HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT

Briefing Paper - Issues on Nursing Practices

Briefing Paper - Issues on Nursing Practices

Introduction

The recent research conducted by the health experts have stated that the shortage of nurses is going to extend by 2020 with an approximate number of 400,000 vacancies. There are various factors that have been contributing to the shortage of nurses which includes the increasing age of nurses, decrease in number of educational qualification, increased alternate career opportunities for women, changes in the health care systems, bur out effects, low pay scale, class consciousness and misunderstanding of public on what nurses actually do.

Further to theses, there are various social and economic trends that are going to affect the health care system for the future. For example, the new technologies and continuous innovation in health sciences makes difficult for the nurse to continue with the process of ongoing development process with respect to outstanding job performances. With respect to this, there are many laws which have made the jobs difficult for the nurses, due to which the nursing profession is experiencing the basic down turn in the profession.

The best example of this can be the overtime effect of the nurses. Nurses play a crucial role in the delivery of effective health care service of the patient. The shortage of nurse scan pose the greatest threat to the health care institution is the world. The policy makers and institutions need to focus on the basic, developmental process for the strategic implementation of the plan to address the shortage of nurses.

Statement of Concern

The research conducted by Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach in March of 2010, stated that the projected shorted of the nurse is due to following reasons;

Shifts in permanent labor markets all around the world;

Changes in career options for females and males; and

The internal institutional environment in terms of benefits and policies

Further to this, research has also stated that, by 2010 the actual number of nurse's shortage was around 2,696,540, which is the lowest around 10.8%. This decrease has been noted every year with respect to data collected from enrolment in the nursing institutes and job analysis of various institutions.

The rate of employment of nurse increase during 2000 to 2005 but then a gradual decrease of average 7% was noted every year. The main issue of concern here is the answer to the connotation of shortage of nurses in United States of America with respect to “the retention of the current nurses in the health care institutions and generating the number of nurses for effective health care services”.

Analysis of Basic Problems

Registered nurses are the largest group of nurses (around 2.6 million) working within USA. Still this number is insufficient to meet the requirement of the country. New graduates and foreign-trained nurses are now being referred to compensate the requirement in the nursing field. This shortage of nurses is seen to be increasing in coming years due to various reasons (Alty, 2007).

There is no valid research which may state the exact reason for the shortage of nurses ...