Nursing Shortage In The United States Research Paper Examples

Nowadays, the medical world of the United States has collided with the problem of nursing shortage. The profession of nursing takes the largest section connected with the hospital patient care (“Nursing Shortage: The Evolving Nursing Shortage”). The majority of patients understands the importance of nurses’ work which is appointed to provide the necessary care for those who suffer from health disorders. The present situation with nursing shortage in the US has several reasons caused by various factors. Perhaps, one of the main reasons here is that hospital executives and doctors very often do not consider registered nurses to be experienced in patient safety and detection of complications at an early stage (Buerhaus et al., 2007). The provision of care for the hospital admitted patients is the multi-stage process which requires the well-coordinated work of health professionals. The deficiency of the essential medical personnel, such as registered nurses, is a serious stressor for many hospitals, all around the United States, which struggle with this situation from 1998 (Buerhaus et al., 2007).
Causes, which lead to the problem of nursing shortage, are the following: professional alternatives; the decline of enrollment and educators; age; low wages. In the modern world, there exists a vast number of job opportunities for young women; so, the latter ones prefer to choose professions which are less stressful than the profession of nurse. Women and men are interested in a career which can bring both worthy compensation and the improvement of life quality. Unfortunately, a career of nursing doesn’t fully meet the two above-mentioned criteria (“Nursing Shortage: The Evolving Nursing Shortage”).
Admissions to the nursing schools in the US have decreased; colleges and universities are made to deny a lot of applicants because of the deficit of nursing educators. For some time past, the average age of registered nurses has raised gradually. It is also one of the results of the nursing shortage. For example, in Maryland, the average age of a nurse is 46 years old (“Nursing Shortage: The Evolving Nursing Shortage”). The next reason of no small importance for the nursing shortage is the reason linked with low wages in the given sphere.
In order to investigate the situation at great length and, at the same time, to improve it, American scientists have conducted surveys based on the views of hospital executives, registered nurses and physicians. One of such thorough surveys was provided by the group of the US scientists within one year, 2004-2005; this study was financed by an unlimited grant from the Johnson and Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future. In the context of the survey, the scientists have questioned medical professionals such as physicians, registered nurses, hospital CNOs and CEOs. The data of physicians’ survey were appraised with the usage of AMA Masterfile demographic data to determine physicians by region, specialty and the medical school graduation year. The data of nurses’ survey were used to learn about such factors as geographic distribution of nurses and age. The data of CEOs and CNOs survey consisted of geography, hospital bed capacity, contact information and job title. The derived data served as the roundtable for nurses, physicians and hospital executives on the issue of the day: the impact of the nurse shortage on hospital patient care (Buerhaus et al., 2007).
According to the results of the survey, the majority of respondents agreed on the fact that the main impacts of the nursing shortage are relationships between nurses and patients, communication, quality of care and hospital capacity. The shortage of nurses, in any case, can have the negative consequences on hospital patient care. To provide the adequate care for in-patients, it is important for a hospital to have the corresponding quantity of registered nurses in accordance with the quantity of patients. The nursing shortage causes less qualitative care for in-patients because of the lack of medical personnel. The whole situation needs to be improved, at least for the fact that nearly everyone can find himself/herself in the hospital and feel the situation with own experience.

References

Buerhaus, P. I., Donelan, K., Ulrich, B. T., Norman, L., DesRoches, C., & Dittus, R. (2007). Impact of the Nurse Shortage on Hospital Patient Care: Comparative Perspectives. Health Affairs, 26. Retrieved from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/26/3/853.full?sid=618c0209-561e-45a8-906a-4574aa2ff828
Nursing Shortage: The Evolving Nursing Shortage. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ayatravelnursingjobs.com/nursingshortage/