The nursing shortage poses a major problem to the quality of work life for nurses, the quality of patient care and the outcome of patient care. Well, at least 75% of nurses believe this, anyway.
What is causing the growing shortage of nurses in America? Is it the stigma that nursing is a woman’s job? Is it that cultural diversity is not openly embraced in the nursing profession by patients and other medical staff? And since there is such a significant shortage of nurses in America, why is it so complicated, time consuming and expensive to get into nursing school?
Nursing is one of the fasted growing fields of employment (believed by some experts to be the fastest). However, there are more people leaving the nursing field than entering it. The nursing population is aging and retiring; and many nurses are switching professions.
A big contributing factor to this lack people entering the nursing profession is the extensive, complicated and expensive process nursing schools put you through to enter. Many schools tell you to go on a wait list and make you take thousands of dollars in classes before you can even be put on the wait list. But they somehow forget to mention that bit of information. They just tell you that you’re on the waiting list while you are taking all the extra classes. Every five or so years your credits will become too old and you will have to retake classes. So basically you throw away that time you spent away from your family. Not to mention the thousands of dollars you have spent for the classes. It can end up take four to seven years for some people to get their two-year RN degree.
As Joy Potter states in her book Get Your RN Faster, “Achieving the dream can be a nightmare.” (I highly recommend this book for anyone who’s looking to become a Registered Nurse):
The results of the lack of licensed nurses in our hospitals are grim. Nurses today are faced with the challenge of caring for an increased number of patients that is surpassing general recommendations for patient loads. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) this work load is increasing the mortality rate of patients by 31% in surgical patients. (The Journal of the American Medical Association,2002).
In addition to increased patient death, the nursing shortage is believed to be contributing to the occurrence of hospital acquired infections. Hospital acquired infections are responsible for over 50,000 death annually.
The nursing shortage has resulted in inadequate time is taken for patient and family teaching and other forms of communication to the patient such as emotional support. According to a study performed by the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), the nursing shortage had contributed to a compromise in patient communication by an estimated 14.5% (Pilla,1999). Patient assessments, observation and monitoring are not completed as adequately and as often as necessary to minimize patient risk. The compromise in patient monitoring has reached about 70% as a result of the nursing shortage. On top of that, nurses are forced to regularly skip or postpone scheduled lunches and breaks. The nursing shortage is damaging the quality of work like for nurses and impairing the outcomes of healthcare to millions of patients.
About 90% of the nursing population are white females. This is the most diverse it has ever been. Cultural education in the nursing profession would not only benefit the quality of care of nurses due to better understand of the diverse patient population, it would allow for more people from different backgrounds to feel accepted in this profession. This could have a very positive effect on the nursing shortage.
It takes a physically strong, tough and emotionally stable person to be a good nurse. You have to be able to think on your feet and be in good shape. This is not an easy profession, though it is very rewarding. The feeling that this is a woman’s job needs to be retired. Nurses are soldiers on the battle field of healthcare and it takes one hell of a person to be a nurse.
Works Cited
Association, The Journal of the American Medical. (2002). Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction. American Medical Association : http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/288/16/1987.full.pdf+html?sid=bbbe6c27-1080-4a30-949f-b2d6dc7d122b.
NursingAdvocacy.org. (2007, Oct. 18). Nursing Shortage. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from NursingAdvocacy.org: http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/faq/nursing_shortage.html
Pilla, L. (1999, Oct. 22). How the Nursing Shortage Jeopardizes Patient Care. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from Nurses.com: http://www.nurses.com/article.mvc/How-the-Nursing-Shortage-Jeopardizes-Patient-0001#con
