Question

In the United States, there is a shortage of health care workers. Specifically, physicians and nurses. Choose one of these professions (medicine or nursing) and summarize the following:

Why does a shortage exist?

How could you, as a health care manager, encourage entry into the profession?

Answer 1

WHY SHORTAGE

The shortage first stems from the fact that Baby Boomers are aging and increasing the country’s demand for healthcare. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2030, all baby boomers will be older than age 65. This will expand the size of the older population so that 1 in every 5 residents will be retirement age.

An aging population also means more nurses are retiring and leaving vacancies behind. Since 2012, roughly 60,000 RNs have left the workforce each year. By the end of the decade more than 70,000 RNs will be retiring annually. In 2020, baby-boomer RNs will number 660,000, roughly half their peak number in 2008.

On the other end of the spectrum, not enough new nurses are coming up through the career pipeline to fill vacancies. This is due in part to a smaller younger generation, as well as retiring staff that caused U.S. nursing schools to turn away over 64,000 qualified applicants from nursing programs in the 2016-17 school year, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

At the same time, a report in the American Journal of Nursing found that insufficient staffing has resulted in overworked, stressed, and dissatisfied nurses, causing 13 percent to change jobs within a year and 37 percent to report that they “feel ready to change jobs.”

HOW TO ENCOURAGE

• Promote education about role of a nurse
• Setting an example.
• Show them the great achievers in nursing
• Educate about scope of nursing
• Give a visit to hospital where one can get inspired by seeing real job scenario.
• Educate student about role of nurse in health care system
• Participate atudents in nurses day celebration