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Lilly Freitas, Ivann Hendrickson, Abigail Dollar, and Anonymous Student
April 4, 2024
A man arrives at the doctor's office. He waits until they are ready for him. The assessment starts with a nurse ushering him to an exam room, taking a set of vital signs, reviewing his current medication, and inquiring regarding the reason for his visit. At the end of the physician’s visit, the nurse arrives per the physician’s instructions to provide patient education; then ushers him to the front desk if additional follow-up appointments are indicated. The nurse is the first one in and the last one out.
The nursing shortage is an issue that has a rippling effect; fewer nurses equals a decrease in patient care. With less care, more people won't get tended to and care quality will be impacted.
There is a big obstacle to get over starting with how to get more people into the nursing profession; as well as maintaining the levels of current nurses.
There are too many nurses quitting and not enough coming in to fill in the blanks.
This issue will not be resolved in a short amount of time. It will take a while for one to get a degree and become a nurse. Then they have to make it through the trenches. They are going to be insulted and not paid enough for the amount of time and effort they put in.
In the beginning
The nursing shortage originated in the mid-1930s, with the Great Depression, when several economic and healthcare-related events increased the need for registered and experienced nurses.
In the early years of the Great Depression, the unemployment rates for registered nurses skyrocketed, which made it very easy for hospitals to find unemployed nurses to fill the vacant spots. By the late 1930’s, many hospitals were reporting severe nurse shortages.
As stated in a report by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, this shortage that lasted throughout World War II, one of many over the next five decades.To try to help solve this problem, they increased the number of people admitted to nursing school, increased the number of less qualified and educated nurses as substitutes for the more qualified nurses, and even shortened the educational period to produce nurses faster and in bigger groups.
These healthcare practices were used through the next few decades to decrease the toll that the nursing shortage had on patient care.
When the U.S entered World War II, there was a severe demand for nurses on the battlefield. By the end of the war, 77,000 nurses had joined the military. After the war had ended, nurses were expected to resume life and their pre-war jobs at hospitals. www.nursing.upenn
This however did not happen. The shortage had increased severely, especially because the hospital utilization by the community had skyrocketed. Around the late 1940’s, hospitals around the U.S were expanded and the demand for nurses grew even greater. www.nursing.upenn
“It's gone up and down in waves for generations,” Rachel Ochoa , a former corpsman in the U.S Navy with a Masters degree in Nurse Leadership, said.
“There is a lot of speculation on what caused the nursing shortage, COVID-19 was a huge culprit,” Ochoa stated. A big portion of nurses refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which made it difficult for them to care for patients who had the virus and cost many their jobs.
During the pandemic, a big percentage of nurses retired or quit due to burnout. “Nurse burnout is a serious issue that affects healthcare professionals and their patients. It is characterized by mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged exposure to work-related stress. Factors that contribute to burnout in nurses often include long work hours, the pressure of quick decision-making, and the burden of caring for patients who may have poor outcomes.” said Diane Sater-Wee, co-founder and chief executive Officer of AIAM (American Institute of Alternative Medicine).
72 percent of nurses had already experienced professional burnout before Covid 19 (the highest among nurses with 11-15 years of experience - at least 83 percent) - American Nurse Journal. During the pandemic, nurses were required to take on more patients than usual, more shifts, and more mandatory overtime, which added to the exhaustion and burnout.
“On January 30, 2020, The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global public health concern due to its rapid spread and resulting high mortality. Nurses found themselves on the front lines of a healthcare crisis that changed their practices, organizations, communities, and the world,” Terry Gaffney wrote in the ANA American Nurse Journal.
Now
Nursing isn’t an easy profession. It takes a lot of hard work and a good work ethic to be a nurse.
Nurses are resigning at such a high rate. They are quitting after only working as a nurse for two years.
New nurses are walking into the profession thinking it will be easy, only to learn that with the good pay comes stress, burnout, and bullying. “The shortage comes with a price, and it often takes a toll on the nurses who continue the practice,” Ochoa said.
According to Healthcare It News 90 percent of currently working nurses are considering leaving the profession due to its hardships.
Some nurses are quitting for a different reason. Some quit because they refuse to take the Covid-19 vaccine.
The pandemic played a big role in this shortage. Many of the nurses who quit during COVID took their knowledge with them, so there is no one to guide and teach the upcoming generation of nurses.
