Nurse Shortages
...ourage people to seek entry-level into nursing programs would be the first start. Having nurses going out and talking to the younger generation that is soon to be coming up about how important nurses are needed would help the nurse demand rise. This may not be the best way of getting more nurses into the field, but a start. One other way the nurse shortage is trying to be fixed is by getting health care organizations to create incentive programs to encourage private nurses to return to hospitals and lure older nurses to return to the field and reach out to college graduates. Hospitals have now been working with the community colleges and universities to offer fellowship [to young nursing students. With these programs up and running they are offering tuition assistance in exchange for their services. This also helps the hospital and student by having the student getting hands on experience while still studying the field. Encouraging both boys and girls is another aspect of helping out the nurse shortage. Not only does a girl have to be the nurse, but a boy can as well. Getting a diverse atmosphere and encouraging all different cultures and backgrounds into the degree of nursing would raise the shortage. This would help because boys and girls of all backgrounds would not get turned away for not being the “right” person for the job. Hospitals must also focus on providing more opportunities for the nurses already in the field so that they don’t always get stuck just in patient care. If hospitals don’t do this the nurses could get sick of working in the same spot for so many years with no promotion. As the medical field grows increasingly complex, there are more opportunities for nurses to grow and develop as medical professionals. If the nurse don’t receive this kind of treatment they are more eager to get fed up with the program and search for something else. Varied positions use a nurses-in-depth knowledge of medicine, patient care, and the day-to-day workings with the hospital itself. Nurses are very important and without their help we wouldn’t be where we are today. As we struggle to make long-term changes to the nurse shortage and the overall healthcare system, nurses must be recruited. The U.S. needs to address the nursing shortage to ensure that each patient continues to get the care they deserve and need. The one alternative that shows more progress of resolving the nurse shortages, than any other is having the college students receiving hands on experience. The programs are having private nurses and older nurses being brought back into the field to help out. With this type of program up and running it will help the nursing staff rise. When there is a shortage in accompanying the nurses, the students can then take care of the lil tasks while the nurses tend to the major ones. Not only will this help out the hospitals but the students as well. This seems to be the best alternative there is to the problems of nursing shortages. Improving recruitment, education, and retention of nursing staff is a good alternative. But, there is a downfall to this type of solution. The education of nursing is mainly making the students more paper pushers than hands on nursing. Granted in order to become anything in the world, you have to be a paper pusher, but there is way too much in the field of nursing. Even by improving the recruitment and education, this may not always be the reason for the fall back on nurses. Most of our nursing shortages that come our way are because the hospital can’t afford them. Therefore, improving recruitments and education wouldn’t help the problem out too much. Encouraging both boys and girls doesn’t seem to be the greatest alternative. This type of solution would seem to go along with improving recruitment. Getting both genders into the field is a good idea, but really won’t help all that much with the nursing shortages. Last but not least, recruiting nurses to a higher level of placement is another alternative. But, again this really hasn’t much to do with the main problem. Having a nurse stay in one position for awhile does get old and having them placed in a wide variety of areas will have them from quitting. This helps keep the nurses happy and willing to stay on, but doesn’t really solve the main problem of having hospitals being able to keep them on and still have enough nurses to tend to all the patients. I truly believe tha...