The major challenge nurses face is inadequate staffing (Black, 2019). While short-staffing is considered a slight inconvenience and can be fixed after the next recruitment phase, the challenge in nursing can stay for decades. Being a healthcare industry, the issue of short-staffing can be a matter of life and death. Short-staffing threatens patient safety, patient health and it is an issue of personal and professional concern. In most healthcare organizations, shortage of staffing has significantly complicated health care delivery. Short-staffing also impacts nurses negatively by making nurses experience fatigue, work under pressure, experience increased injury rates and reduced productivity. It also increases rates of readmission, reduces patient satisfaction and affects general patient outcomes. The nursing profession is experiencing a shortage because of the increased demand for nursing services. Research shows that a greater number of Americans are aged over 65 years old (Black, 2019). People are now living longer because of advanced medical science. When there is a bigger older population in place, there is an automatic increase in demand for nursing services. However, the retirement age for nurses has not been increased. Therefore, when nurses retire, they leave a gap in the profession, leading to this shortage. Nurses also tend to retire at an early age because the profession is very demanding compared to other professions. The increasing number of nurses opting for early retirement has also contributed to the nursing shortage. Also, the country has inadequate training facilities for nurses. As a result, thousands of qualified applicants have been turned away, contributing to the shortage. Lastly, since nurses are overworked, they experience burnout and choose to leave the profession (Black, 2019)
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