They are also experiencing extreme exhaustion and frustration because of many factors such as overworking and surge after surge of Covid-19 without a decent break.
“Nurses were disproportionately impacted, with the highest increase during the pandemic (58–72%; p < 0.0001) with increases in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and personal achievement decreases,” said Vanessa Moll, the Vice Chair of Quality and Safety at the University of Minnesota Department of Anesthesiology, and others contributors performed this study.
Due to this shortage, nurses are required to take on more patients, shifts, and mandatory overtime. Nurses are having 5 to 25 patients per day. Depending on the clinical aspect a nurse is working, will determine how many patients that nurse cares for in a day. “A lot of states are passing laws regarding inpatient staffing ratios based on patient acuity to protect patients and nurses alike,” Ochoa said.
When a new nurse comes in, some not all nurses treat them as if they don’t know anything and are beneath them. This affects everyone and adds on to the growing tension between nurses. Many nurses feel undervalued and disrespected and we don’t have a plan to provide appropriate measures for staffing.
The future
If nurses keep resigning at this rate, there will no longer be as many nurses who are able to take over patient care. This is a scary fact to say because nurses do a lot of the work that most doctors don’t.
“24 percent are planning on staying with their current hospital,” says ANA (American Nurse Association) Magazine.
ANA magazine says “61 percent reported increased RN turnover”.
The only way to fix the nursing shortage is to get people to go to nursing school and get an education in nursing.
If people do not get into nursing school to pursue an education, there won't be any nurses. The shortage is at a point where if someone is interested in nursing they will pay for a full ride to college for the student’s education, but there is a catch, they will most likely have a contract to work in the profession for at least 2 to 5 years.
If this issue isn’t resolved then, in 2027 the shortage may reach a peak that it will not be able to recover from. If the nursing shortage gets much worse, patient care quality will decrease.
The nursing shortage will become a much bigger concern, if the upcoming generations decide not to get an education in nursing and if people keep quitting after only working for a short amount of time
The future could be a disaster for healthcare if one doesn't try to fix this shortage. A lot of people in this generation have a tough time keeping to a schedule. They also struggle with the long and hard hours that come with nursing, many don’t realize the mental and emotional stress that they go through.
A way to help is by making sure that nurses can access the help that they need whether it be a friend, family member, or even a therapist.
The work nurses have to endure is extremely rough because of the long hours due to the shortage of nurses. If there were more nurses they wouldn't have to work so many hours with so many patients and it would not take as big of a toll on nurses.
If the peak is reached, it could lead to hundreds if not thousands of people dying because yes, doctors do a lot, but the nurses are taking care of the patients after they have surgeries if they are sick, etc. Without nurses, the healthcare workforce will crumble because there is not enough doctors to take care of people and do everything for other people.
On average, hospitals have 611,000 people, which is a lot of people for nurses to care for. Nursing Workforce Fact Sheet
This issue can be helped by appreciating the nurses more and treating them better. “95 percent of nurses report receiving poor treatment from patient family members” ANA magazine states.
These nurses are quitting because people are doing nothing about them being underpaid, underappreciated, and overworked. One needs to realize that this is a problem that nurses can’t just put a band-aid on and fix.
The shortage will continue to worsen as nurses continue to quit their jobs and people are getting less care and more are dying every day. About two years ago a survey was done “We were surprised to see such a high reported likelihood of nurses planning to leave their jobs—and we did not expect this trend to persist for such an extended period of time.” Mckinsey industries stated.
If more nurses aren’t entering the field; adequate healthcare will decrease.
“This issue was getting better. Then it got way worse. It has only been getting worse over time.” according to statnews.com.
The amazing citizens of Brookings know how bad the nursing is in the hospital. Even if someone is badly injured it can take half an hour to be admitted to the emergency room. Treating the nurses better and finding ways to make them want to stay are some of the first steps to solving this issue
According to ig resources “We need to improve job benefits for nurses” That is one of the best ways we could give a solution to the nursing shortage issue. But there are still many other solutions.
Another solution according to ig resources is to “increase the bond with nursing schools”. Becoming a nurse used to be dreamt of so much. But if someone asks another person it is hard to find one who wants to be a nurse. Frankly the only reason is for the money.
Mckinsey industries stated “The nursing workforce has evolved over the course of the pandemic, and the strategies aimed at attracting and retaining tomorrow’s workforce have evolved as well.”
Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnavy/48749418543
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