Question

It is widely believed that there is a shortage of registered nurses. Is there? There are nurses in the DC-Maryland-Northern Virginia area who cannot find work. If so, what is the major contributory factor (recruitment, retention, other)?

Answer 1

Causes of shortage of registered Nurses:

1. Ageing faculties and shortage of faculties in nursing schools: According to some reports by AACN(American Association of Colleges of Nursing) the institutes are forced to reject the applications for enrollment to nursing course due to shortage of faculties and clinical preceptors. According to a survey conducted in 2018 about 50.9% of registered nurses are of the age 50 years or above who may retire in the recent years further leading to shortage of qualified teachers.

2. Scarcity of resources: Unpreparedeness of the instutions structurally to meet the growing demands of nurses may also be a contributing factor.Lack of adequate facilities, gadgets and financial support may also be a cause of decreased intake of students and qualified faculties for nursing.

3. Trends in managed care: rising demand for preventive medicine and home based care leads to less hospitalization and reduced need for bed side nursing professionals. As a result the hospitals also reduced the count of staff nurses working with them. This also may lead to fluctuation in the new enrollments.

4. Dissatisfaction in job: Staff shortage,increased workload, over expectations from management side, physical strain, unfavourable salary, etc makes the nurses less career oriented and may ultimately leave the profession. Insufficient staffing raises the workload and stress level on the available nurses may affect their skills and competencies too.

Possible solutions:

• Finacial supports like stipends or compensations for the bed side work during internships or training
• Ensuring campus placements
• Fee deductions or scholarships for those who are willing to join as faculties after course completion
• Mentoring programmes to engage and retain skilled students after course completion.
• Attractive policies for staff nurses including, health care supports for the employees as well as family, fair remuneration and staffing policies and adressing to the greivances in an employee friendly manner.