The Nursing Shortage

When you're thinking about what you'll major in during college, you take into consideration the outlook of the job you'll be getting once you receive your degree. I personally found myself asking the question "will I be wasting my time and money by going into this field?" My junior year of high school, I set my goal to major in nursing after taking classes such as anatomy and chemistry. Luckily for me, I was able to find a career that will allow me to have a job I will enjoy by the time I graduate. My doctor had asked what I had planned to major in before I left for college, and when I told him my plans of going to nursing school, he said "you will have a job before you even graduate." You may be asking yourself, how could that be possible? It's all due to the nursing shortage America is seeing right now.

There are a few factors contributing to this nursing shortage. One of them, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, is that nursing school enrollment is not growing fast enough to cover the projected demand of registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses. AACN also reported an increase in baccalaureate programs of 2.6% in 2013, but this is still not enough. With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, more than 32 million Americans gained access to healthcare services. This causes a domino effect, causing there to be a higher demand of nurses to handle the higher numbers of patients. However, it's hard to gain enrollment in nursing school when there are such limited spots. "U.S. nursing schools turned away 79,659 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2012 due to insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints. Almost two-thirds of the nursing schools responding to the survey pointed to faculty shortages as a reason for not accepting all qualified applicants into their programs." (AACN). 

A few other factors contributing to the nursing shortage include retirement of current RN's and insufficient staffing through hospitals. In a 2013 survey conducted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and The Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, 55% of RN's are 50 years or older. In this, more than 1 million nurses will retire in the next 10 to 15 years. (Health Resources and Services Administration). More than 75% of RN's believe the nursing shortage presents a major problem for the quality of their work and how well they can interact with their patients. Not only will this nursing shortage affect patients, but also nurses and the healthcare system as a whole.

There are strides being made towards fixing this nursing shortage. Nursing schools are working towards forming connections and seeking private funding in order to expand their nursing programs. If this does occur, more prospective nurses, such as the girls in our blog, will be put through nursing school and be able to quickly replace the 1 million nurses who will be retiring by the time we graduate. 

-Brooke B.

LINK TO SOURE:
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage

Works Cited:
"Nursing Shortage." American Association of Colleges of Nursing.  AACN, 24 April 2014. Web. 28 September 2015.