Editorial on the Nursing Shortage

Editorial on the Nursing Shortage

In today’s economic market of unemployment and slow recovery, one would not think of there being a shortage of workers to fill empty positions. One would think that if there were a job opening the number of applicants would number in the hundreds, if not thousands, but there is such a situation on going and this shortage is only projected to worsen. The shortage that is spoken of is that of Registered Nurses. With the average age of nurses’ being over 50 years old, many of these nurses’ will be looking at retirement with the next 10-15 years. It is projected that there will be 1.05 million job openings by 2022, which will include new jobs and jobs to fill retiring nurses’ positions. Also, with baby boomers retiring and the people living longer with more chronic illnesses, the need for nursing care will also continue to grow.

While hospitals in urban settings have more options available to them for recruiting and retaining nurses, this is difficult for health care facilities in rural settings. The facilities in rural settings must take steps to attract nurses to their facilities. Rural hospitals must not only show nurses what the facility has to offer them but the surrounding area as well. Hospitals must engage every part of the community in an attempt to recruit new nurses to the area. In retaining the nurses’ already employed, the hospital needs to show an investment in the nurses. If the hospital invests in the nurses that are already employed by means of salary and educational opportunities, the least likely they are to relocate.

There are many factors that influence the shortage of nurses’ throughout the country. The shortage of nursing faculty have nursing schools turning away qualified applicants from nursing schools. The need for hospital based nursing is not growing as fast as home health and physician office nurses. Also, the average age of nurses in the country is 50 years old and up. These nurses are looking at retirement within ten to fifteen years thus increasing the need for new nurses. While the economy is starting to turn around, hospitals are still cutting back as far as hiring. Many hospitals have put a hold on new hires and especially new grads. Many hospitals are looking for experienced nurses to fill the open positions, and are reluctant to hire new grads. This is because new grads are costly to train were as an experienced nurse is less expensive.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing the shortage of nurses in the US is expected to grow to 260,000 by the year 2025, this number represents the number of open positions (Rosseter 2014). Also in 2013, 55%