Healthcare industry in United States has always been passing with the issue of shortage of Healthcare professionals . Many of these positions are filled by professionals from different countries . Nursing shortage has been a huge concern since many years and expected to continue in coming years. In past years, country had been dependent on supply of nurses from several parts of the world but alarm had already rang and focuses are made to produce the required resources.
In the following article we will discuss some key issues about the reasons of nursing shortage, some factors which could impact in scenario, some economic output of the issue, what policies were made in past and some solution for future are suggested to cope-up with this difficult situation .
Key words : Nurses, Shortage, Supplies, Healthcare, resources .
Overview In healthcare industry nurses are an integral part. In any care providing organization like Hospitals, Nursing facilities, assisted livings, senior care home etc . he caliber of nursing role is quite high. Appreciating the fact that nurses are most important professionals in patient’s care, the intensity of the issue of nursing shortage in care giving could be easily imagined . According to the report of Kaiser Family Foundation , 2010 , the estimated shortage of nurses was 6 percent in 2000 where the open nursing position were around 110,000, which rise up to 8. 1% by 2008 and the calculated estimation gives us the number around 260,000 open positions by 2025 making the shortage count be as much as twice ( Cullen et al. 2010).
So analyzing the numbers only conclusion could be made is that the demand is rocketing and the supplies are limited . Healthcare industry is having hard time to cope-up with this hitch . The western and south-western states are facing difficulties as they are not being able to manage specialized advanced practice nurses, the estimated nurse vacancy rates being 10. 2 to 13 percent and one out of seven hospitals facing the severe situation of more than 20% vacancies ( Spetz & Given, 2003 ) .
In the same study report it is stated that the 2006 Nursing Management Aging Workforce survey reported 55% of Registered Nurses going to be retired between 2011- 2015 ( Cullen et al. , 2010 ) . Now the balance has been badly affected, on the one hand Healthcare industry is struggling to meet the demand of nurses and another hand we saw that the talented, experienced workforce is going to get retirement . Both way healthcare industry is losing.
This shows the sensitivity of the problem and urgency to explore the possible solutions . There is no small patching for this problem but an optimal elucidation is imminent. Effects The shortage of nurses have great impact in Healthcare . When the nurses / Patient’s ratio is affected then it affects the health status of patient. The quality of care is major issue with Healthcare organization if they have to deal with nursing shortage .
If there is insufficient supply of RN then it is critical stressor for hospitals ( Buerhaus et al. , 2007). The effect on effectiveness of care is another major problem health care organizations have to deal with having shortage of nurses . When the nurses are shortage and hospitals managed to control the circumstances by utilizing their limited resources certainly the delivery of care is hugely compromised .
The outcomes of the patient’s health status and medical errors are the topics to get more attention and several studies conducted during several time had elaborated that the decreased number of nurses are directly associated with increased inpatient mortality, post-operative complications, patients suffering from several hospital acquired infections and various other noticeable effects ( Spetz & Given, 2003 ). In one very interesting article by author Marilyn Rothert, Michigan State University, College of Nursing, she stated that the shortage of nursing is a national security concern ( Nelson, 2002 ).
Making a reference of catastrophic condition like bio-terrorism author Rothert mentioned that when situation like that happened we need more and more nurses to take care of patients and if we analyze the present shortage condition it certainly is a security concern for country . The economic effect of nursing shortage also could not be left without discussion . It may impact in rising healthcare cost due to the lack of quality of care which in turns leads to more hospital returns to the patient and the cost of care will go high. The risk of law suit also could be higher when care is compromised to balance the shortage of nursing staffs .