Summary: The Nursing Shortage

The Nursing shortage is not a new issue, but has been a reoccurring problem over the last decade. In the late 1990’s, many hospitals decreased the number of health care resources like Registered Nurses, as a measure to contain costs (Zinn et al., 2012). This did not seem to make a significant impact as there were other nurses who were still utilized on the hospital floor, like licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants. These members of the health care team, were able to perform tasks that was appropriate to their scope of nursing. Although, as the years progressed, the demand for registered nurses began to grow. Fortunately, when the recession occurred in 2007, the result brought the nursing shortage to a “state of equilibrium”, …show more content…
Many nurses may feel challenged of feeling competent in their job, and with residency programs being able to give tools and resources, it will help to shape safer nurses. The duration of these programs can range from a minimum of three months for up to a year, where new nurses will learn on how to practice safely on the clinical floor. One perioperative nursing facility used a curriculum type setting and included a variety of resources like, reading assignments, videos, and critical skills checklists, to help enhance the nurse’s skills (Zinn et al., 212). The strategy of the programs is useful, although, it may not account for the present patient load that many nurses still experience. Many nursing units have their own standards and policies that must be followed, although, nurses have raised concern on the amount of patients assigned and patient safety, leading to regulations being put in place. The American Nurses Association discusses that Federal regulations for safe staffing requires that the facility has an adequate number of licensed staff (2015). This can include registered nurses, licensed practical (vocational) nurses, and other personnel that provide care to patients. One approach in doing this, is to create staffing assignments that are based off of the nurse’s skill and the patient population (ANA, 2015). In doing this, it prevents nurses who may have little to no experience in that specialty, to prevent medical errors or risk the patient’s safety. The second approach is setting a “nurse to patient ratio” for the medical facility and unit (ANA, 2015). Only 14 states have laws that protect nurses, and sets a certain “nurse to patient ratio” (ANA, 2015). Some units like the ICU, have a lower ratio due

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