Quick! I need a nurse!

     There is a growing shortage of nurses, you may or may not have heard, but the health care world is scrambling to figure out both short term and long term solutions. Some have projected the shortage to reach 260,000 registered nurses by the year 2025. So what has caused this, and how do we fix it?

     The first cause is the aging nurse population. According to the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses released in September 2010 by the federal Division of Nursing, the average age of the RN population in 2008 was 46 years of age, and nurses in their 50's are expected to become the largest segment of the nursing population. As many as one quarter of all nurses are expected to retire in the next two decades. The second cause is a lack of enough new nurses to replace the retiring ones, let alone to fill all the new positions being created by our aging baby boomer population. We are not making nurses fast enough to fill our ever increasing needs. However, U.S. nursing schools turned away over 67,500 qualified applicants in 2010-2011 because they don't have the faculty to train them. And it's no wonder why nurses don't want to be teachers- we make much more money working as nurses, and don't have the added stress of a student working under our license. Furthermore, the lack of nurses causes insufficient staffing at facilities; raising the stress level and decreasing job satisfaction for those nurses that are working-prompting them to leave the field entirely.

     So how do we fix this problem? First of all we need more nurse educators. They should be paid well, this is, perhaps, the most important job in our society. They are training nurses how to care for people, and nurses are special in that they are the most knowledgeable person that will be with the patient on an hourly basis. We are often the first to spot a problem, and we are the last barrier to mistakes in patient care. Nurse educators should be highly esteemed. Second, we need to raise awareness in the general public so that those who are looking for a good, secure profession are aware of the need for nurses. Since 2002, Johnson and Johnson has a great campaign going to raise awareness of the nursing profession, more companies, especially health care companies should follow their example. Third, we need better work environments for nurses, and where that is not possible-better compensation for the overworked nurses.

     Nursing is a stressful job in it's very nature. Caring for another is exhausting-just ask any mother. Nurses often deal with life and death situations, and with people who are cantankerous because they don't feel well. But for most of us nurses, our passion is helping people and that is it's own reward. This enables us to keep going to work, while hoping that there is an end to the shortage soon so that we can improve the quality of the care we give each day.