Nursing Shortage - Essay Example

Running Head: Nursing Shortage An Inquiry into the Phenomenon of Nursing Shortage Health care systems attribute many of its processes to nurses, which made the nursing career an in-demand employment for many individuals, regardless of race, culture, and nationality. In the United States alone, the nurse population is 12 million but still, the American health care industry admits the phenomenon of nursing shortage. The evidence of this problem also appears in other countries. In turn, nursing shortage produces health care problems. Significantly, patients receive inadequate health care services. For instance, Dana Weinberg, author of Code Green, emphasizes critical issues in health care resulting to nurse insufficiency. Nurse salaries are the major problem for some institutions along with benefits and intangible income. Moreover, medical costs and for profit health care have been increasing for the past decade. This accounts for other issues of nursing shortage such as nursing care, level of accident rations, and arguments between organizations and unions based on profits and salary increase. This decreased the nurse-patient ratio, which greatly affected the quality of care.1 The crisis of nursing employment became evident from the 1992-2000 surveys of the National Sample Surveys of Registered Nurses.2 Private and public sectors already contributed their observations regarding this matter. Moreover, some private companies have carried out actions to increase the nursing employment. For instance, Johnson and Johnson Health Care Systems have promoted a $20 million Campaign for Nursing Future. This program comprises of television ads, promotional materials among high school students, and a web site that exhibits programs among those aspiring for a nursing career. On the other hand, the public sector also contributed their share in promoting the nursing career such as congressional hearings and federal legislation proposing improvements in basic nursing education.3 Many factors are contributors to nursing shortage. One factor is underemployment. Many nursing graduates spend their career at another field instead of nursing. According to the National Sample Surveys of RN (2000), 71-73 percent of Registered Nurses were not working in the medical field and others have undergone retirement. Usually, these Registered Nurses had their reasons why they chose to work on another field instead of nursing, including better hours, more rewarding work, and of course, better salary.4 A next factor is the employment pattern on nursing. The gender issue presents itself conspicuously, as men who graduated as nurses work outside the field of nursing. In a 2000 survey of the National Sample Surveys of RNs, 56 percent of male nurses did not work in the medical field while there were 25 percent employed female nurses in other fields. Moreover, the 1996 survey also proved this fact in a much higher rate of 57 percent. These were nurses who had no experience in the field but were unemployed in the medical field. A contributing factor to employment is the attrition rate found in the nursing workforce. This indicates the employment patterns after graduation every year. In 1992, nurses who graduated were working 1-4 years after and in 1996, graduates seek work in the nursing field 5-8 years after. In addition, the rate for nursing unemployment was higher among women compared to men, which are 11% and 6.3 %, respectively. The theory suggests that employment problems were not the only factors dictating the decreased employment but also the ratio of males and females in the field. Nurses seem to get tired of high demand but low number of nurses employed in the healthcare industry. This makes it difficult to meet the demand. In turn, many nurses feel exhausted and leave their career. Higher than average, hospitals employ nurses aged forty-five and older, an age near to retirement. This becomes a particular concern because the higher than average mean age for nursing indicates the interest of individuals in working or engaging themselves to their career. Numbers also prove this fact as nurses aged thirty or younger declined from 1992 to 2000. Formerly, the nurse population with age higher than thirty is 270,000 increasing to 310,000 with a mean age of 33.5. Moreover, there was a cohort loss of nurses aged 31-40 from 1996 to 2000. Evidently, this loss is expected with the normal aging of a workforce since the increase of lower age group occurs after a four-year period. However, this decline is much greater than the 1992-1996 period that only shows an unusual decline in this age bracket. This may be indicative of the the dissatisfaction and loss of intent in the nursing field5. Less productivity in nursing workforce likewise indicates dissatisfaction. According to the National Sample Survey of RNs, which reports the level of satisfaction among nurses in 2000, almost 70% of participants answered being moderately satisfied with their work. On the other hand, the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (1998), which suggested that 86 percent of workers and 88 percent health care professionals were satisfied with their jobs. Those who were least satisfied are nurses working in nursing homes and hospitals with one in every three employed nurses.6 Specifically, staff nurses were the highest percentage among participants that are not satisfied with their jobs. The dissatisfaction is evident in little control over their jobs. Usually, the environment of their jobs concentrates more on patient care responsibilities. Subsequently, nurses who spend more time with their patients imply more satisfaction than those who spend less. The relationship of satisfaction and feeling of control has been occasionally studied and these proved that burnout may result if these are ot present in ones job. Another factor in job satisfaction is gender differences. Male nurses were less satisfied compared to female nurses. Some surveys have proven this relationship. According to the National Sample Survey of RNs (2000), 75 percent of women reported being satisfied with their jobs and less 10 percent among male nurses. Good paying jobs motivate a workforce to increase productivity and definitely, increase in number. However, it is evident that nurses salaries need to catch up with inflation to make the rates more competitive. After inflation in 2000, a nurses salary has not increased. Moreover, wages from 1992-1996 became stagnant, which is unexpected by the nurses. There is an increasing demand for nurses that is a factor for justifying the increase in salary. Instead, rate of salary increases remained sluggish since 1990s although the demand for nurses continued to increase. Registered nurses were not influenced to educate themselves more or aspire for promotion to higher positions because of stagnant wages. According to Sochalski (2002), wages paid to hospital staff nurses who graduated twenty years earlier were only 10 percent higher than wages paid to those who came into nursing ten years later.7 Conclusion Nursing shortage is very evident, not only in United States but also in other countries as well. Even though nursing demand rises, salaries remained low and uncompetitive. Many factors may be attributed to as reasons for the phenomenon of nursing shortage. One is underemployment, wherein nurse graduates were not employed as nurses but in other occupations unrelated to nursing practice. Gender differences are also an issue because there is greater dissatisfaction among male nurses compared to female nurses. The sluggish movement of salaries for the past 16 years despite the increasing demand of the health care industry caused difficulty in attracting aspirants towards pursuing this career. This shortage is an eminent problem, as this affects patient care responsibilities and brings a variety of problems within the healthcare sector – one that merits substantial attention and deliberate action from all parties concerned. References National Opinion Research Center. (1998). General Social Survey 1972–2000 Cumulative Codebook. Retrieved on September 26, 2008 from www.icpsr.umich.edu/GSS/index.html. Sochalski, J. (2002). Nursing shortage redux: turning the corner on an enduring problem. Health Affairs. 21(5): 157-164. Weinberg, D. B. (2003). Code Green: Money driven hospitals and the dismantling of nursing. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Read More