With the growing population, the nursing profession in the U.S has been experiencing a shortage of nurses which has compromised patient safety and care. For the nurses themselves, they become overwhelmed ( Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2009). The shortage of nurses in the U.S is contributed by the following factors.
First is the high cost of obtaining education in nursing in the U.S. The cost of joining the nursing field and obtaining the degree have increased, this has led to decrease in the enrollment to nursing schools with fewer people sitting for the nurse licensing exams hence limited number of registered nurses in the hospital. For others who joined, some might be constrained with things like student debt that would have an impact on their financials and workplace stability ( Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2009).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Secondly is the aging workforce within the hospitals. Majority of the nursing workforce is approaching its retirement age. For example, people who join nursing education as their career normally do it later in life. Registered nurse's workforce will continue to age and not being able to meet long-term workforce requirement. This is as a result of lack of younger people choosing nursing as their career ( Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2009).
However, there are also issues that have led to the nursing shortage in the U.S. First is that the nurses are being paid less in the nursing homes and some hospitals. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics nurse's salaries remained the same for many years after hospitals had raised issues of nurse shortage. Some decided to leave the career due to dissatisfaction. To resolve this issue nurse’s wages and bonuses should be increased in order to attract aspiring nurses and currently qualified to nursing professionals ( Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2009).
Overworking is another issue that pushes away nurses to other settings with better conditions, for example by increasing the number of patients each nurse must care. With work overload, nurse work schedules would be extended for instance through mandatory on-call scheduling and long-hours schedules. To resolve the issue of work overload hospitals should provide payments for overtime work. Also, hospitals should give bonuses and other benefits to nurses, this will attract more people to join the nursing profession ( Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2009).
Reference
Buerhaus, P. I., Staiger, D., & Auerbach, D. I. (2009). The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States: Data, Trends, and Implications . Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
