10%. All but one of the hospitals surveyed reported using at least one strategy involving the expansion of nurse-education programs. Despite the growing body of evidence that better nurse staff levels result in safer patient care, nurses in some health care facilities may be overburdened with up to 12 patients to care for per shift. The report also says: In hospitals across the country, 126,000 nursing positions remain unfilled, while 90 percent of long-term care facilities don't have enough nurses to provide even the most basic care.
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