Increasing reduction in Nurses across the Globe
Indisputably, nursing shortage is a worldwide catastrophe; hence, this paper considers at research in the field of nursing over the last few years in different countries. Most of the public has had an experience at a hospital, and most of the people were born in hospitals (Feldman, 2003). Most people go to hospitals because they face different life threatening situations that require urgent intervention by healthcare providers. It is devastating that most people think that doctors are the caregivers. However, nurses are the caregivers who walk to patients’ rooms on an hourly basis to check the vitals and assess the patients’ conditions, providing treatment and administration of medicine.
However, nursing shortage has hindered the progressive provision of such services, and many hospitals have fallen under criticism for what many patients term as negligence. They fail to understand that the major cause of the situation is the acute shortage of nurses. Short staffing of nurses in hospitals is the leading cause, but it also has various causes that need to be analyzed in the sections that follow in this paper. Some of the reasons provided include poor, working conditions, unavailability of resources for nursing research and education, the aging labor force, explosive career opportunities in other fields, and the increasing complexity of technology in healthcare. According to Feldman (2003), these are some of the reasons behind understaffing in hospital facilities, and leads to patients complaining of negligence or delayed service provision.
Research has indicated that the shortage of healthcare professionals and nurses is the main obstacle hindering the achievement of the United Nation’s Millennium Development goals, especially goal numbers 4, 5, and 6, which concern health provision and improvement. The reversal of the nursing shortage trend will help in working towards achieving the goals. Nursing dearth and measurement relates to the countries’ resources, staffing levels, and estimations of need for the nursing care services.
Whenever the demand outweighs the supply of the services, then the country has an acute shortage of nurses. This means that quantifying the concept of the nursing shortage is not easy. Other definitions possibly will rely on the impression of the criteria of proficiency capacity, the economic acuity. These facts bring in the fact that determination and definition of nursing deficiency varies from country to country (Sobon-Sensor, 2012). The following section tries to elucidate the causes of the nursing shortages in different countries. The causes seem to conquer in all countries from a general perspective. Specific causes can be found from country profiles.
Nursing Labor Force in USA
Factors that influence the nursing shortage
Alternative Options: The first cause of the problem in the nursing field is the fact that people are finding alternative options to nursing. People who would have gone for nursing are opting for other professions. Opportunities opened up for young women to explore employment in other fields, plus other facts, which add stresses to the nursing profession (Strelioff, 1999). People have begun reconsidering their career choices with better recompense to improve the quality of their lives. As it is currently perceived, many consider that in studying nursing, they will be bound in hospitals and will not have time to supplement their salaries.
According to the American Association of Colleges, the enrolment of nurses dropped by 2.1% in 2000, but currently the rate of decline in enrolments is more than 10%. The rationale behind it is that nursing student, or those enlisted to join medical schools to study nursing, opt for alternative careers. According to Feldman (2003), nurses especially in the sub-Saharan Africa have opted to work in other regions. The movement however, is not aimed at offering their services to through public facilities, but private facilities, where they can reap benefits of their sweat as far as the nursing career is concerned. According to the teaching curriculum of nursing, the education system of nurses seems to take long as most experts argue. Following this situation, new student opt to enroll in courses, which take short times to allow them join the market of employment. Nursing was initially the favorite professional field for women. In Canada, 2001, it was reported that male nurses were only 5%. Occupations like engineering, medicine law, aviation and architecture were believed to be for men. Currently many females have enrolled in these careers making it difficult for the nursing field to get it sources of recruits. (Cohen & Sherrod, 2003)
Poor working environment within Nursing Profession: The nursing profession is severely, falling short of the desired qualities of life and driving potential nurse