Nursing Shortage Research Paper

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Shortage of registered nurses is a global challenge and this has greatly affected the quality of healthcare. The United States of America has been worst hit by the shortage of registered nurses. The acute shortage of registered nurses, particularly those who staff the operating rooms, emergency rooms as well as the Intensive care units, has continued to undermine the quality of health care. With the growing number of chronic illnesses in USA, something ought to be done to tackle this challenge in the near future. Health care providers are struggling to retain and recruit new highly trained nurses amidst the changing and resource-constrained environment. This research aims at unearthing the factors contributing to this shortage of registered nurses in the United States of America. Duvall (2010) states that the aging workforce is a contributing factor to the registered nurses shortage. He notes that 75% of the working nurses are aged above 40 years while those aged above 54 years choose to work for a decreased number of hours. This has forced the younger workforce to work for a double shift to cater for their unavailability. Those older than 62 years are also seeking early retirement. This causes an imbalance in the workforce due to the unequal rate of retirement and hiring of new nursing staff.…show more content…
The American Association of Colleges of Nurses estimates that 67,563 nursing applicants were turned away from nursing programs from 2010-2012. This was due to inadequate resources and facilities for learning. There are few nursing educators to pass over the knowledge to new nurses. It is estimated that 8% of practicing nurses are looking forward to being nursing educators. This is due to the poor working conditions and an uncompetitive remuneration. Only 50% of nursing applicants are admitted to nursing faculties (LittleJohn,

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