Core issues are stated to include "clinical competencies of the immigrant nurses, their cultural sensitivity and ethics has been a hot topic in the process of recruiting foreign nurses." (Potera, 2009) The debate persists related to this issue with some claiming a "brain drain of healthcare professionals in low income countries" while others emphasize the strengthening the education system in the U
not including retirements) has triggered a disturbing cycle that could further exacerbate the problem. There have been insufficient numbers of nursing science educators replacing those that are retiring for approximately as long as the profession has been experiencing shortages (Moon, 2004)
(Albaugh, 2004). Economic considerations and the need for hospitals and other medical facilities to cutback on expenses have substantially increased the problem as direct result, primarily because staffing cutbacks almost always necessarily increase the work load of remaining nurses (Reid, 2009)
Foreign educated nurses may be even more adversely affected by these trends than their native U.S. counterparts (Ulrich, 2003)
, (1998) also considered nursing shortage and turn over as an important factor responsible for the poor performance of the health care centers. This is due to the reason that the high turnover affects the morale and productivity of the nurses who are left behind to take care of the patients while the health care unit hires the new staff members (Sofer, 1995; Cavanagh and Coffin, 1992; Shields and Ward, 2001) Aiken et al
In fact, studies show that people who enter accelerated nursing programs to embark on a second career "bring with them a high level of maturity and previous life experiences that involve critical thinking. Such experience is thought to increase their ability to make competent professional decisions" (Cangelosi & Whitt, 2005)
Numerous research articles and even books have been written on the subject from all around the world, all giving causal factors and possible solutions. As far back as 2002, "90 nurses' organizations, representing 69 countries and every geographic region of the world, reported shortages in their countries" (Clark & Clark, 2003)
One study from 2009 focused entirely on this specific problem. Although the investigational study was only conducted with six nurses assigned to work with student nurses, the results revealed several problems and stress-inducing issues arising from the apprentice-type pairings, including: "poor understanding of legal liability issues for student nurses, role confusion, lack of communication regarding students' learning objectives, differences in beliefs about nursing education, and lack of monetary or workload compensation" (Hathorn & al, 2009)
This means that "graduation rates must rise by 50% to meet the increased demand and make up for impending retirements" (Manthey, 2008) Something must be done to correct the nursing shortage before patient care is seriously undermined. Already "reduced nurse staffing levels have been linked to poorer outcomes for hospital patients, when compared with higher levels of nurse staffing" (Hogan & al, 2007)
Especially for highly educated and experienced RNs (precisely the ones hospitals need to keep around) new opportunites are popping up to lure them away from routine work. These often more lucrative and less stressful subfields include "prevention, education, ambulatory care, industry, and law" (Lee, 2002)
In that year, the United States alone is predicted to need 300 to 500 thousand additional nurses. This means that "graduation rates must rise by 50% to meet the increased demand and make up for impending retirements" (Manthey, 2008) Something must be done to correct the nursing shortage before patient care is seriously undermined
Already, highly educated and experienced RNs are being effectively "replaced" by LPNs and CNAs who are unable to provide the same level of care. Many people don't realize that the nursing school required to become an RN is in many ways as challenging as medical school, and on-the-job demands are arguably more strenuous than for doctors (Perkins, 2010)
Furthermore, many "Baby Boomer" nurses entered the profession because it was one of the few fields widely open to women at that time. In the 1990s, ironically, "downsizing initiatives" actually deterred some students from entering the nursing profession out of fear of not finding a job upon graduation (Quinn, 2002)
Moreover, the United States is drawing many immigrant nurses into the profession as a result of higher pay, further depleting the numbers in other countries such as "Oceania, Africa, Central America (including the Caribbean), and in central and eastern Europe" (Clark & Clark, 2003). Although there have been nursing shortages reported off and on for the past 60 years (Spetz, 2005), the labor force has been able to gradually "correct itself" over time; however, in this case the shortage is already several years underway and is not expected to reach the height of its crisis until the year 2020
(2001) By the year 2020, the nursing shortage is predicted to be over 1 million. (Dunham, 2009) There are causes to this shortfall that belie the above percentages
Job dissatisfaction in the managed care environment is also a contributing factor to the nursing shortage. (Hopkins, 2001; Wikipedia, 2011) All of these factors serve to skew the percentage rates above and do construct a shortage of supply and increase in demand to be the underlying cause of our nation's nursing shortage
Conjecturing that a nurse will provide a specific emotional connection and psychic closeness to "people facing the uncertainty, debilitation, loss and eventual death associated with chronic illness," Newman's model illustrates that the theoretical approach taken by the nurse will bear as instrumental an impact as will the proficiency of medical attention offered. (Newman, 1) Here, it can be evidenced that the empathy accorded by the theoretical framework will provide an ideological umbrella for how best to address one's condition while simultaneously abiding the regulatory medical requirements common to most forms of modern treatment
With nursing education programs challenged to increase student enrollment, many colleges were confronted with a limited financial infrastructure, a shortage of qualified faculty, and difficulty establishing the clinical sites needed to support additional students. Thus, they found themselves turning qualified applicants away (Clark & Allison-Jones, 2011)
As a result, many more patients were being seen annually, but were staying for shorter periods of time, which, in turn, did not increase the average number of patients requiring care on any given day. Investigators cannot simply consider admission statistics as an accurate measure of nursing demand; the number of nurses necessary to adequately care for a population is a far more complex question (Fox & Abrahamson, 2009)
Practice within the legal and ethical parameters of nursing. (Hood, 2009, p