At 6:30 A.M. a head nurse reviews room assignments and the day''s challenges ahead: twenty-nine patients, most of them seriously ill, and four nurses to care for them. That means a barely manageable and potentially risky patient-nurse ratio of seven to one, with one nurse taking eight patients. Unfortunately, this dismal scenario is played out again and again in hospitals across the country.This in-depth, behind-the-scene''s account of a healthcare system under stress and the declining quality of medical treatment in America should serve as a wakeup call to the public. Faye Satterly, a Registered Nurse with over two decades of experience, spells out the alarming statistics: The average nurse today is forty-five years old and anticipating retirement. Only 12 percent of nurses are under age thirty. At the same time, nursing schools report decreasing enrollments and fewer graduates. The result is that the nurses who are on the front lines of healthcare are feeling overwhelmed and leaving the field for less stressful opportunities outside hospital settings.Compounding the looming crisis is the fact that just as nurses are becoming scarce, the need for them is becoming ever greater. Over the next decade, aging baby boomers will swell the ranks of the over-fifty-five population, a group that experiences higher healthcare needs than those in their thirties and forties.There are answers, the author insists, but they will require an honest public debate about our choices and expectations. What are we willing to do and how much are we willing to pay for safe, effective delivery of healthcare?This fascinating and disturbing account by a veteran nurse with extensive experience is a compelling call for action to counter the nursing shortage and ensure that "caring" regains its premium status in healthcare.

You understand first-hand how the nursing shortage affects healthcare quality, patient satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. You want to know what you can do today to improve the situation in your organization. Rx for the Nursing Shortage: A Guidebook can help. It goes beyond theory and into the practical reality of what it takes to recruit and retain the caring professionals you want at your patients' bedside. Written by two nurse executives with more than 50 years of experience between them, this no-nonsense book provides strategies for recruiting and retaining nurses, describes the important roles nurse managers play in nurse employee satisfaction, and highlights the qualities that make an organization attractive to nurses. It also includes important information about legislation related to foreign nurses, nursing education, recruitment, retention, and work-life quality.

The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States: Data, Trends and Implications provides a timely, comprehensive, and integrated body of data supported by rich discussion of the forces shaping the nursing workforce in the US. Using plain, jargon free language, the book identifies and describes the key changes in the current nursing workforce and provide insights about what is likely to develop in the future. The Future of the Nursing Workforce offers an in-depth discussion of specific policy options to help employers, educators, and policymakers design and implement actions aimed at strengthening the current and future RN workforce. The only book of its kind, this renowned author team presents extensive data, exhibits and tables on the nurse labor market, how the composition of the workforce is evolving, changes occurring in the work environment where nurses practice their profession, and on the publics opinion of the nursing profession.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

Results are presented of a study of nursing and nursing education that focused on the need for continued federal support of nursing education, ways to attract nurses to medically underserved areas, and approaches to encourage nurses to stay in the profession. Findings are presented on whether the aggregate supply of generalist nurses will be sufficient to meet future demand, and how changes that could occur in the health care system might affect demand. Attention is also directed to: how the current and future supply of nurses may be influenced by the costs of nursing education and the sources of education financing; and education for generalist positions in nursing. In addition, the supply and demand situation for nurses educationally prepared for advanced professional positions in nursing is examined. The influence of employer policies and practices in utilization of nursing resources on demand and supply is also addressed. Finally, areas in which further data and studies are needed to better monitor nursing supply and demand are identified. In addition to 21 recommendations, appendices include information on Nursing Training Act appropriations, state reports on nursing issues, certificates for specialist registered nurses, projections of registered nurse supply and requirements, and doctoral programs in nursing. (SW)

