The American Public Health Association in an article (2006) stated some risks related to health of the community as a result of the problem. According to the author, the workforce is facing critical challenges, to mention, “The most severe shortages are found in the epidemiology, nursing, laboratory science, and environmental health fields” (p. 1). If remain unresolved, as the author added, “The workforce challenges will undermine the ability of this important and dedicated workforce to protect the public’s health.
” In the same article, it is stated that in the next few years, the federal public health agencies could lose up to half of their workforce due to retirement of their health care providers, and at the present, according to a survey, ‘four out of five public health employees’ lack formal public health training. Consequently, the shortage will become more severe as they face the aging issue of the country, which will basically needs health and medical assistance.
The following are other health professionals belonging to different specializations that are mentioned in the articles: epidemiologists, biostatisticians, health educators, environmental health workers, public health laboratory workers, public health nurses, and physicians. These too are experiencing shortages. A public health nurse administers immunization to children and adults, investigates a communicable disease outbreak, and educates about prenatal care in the community. An epidemiologist tracks down disease outbreaks ranging from influenza to food-borne illness and develops ways to prevent and control it spread.
These are just of the many concerns of the public health. Nursing Implications Despite government actions such as scholarship grant to students entering nursing schools, loan repayment programs and increasing support to health professions programs such as increase in salary of registered nurse, it is also important to understand that the problem is people factor. This means that nurses themselves must do something about the problem. The nurses can have involvement in solving nursing shortage and this is by increasing the employment and retention of the nurses.
This means that, by allowing a good environment among themselves can prevent turnovers of employees. Or, a simple encouragement for others to join the profession can help promote nursing courses among female students graduating high schools. However, in view of nurses’ own experiences while in the workplace, some situations somehow caused them to think twice about the keeping the work. For instance, some nurses would feel inadequate in handling patients, or dissatisfaction for their inability to provide patients the care they deserve.
Other dissatisfaction is related to job burnouts. In situations like this, it is paramount on the part of the hospital administration to think of program that could help regain the morale of the nurses. Some of the actions that have to be undertaken to solve the dilemma are, give the employees good orientation and establish support group, a mentor who will continuously give orientation on them for six months, and many others. Personal Thoughts The issue of nursing shortages can be solved with the collaborative effort of the health institutions and government.
The problem is severe as presented in many surveys and the need seems unresolved if the government will not recruit nurses from other countries. Undeniably, due to health demand increases, the supply for nurses is not appropriate. But, above other issue, the people of America must endeavor in solving the problem. As I see it, there is lacking in the involvement of individual citizen in solving the shortage, and on the other side, the government and health institutions must create more programs in order to promote nursing as a good profession comparable to other professions with competitive compensation.
Bibliography Nursing Shortage. American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Fact Sheet. October 2007. http://www. aacn. nche. edu/Media/FactSheets/NursingShortage. htm Perline, C. (2006). ‘The Public Health Workforce Shortage: Left Unchecked, Will We be Protected? Issue Brief. American Public Health Association. http://www. apha. org/NR/rdonlyres/597828BF-9924-4B94-8821-135F665E9D45/0/PublicHealthWorkforceIssueBrief. pdf Strategies for Addressing the Evolving Nursing Crisis Joint Commission Resources http://www.jcrinc. com/26813/newsletters/3710/.
The Nursing Shortage. Office of the Professions, New York State Education Department. http://www. op. nysed. gov/nurseshortage. htm What is Behind HRSA’s Projected Supply, Demand, and Shortage of Registered Nurses? U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://bhpr. hrsa. gov/healthworkforce/reports/behindrnprojections/index. htm Books Byers, J. F. & White, S. (2004). Patient Safety: Principles and Practice. Springer Publishing. Charney, W. & Hudson, A. (2004).
Back Injury among Health care Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts. Lewes Publishing Kingma, M. (2006). Nurses on the Move: Migration and the Global Health Care Economy. Cornell University Press. Marquis, B. & Jorgensen, C. (2005). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Turner, S. (2006). The Nursing Career Planning Guide. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Weinberg, D. (2003). Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing. Cornell University Press.