Replies

The health care industry comprises a significant portion of the overall workforce in the United States, including an estimated 800 thousand physicians and over two points seven million nurses, both part of a twenty-one million employee sector (Moses et al., 2013). Despite these large numbers of employed caregivers however, the United States has continued to see a shortage in the number of caregivers working in health care. Nurses specifically have experienced a major shortage, fueled by a combination of factors that contribute to too few nurses being trained each year to make up for nurses leaving the profession and increased need due to an aging population (Fox & Abrahamson, 2009). To address the nursing shortage, human resource professionals will need to ensure policies support the retention of nurses, but also assist in recruiting new caregivers to the field and create strategies for replacing experienced leaders as they change roles or retire (Pynes & Lombardi, 2011). “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5, ESV).

Nursing Shortage

The overall shortage of nursing manpower has long affected the healthcare sector, despite short bursts of adequate nurse availability, so much that even sixty years ago contemporary writers were discussing the complex issue of the nursing shortage (Fox & Abrahamson, 2009). Much has changed in nursing over the last sixty years, but a consistent, ample supply of nurses has not been one of them. The nursing shortage affects not only organizations by making it harder for human resources personnel to attract and retain qualified staff, but it can also have a detrimental impact on patient outcomes (Twigg, Duffield, Thompson, & Rapley, 2010). The impacts of nursing shortage can also be amplified by an increasing demand for nurses without adequate framework to train and prepare the increased need. Faculty at nursing schools, critical to train the larger number of nurses needed to address the shortage, are also in a state of shortage compared to demand (Allen 2008). Oftentimes, qualified advanced degree nurses can make more money in clinical care settings compared to academia, and many academic faculty are nearing retirement age without a large influx of new educators to replace them in the cycle (Allen 2008). If the system is not built to accommodate and train enough new nurses, it will make the nursing shortage harder to accommodate.

Element of Shortage

Nursing involves many different parts, but at the core is providing care upon which people’s health and well-being is at stake. Because of this important implication, people depend on nurses, and nursing can at times be stressful and consuming. When nurse perceptions of the workplace are viewed as dissatisfying or stressful due to staffing by their employers, they are more likely to suffer from burnout and leave nursing much sooner than they otherwise would have (Toh, Ang, & Devi, 2012). Young educated nurses are vital to addressing the nursing shortage, and losing nurses from the workplace sooner than those retiring complicates the efforts to address the shortage and rather widens the gap from adequate levels. Nurses need to feel support in the struggle for adequate staffing from their leaders and organization, just as the lord:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)

Addressing the Shortage

Human resources policies and organization vision towards human capital will play a large role in the competition between healthcare organizations that compete for the nurses available during the shortage. One of the ways organizations can provide total compensation that benefits their employees is to offer continued educational opportunities for nurses to obtain advanced degrees in nursing (Clark & Allison-Jones, 2011). Doing so not only provides a benefit for the nurse directly, but also prepares them for a greater role in the organization and can help grow a career that has a role in developing the organizational vision. Health care organizations can help provide this benefit during a period of nursing school capacities by affiliating themselves with nursing schools that enable them to provide class structures that fit working nurse’s schedules, cost savings, and enrollment opportunities (Clark & Allison-Jones, 2011). “For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it” (Ecclesiastes 7:12, ESV).

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References

Allen, L. (2008). The nursing shortage continues as faculty shortage grows. Nursing Economics, 26(1), 35.

Clark, R. C., & Allison-Jones, L. (2011). Investing in human capital: An academic-service partnership to address the nursing shortage. Nursing Education Perspectives, 32(1), 18-21.

Fox, R. L., & Abrahamson, K. (2009). A critical examination of the U.S. nursing shortage: Contributing factors, public policy implications. Nursing Forum, 44(4), 235-44.

Moses, H., Matheson, D. H., Dorsey, E. R., George, B. P., Sadoff, D., & Yoshimura, S. (2013). The anatomy of health care in the United States. Jama, 310(18), 1947-1964.

Pynes, J. E., & Lombardi, D. N. (2011). Human resources management for health care organizations: A strategic approach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 9780470873557.

Toh, S. G., Ang, E., & Devi, M. K. (2012). Systematic review on the relationship between the nursing shortage and job satisfaction, stress and burnout levels among nurses in oncology/haematology settings. International Journal of Evidence‐based Healthcare, 10(2), 126-141.

Twigg, D., Duffield, C., Thompson, P. L., & Rapley, P. (2010). The impact of nurses on patient morbidity and mortality–the need for a policy change in response to the nursing shortage. Australian Health Review, 34(3), 312-316.