Healthcare workers and job shortages

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Past

According to the article “Digging deeper: nurse excess or shortage?”, “The past decade has experienced enormous success in publicizing and decreasing the nursing shortage” (Sephel, 2011, para. 1). As a result of this many solutions like the creation or expansion of degree programs have been created. Although these past articles have helped make the nursing employment shortage problem known, some failed to reveal how this problem arrived in the first place. These past years have assisted in informing the public on how burnout, lack of residency programs, high turnover rates or lack of training all contributed to present job shortages in nursing. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 2013 that 40% of nurses could leave their jobs within ten years. (Kaihlanen et al., 2020).
   Present
Schools have presently begun graduating enough nurses to prevent future job deficiencies. Partly due to the increasing demand for nurses. However, according to the National Health Service, a total of 10,000 nurses retires each year. This number is expected to increase by 40,000 new nurses every year by 2025 (Sephel, 2011). Although actions and steps are taking place to decrease the present and future lack of employment there are still other existing problems that do not improve the situation. For instance, transition shock, lack of training support available, doubts about one’s own abilities and difficulty adapting to the nursing culture are all things that contribute to high turnover rates. When nurses are subjected to inadequate staff levels, they tend to leave their positions (Hairr et al., 2014), resulting in the turnover rate for new nurses being high. In some countries, a significant percentage of workers resign within a few years(Kaihlanen et al., 2020). This can lead to faculty shortages, limited clinical sites or classroom space and budget cuts.

Future

Previously published research projects the need for nurses in 2025 to be somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000. (Sephel, 2011). This statistic refers only to RNs. As a result, it is believed this fact could be misleading since things like the net of dropouts, retirement, and graduation rates are unincluded. The growing supply of nurses with an almost complete lack of transition training is an issue that will cause frustration among new graduates. This could lead to negative effects on retention and supply (Kaihlanen et al., 2020). If it is unresolved, it can cause a severe and long-term shortage which will increase the risk of missed care and patient mortality. Increasing professional satisfaction among nurses is an essential factor to be able to maintain present experienced nurses. The capacity of any process to continue without causing harm to the systems that support it is referred to as sustainability. We should not put the well-being of the present ahead of the well-being of the future. This includes working toward solutions to job shortages for a better nurse and patient future.

  References

Hairr, D. C., Salisbury, H., Johannsson, M., & Redfern-Vance, N. (2014). Nurse staffing and the relationship to job satisfaction and retention. Nursing Economic, 32(3), 142–147. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1545343826?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

Kaihlanen, A.-M., Elovainio, M., Haavisto, E., Salminen, L., & Sinervo, T. (2020). Final clinical practicum, transition experience and turnover intentions among newly graduated nurses: A cross sectional study. Nurse Education Today, 84, 104245–104245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.104245

Sephel, A. (2011). Digging deeper: nurse excess or shortage? The effect on a new nurse. Journal of Professional Nursing, 27(6), 390–393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2011.04.012