Shortage of Nurses - Essay Example

Literature Review

Numerous factors have contributed to the shortage of nurses all over the world in general and the USA in particular that include an increase in population, limited resources in the nursing schools, aging nurses, shortage of equipment, and movement of the certified registered nurses out of the workforce. The shortage of nurses has been around for some years but has aggravated as an issue in recent years. There is a shortage in the nursing profession at all levels ranging from educators to professionals. “Nursing colleges surveyed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in 2006 reported that nursing colleges and universities turned away more than 32,000 qualified applicants due to a shortage of nurse educators” (Ciraola, 2008). The shortage of experienced nurses directly affects the quality of service at healthcare organizations for the worse. “More and more nurses are approaching retirement age. We are losing a very large cohort of our most experienced nurses” (Link cited in Ciraola, 2008). Despite the fact that many students opt for nursing in the present age, it is not helping much as the population is growing at a much faster pace to belittle the effect produced by the increased number of nursing students. Risks created by the shortage of nurses for healthcare organizations include problems of retention and recruitment of nurses, decline in the quality of service, and work overload on individual nurses.

Cultural diversity has necessitated the acquisition of new types of skills by the nursing leaders in the US that include but are not limited to knowledge of and competence in speaking multiple languages, knowledge of the norms and values of different cultures, and training and education of the nurses to customize their skills and talents to the needs of the American healthcare organizations.