Addressing the Nursing Shortage, Research Paper Example

The United States has faced a long, on going battle maintaining the number of nurses in hospitals and once again, it appears that the numbers of professionals entering the nursing workforce is declining.  Oddly enough, these shortages of nursing professionals are largely confined to wealthy countries.  “A shortage of registered nurses (RNs) exists in countries throughout the world. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US)–all wealthy, industrialized countries–are but a few of the countries reporting nursing shortages (Kline, 2010).”  The shortages of nurses in relatively wealthy countries have resulted in increased nurse immigration to these countries in order to fill the gaps.  However, this migration leaves the donor countries with a shortage of skilled professionals.  Therefore, in the interest of general world health, it is necessary to identify and find the factors contributing to the shortage of nurses in countries such as the United States and take effective measures to insure that the US population can meet its own demand for health care professionals.

In 2002, the shortage of nurses could not have more dire implications for healthcare in the U.S.  “Medical-surgical nurses, who are primarily employed in our nation’s hospitals, are directly feeling the brunt of one of the worst nursing shortages in the last 50 years. Because these nurses are the backbone of the hospital staff, the shortage poses a major threat not only to patient care, but also to the economic viability of the hospitals and other health care agencies where they are employed (Hodges, Williams, Carman, 2002).”  During this nursing shortage crisis, several factors were identified as contributing the lack of nurses as outlined in Peter Buerhaus’ 2006 article for Nursing Economics;  “In both the 2002 and 2004 surveys, RNs identified the top four reasons for the nursing shortage as inadequate salary and benefits, more career options for women, undesirable hours, and a negative work environment.”  Buerhaus identified many different actions that had to be taken to decrease the shortage including increasing the capacity of nursing education and promotion of a “Balanced and Professional Image of Nurses.”  This article further indicates that although politicians and corporations took action the shortage was still quite evident in 2006.

In 2002, a special report released by Dermatology Nursing, revealed corporate giant, Johnson & Johnson’s campaign to reinvigorate the nursing industry through recruitment, scholarships, promotion and advertisement among youth and college students.  There was also concern among the American public, which prompted the government to act.  “Americans are acutely aware of the national nursing shortage and believe it is a serious problem, according to a national poll released by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s School of Nursing and Center for Health Services Research. The poll confirms that a vast majority of Americans are concerned about the impact the nursing shortage may have on their personal health and worry that the shortage will negatively impact the quality of patient care in this country.”  The government also took up the cause of recruiting nurses through congressional bills through the Nurse Reinvestment Act.  However, while these actions did alleviate the worst of the shortage, by no means did it solve the problem.

Hence, wealthy nations began to draw professional nurses from other countries leaving shortages.  Sometimes the nurses are even pulled to the US from countries like Australia, which leaves their already beleaguered workforce in dire straits. “One means to alleviate the shortage crisis in developed countries has been to recruit foreign nurses to fill vacant positions. However, not only are representatives from developed countries recruiting nurses, some of the same recruiting countries such as Australia, Canada, and the UK are losing nurses through migration. The “brain drain” of nurses has come under intense scrutiny in recent years with complaints from people in donor countries such as India, the Philippines, South Africa, and Zimbabwe about the loss of valuable human resources (Kline, 2003).”  However, the recent decline in the US economy has actually been repelling immigration and leaving more and more US citizens needing stable jobs such as nursing.  With this recent economic downturn it is highly likely that the nursing industry, one that is stable and in demand, will see a resurgence both from new, young students and from people choosing new career paths after having lost other jobs.  The economic downturn could address one of the major reasons cited for the nursing shortage, which was an availability of better paying, corporate jobs for graduating students.  Following the changes made though Johnson & Johnson’s campaign, the increase of nurses wages over the years and the congressional bills, the nursing industry is ripe for resurgence.

Works Cited

Buerhaus, Peter I., et al. “Is the shortage of hospital registered nurses getting better or worse? Findings from two recent national surveys of RNs.” Nursing Economics 23.2 (2005): 61+. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Sept. 2010.

Hodges, Linda C., Barbara G. Williams, and Deborah D. Carman. “Taking political responsibility for nursing’s future. (Professional Issues).” MedSurg Nursing 11.1 (2002): 15+. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Sept. 2010.

Kline, Donna S. “Push and pull factors in international nurse migration. (World Health).” Journal of Nursing Scholarship 35.2 (2003): 107+. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Sept. 2010.

“Nursing shortage: Johnson & Johnson campaign aims to increase awareness, generate interest. (Special Report).” Dermatology Nursing 14.2 (2002): 135+. Academic  OneFile. Web. 17 Sept. 2010.