Nurses Shortage in US Essay Example

higher the population of a place the higher the number of nurses and the lower the population the lower the number of nurses deployed to the area (Nardi & Gyurko, 2013). Another is the height of need of a particular place this is because a place that has more frequency of epidemics, people with injuries and high birth rates will require more nurses compared to a place with fewer nurses. Certification of more nurses- this is giving the qualification to more trained nurses. There are quite a number of people who have undergone the training of nursing but have not yet being certified to become complete nurses, therefore, they cannot yet serve the community as nurses. This might be because of different reasons such as delays by the board or because the individuals have delayed payment for the certification.

Certification requires the individual to go through a final exam before they are approved this way the board of nurses is sure that the individuals are qualified. The government, therefore, should increase the frequency at which the certification of exams takes place so as to qualify many more nurses to curb the problem of shortage of nurses. The government should also scrape the payment of the certification exam so as to allow more nurses take the exam without delays since some of them cannot afford it (Fox, 2016). Delays by the board to approve a nurse should also be stopped since the delays could cost someone their life, a life that could have been saved by the nurse they had delayed in certifying.

The increase of nursing schools- the government should go an extra mile in the addition

of more nursing schools to accommodate the number of individuals taking the nursing course. The number of nursing institutions in the United States can only take in a limited number of student nurses compared to a number of people qualified and the high demand for nurses in the United States. The addition of the number of nursing schools will ensure that there is an unlimited supply of nurses and therefore there will be no possible recurrence of this critical situation. Improvement of working conditions and policies- this involves adjusting the policies of working nurses to suit all their involvements.

Many nurses tend to quit in The United States and offer to provide private care because working at the public places limits them to their other commitments (Walters, 2016).Therefore adjusting working hours and other policies affecting nurses with families to be able to accommodate both their working hours and leave time for their families should be considered. Nurses working conditions should also be taken care of. Nurses tend to quit their jobs due to the poor working conditions ranging from the management of the hospitals they work into the availability of enough resources that ensure they do their jobs to the maximum (Abhicharttibutra et al, 2016). Sometimes due to the pure management of the available resources, nurses are left with no working equipment because they have been misused.

Their pay sometimes is also delayed therefore nurses who live on the money they get from the nursing job are left with no other way to feed themselves and their families. This makes them quit hence making the shortage worse than it already is. These are some of the things

that lead to the shortage of the nurses and ways to help stop the problem. Some are short term and others are long term. The government should pay more attention and interest to this problem since it involves people’s lives.

References

1. Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum O. A., & Srisuphan, W. (2016) Analysis of a government policy to address nursing shortage and nursing education quality International nursing review
2. Nardi, D. A., & Gyurko, C. C.

   (2013). The global nursing faculty shortage: Status and solutions for change. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45(3), 317-326.

3. Walters, M. K.

   (2016). Improving employee engagement and satisfaction in the nursing profession to reduce turnover rates and staffing shortages (Doctoral dissertation, UTICA COLLEGE).

4. Fox, D. P. (2016, April) Creating Long-Term Solutions to the Nurse Faculty Shortage: Using Qualitative Data In STTI/NLN Nursing Education Research Conference STTI