While hospitals are facing an endless number of challenges ranging from financial challenges to healthcare reform implementation to patient safety and quality, a challenge that has proven to be consistently plaguing hospitals is the efficient staffing of nurses. According to the American College of Healthcare Executives, shortage of staff has been in the top five issues facing hospital CEOs (Hospital, 2011). In the past few years, the healthcare industry contributes more jobs to the economy than any other industry. Even though this is the case, the demand for some health professionals is still greater than the supply available. The exact number of nurses in demand varies from hospital to hospital, publication to publication, but the overall consensus remains the same: there are not enough nurses currently working and the problem is going to continue to get worse. The reason for this nursing shortage cannot be easily explained, as there are several contributing factors. The nursing shortage has been growing since the 1980s and becoming increasingly severe. It has been projected that the shortage could reach 800,000 nurses by the year 2020 (HeartMath, 2004). It was originally believed that this shortage was caused by the increasing demand of health care services due to the aging population. During the 1990s, there were attempts to recruit more nurses and this seemed like a simple solution to the problem. However, even with the growing number of students entering nursing school, the shortage continued to grow (HeartMath, 2004). These factors were making it clear that the nursing problem was complex and worthy of further exploration. This capstone will provide an understanding of the numerous factors that contribute to the nursing shortage, explore the impact of the nursing shortage on the health care system, and iv will help identify possible solutions to the growing problem. The major factors contributing to the nursing shortage problem include: 1. Workplace Climate 2. Shortage of Experienced Nursing Faculty After these factors are explored and identified, the impact of the nursing shortage on health care will be presented, and long-term and short-term solutions to the problem will be discussed and evaluated. Long-term solutions include increased recruitment of nurses through the expansion of facilities and the retainment of faculty in schools. Another long-term solution is the participation of hospitals in the development and aid to existing schools. A final long-term solution to the nursing shortage is the development of public-private partnerships to implement policy that will help to turn the problem around and foster relationships between stakeholders that have similar interests in different fields. Short-term solutions include the retention of current nurses through reward accomplishment, providing an attractive compensation and benefits plan, and offering job stability. Other short-term solutions include the utilization of technology-based training, and redesigning work content and the role of the nurse to be more flexible in nature. A final short-term solution is the implementation of an automated staffing system that will help provide more power to the nurses and help with job satisfaction. The nursing shortage currently in effect is expected to get worse before it gets better. A report done by Price Waterhouse Cooper forecasts a registered nurse shortage ranging from 400,000 to one million by the year 2020. The combination of an increasing demand for services and the constant decline of nurses available is compounding the problem by adding pressure to the supply and demand forces at work (Neisner, 2002). Nurses have increasingly become v perceived as undervalued and overworked with less than desirable working conditions. There are various reasons that lead to the complex nursing shortage problem.

In the United States and throughout the industrialized world, just as the population of older and sicker patients is about to explode, we have a major shortage of nurses. Why are so many RNs dropping out of health care's largest profession? How will the lack of skilled, experienced caregivers affect patients? These are some of the questions addressed by Suzanne Gordon's definitive account of the world's nursing crisis. In Nursing against the Odds, one of North America's leading health care journalists draws on in-depth interviews, research studies, and extensive firsthand reporting to help readers better understand the myriad causes of and possible solutions to the current crisis. Gordon examines how health care cost cutting and hospital restructuring undermine the working conditions necessary for quality care. She shows how the historically troubled workplace relationships between RNs and physicians become even more dysfunctional in modern hospitals. In Gordon's view, the public image of nurses continues to suffer from negative media stereotyping in medical shows on television and from shoddy press coverage of the important role RNs play in the delivery of health care. Gordon also identifies the class and status divisions within the profession that hinder a much-needed defense of bedside nursing. She explains why some policy panaceas—hiring more temporary workers, importing RNs from less-developed countries—fail to address the forces that drive nurses out of their workplaces. To promote better care, Gordon calls for a broad agenda that includes safer staffing, improved scheduling, and other policy changes that would give nurses a greater voice at work. She explores how doctors and nurses can collaborate more effectively and what medical and nursing education must do to foster such cooperation. Finally, Gordon outlines ways in which RNs can successfully take their case to the public while campaigning for health care system reform that actually funds necessary nursing care.