Nurses are essential members of the health care community because they are involved in the admintration and delivery of advanced clinical practices to people. However, the shortage of nurses is one of ten biggest challenges affecting the healthcare industry. The shortage of nurses is characterized by the lack of a sufficient number of registered and qualified nursing experts to meet the needs and demands of the increasing population of health care service consumers. Some of ten factors that have led to the shortage of nursing experts includes the increase of the demand of health care services due to the increase in the aging population in the society (McLean, Hassmiller, Shaffer, Rohrbaugh, Collier & Fairman, 2014).
The fact that people in the society today prefer other professionals to the nursing profession is also one of the factors that has contributed to the shortage. The hospitals and health care facilities also do not have sufficient resources like financial support in order to have t6he required number of nurses in the health care facilities and this has contributed to the shortage. The shortage of nurses in the health care facilities sis a global challenge that affects people from various parts of the world because the challenges affecting the health care perspective of the society are identical to all countries.
The shortage of nurses prevent the progression of the nursing profession because it inhibits the provision of services to the required standards and to satisfaction in the industry (McLean, Hassmiller, Shaffer, Rohrbaugh, Collier & Fairman, 2014). Some of the strategies that have been adopted to cover the shortage the shortage of nurses include altering the scheduling for the available nurses to make them work for longer hours in order to try and compensate for the shortage. This reduce the quality of the services delivered due to fatigue and lack of motivation. The most practical and realistic way to reduce the shortage of nurses is through committing sufficient resources to the health care industry to assist in recruiting experts. People should also be encouraged to undertake nursing education through attractive remuneration in order to reduce the shortage that exists.
- McLean, L., Hassmiller, S., Shaffer, F., Rohrbaugh, K., Collier, T. & Fairman, J. (2014). Scale, Causes, and Implications of the Primary Care Nursing Shortage. The Annual Review of Public Health. 35, 443-57.
