Nursing shortage and current Problem - Essay Example

It is estimated that by 2010, the shortage in nursing cadres will touch 12 percent. It is also estimated that by 2010, the age of 40 percent of the nursing workforce will be above 50 years (GAO, 2001). According to an AP/Denver report, the long standing shortage of nurses is expected to worsen in next seven years (as cited in Medical News Today, 2009). The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2016, the number of additional jobs opening annually, in nursing, would be 233,000 (ibid). The Health Resources and Services Administration points out the country will run short of one million nurses by 2020 (Vu, 2008).

Only the New York state would be requiring 10, 0000 additional nurses by 2020 (Gillibrand, 2009). Buerhaus also points out that by 2025, the shortage of nurses could hit the figure of 500,000 (as cited in Durnham, 2009). The problem is going to aggravate with the aging of baby boomers. The shortage will not end without extensive RN wage and graduation growth every year for at least the next ten years (Livsey, Campbell and Green, 2006). Although hospitals and other health care organizations have experienced nursing shortages over the past 50 years, the most recent shortage, which began in 1998, seems to be the most long lasting (Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2004, p 176).

According to Haebler (as cited in Vu, 2008), too, the current shortage predicted long ago by specialists in the health care field is the worst. According to AP, even the allure of good salary packets is not attracting the required number of candidates into the profession (Medical News Today, 2009). At this point, 2.5 million registered nurses, 82.5 percent of whom are employed as nurses, make the largest working group in the healthcare profession (Peterson, 2001). Since they constitute the largest group in healthcare providers, the national health care system is heavily dependent upon them (GAO, 2001).

And, thus,