A great deal of alarm exists in health care circles about the current nursing shortage.
From 1995 to 2000, the number of registered nurse (RN) graduates in the U.S. decreased by 26 percent. In 2000 there were just over 2.2 million RNs even as the Bureau of Labor Statistics cites the need for one million new and replacement nurses by the year 2010.
This is a challenge, considering that over the past five years the average annual number of RNs entering the workplace was 85,193.
Registered nursing shortages are not new. This is the third nursing shortage cycle since 1950.
RN shortages are due to a set of complex factors. These include the amount of federal assistance for health care, hospital demand for nurses (more than 50 percent of nurses are still employed in hospitals), and the degree of federal assistance for nursing education.
The national ethos is another important factor in people choosing nursing as a vocation. Nursing wages are good, but when the national ethos is more materialistic than altruistic, the interest in service professions, such as nursing, declines. Many perceive nursing as unpleasant work. In addition, nursing has had a hard time attracting men and persons of color.
In addition to wages, working conditions for nurses are a major concern. As federal support for health care decreased and health care moved to “for-profit” in the last decade, nurses have been asked to do “more with less”. This naturally has had a profound effect on nursing morale.
There is finally some recognition that RNs affect patient outcomes in hospitals. A portion of the federally passed Nurse Reinvestment Act, signed into law in August 2002 by President Bush, deals with “retention priority” and interventions that will improve patient care so nurses will be retained.
JACHO, an agency that accredits hospitals, also has recently mandated that hospitals must tie patient outcomes to their nursing staffing. Studies done by the American Nurses