The nursing shortage in the U.S. is nowhere near over. It has, for all this time, been masked by the current economic problem. It must not be overlooked that although many hospitals in certain areas of the country had to close down because of a dwindling economy, the nursing shortage is still a piece of reality that everyone will face.
The Reality of a Nursing Shortage
Contrary to what most people think, the nursing industry still has a number of opportunities in it due to the fact that there are various clinical positions being put up around the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in the "Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-11 Edition" that the healthcare industry is continuing to grow despite job losses in other sectors of the economy. The BLS confirmed that there will be numerous opportunities for registered nurses in the coming years.
There have been a lot of statistical projections to what awaits the nursing industry in the future. The BLS projected about 22% increase in the RN workforce by the year 2018. This projected about 581,500 new RN positions by that time. Add to this number the fact that almost 60% of the current population of nurses are 50 years old and older, most of whom are within retirement’s reach within the next 5 years or so. Richard “Buz” Cooper, MD and Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, co-chairs of the newly created Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, projected that the U.S. may need as many as 800,000 nurses by the year 2020.
Problems in the Nursing Faculty
The Council on Physician and Nurse Supply (CPNS), which is based at the University of Pennsylvania, reported that one of the solutions to this nursing shortage is to put emphasis in nursing education expansion, particularly the BSN program rather than ADN. They pointed out that an emphasis on the Bachelor’s program for nursing allows graduates to move on to advanced practice or faculty level, which are critically needed at present. The U.S. has to graduate at least 30,000 new nurses each year to cope up with the demand by 2020. Although it seemed like an easy solution for the nursing shortage, there lies a bigger problem underneath.
According to the AACN’s "2009-2010 Enrollments and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing" report, almost 55,000 qualified applicants for the said programs were turned away due to an insufficient number of faculty. Even though the U.S. Government focused on programs emphasizing on grants and scholarships for students to get into nursing school, there aren’t enough faculty qualified to teach. The AACN further reports that the most critical issue faced by nursing schools is the limited pool of doctorally qualified faculty. Federal funding has focused more on ADN programs and most products from this program never move on to faculty level.
It really shows a vicious cycle of the impending nursing shortage. If 55% of the current nursing force will retire between 2011-2020 and nursing schools cannot graduate enough nurses to cope with the deficit, there is indeed a major crisis that awaits the healthcare industry. There has to be other solutions to this nursing shortage, and hopefully the U.S. government will decide on it sooner than later, because the crisis actually looms around the corner.
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