The Nursing Shortage in the United

States
Yemto Kannank | RWS 1301 | 05/05/2020

Opinion
OP-Ed: The Nursing Shortage in the United States is due to the lack of
early education.

Nursing is the most vital part of healthcare and comprises 75% of the health science industry. However,
there has reportedly been a conspicuous shortage of nurses in the United States. Additionally, the
number of nurses leaving the profession for other careers due to nursing burnout and stress in recent
years is increasing dramatically, causing an additional shortage. -This topic is imperative as it pertains to
the welfare of our communities and nation, especially the elderly according to the National Cent er for
Biotechnology Information (NCBI). If the need for clinical sites keeps constant the already existing
shortage of nurses will double with the retirement of baby boomers. And if the shortage is not
addressed right now, the mortality rate will grow as a consequence.

The nursing shortage in the United States is a very complex issue, there is no limit to the factors that
contribute to the nursing shortage in the United States, the causes are in itself issues of its own from
independent fields other than nursing and needs to be dealt with. The nursing shortage is due to the
lack of potential educators, high turnover, and inequitable distribution of the workforce. The causes
related to the nursing shortage are numerous and issues of concern (Haddad 2019). According to
Haddad, the nursing shortage is caused by an aging population, an aging workforce, nurse burnout, and
the growth of the nursing field as a whole.

-Perhaps that's true, however, there is a disturbingly overlooked cause that if not looked into , will
plunger the nursing shortage deeper than ever before, and that is the lack of early education and the
lack of proper college pre-nursing nursing education. Nursing schools and programs are all the more
challenging because students have no prior early education in nursing. Because nursing is such a vital
field, the leading authorities should implement high school programs to promote a head start in the field.
The benefits of early nursing education in high school are endless, it would give the student s a grasp of
the real-world experience in the field and it would also help students determine if nursing is for them
being that Nursing is one of the most demanding fields in the health sciences industry both academically,
mentally and physically. Every hospital visit begins with and ends with a nurse regardless of the reason
for the visit. A lot of high school students consider nursing as a career choice but never actually studies
nursing because of the perception that nursing is too hard or challenging,

-Another factor that contributes greatly to the nursing shortage more than anything is the pre -nursing
requirements in college. The nursing college and program requirements should be strictly based on
Science classes, however, that's not always the case. College students who wish to pursue nursing and
are required to take courses like higher-level Maths and English that may not be relevant to the Nursing
field in the first phase of the Nursing program also known as pre -nursing. Presumably, this is done to
wheat out the unfit candidates, however, those courses at times disqualify some prominent candidates.
Candidates who could've had contributed to the solution of the nursing shortage in the United States. -
The way that the program is structured, pre-nursing candidates may earn all As in their science classes
and still not meet the GPA requirement because they performed poorly in the irrelevant classes can
which have a negative impact on the candidates' overall GPA. The leading authorities should consider
altering the pre-nursing requirements to entail only Science and Math classes to allow students to focus
and prepare for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) because after all the NCLEX is based
on Science and clinical studies.

-There are countless other possible solutions that could resolve the nursing shortage issue, for example,
in an article by D'Youville College Online titled "Nursing Shortage Solutions: Where Do We Go from
Here?" published at FierceHealthcare.com, D'Youville College suggests that the leading authorities
should make nursing education more accessible to all especially existing nurses who want to further
education to assume higher roles continued education is vital both for decreasing the nursing shortage
and developing your nursing skills. While this may be an ethical opinion, making nursing education is
made more accessible, it could flood the economic system of the United States. Therefore, establishing
high school nursing programs and eliminating irrelevant pre-nursing courses are the most effective way
to combat the nursing shortage for good, of course, it will not yield instant results as the issues of the
nursing shortage are too complex for the current generation of leading authorities to resolve, so
creating an environment that motivates younger generations of nurses to innovate and prepare for the
future of the nursing field is the ideal solution to the nursing shortage in the United States. The nursing
shortage does not need an easy, short fix, or a short term solution as they will only contribute to more
shortage. Instead, the leading authorities of the nursing shortage issue in the United States need is a
structure in place to motivate future generations to combat the shortage, because after all the
babyboomers will soon retire. Following retirements, it would be both beneficial and wise for the baby
boomers to become educators of that early nursing education program.

Works Cited
Haddad LM, Annamaraju P, Toney-Butler TJ. Nursing Shortage. [Updated 2020 Mar 29]. In: StatPearls
[Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2020 Jan-. Available from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

Buchan, J., & Aiken, L. (2008). Solving nursing shortages: a common priority. Journal of clinical
nursing, 17(24), 3262–3268. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2008.02636.x

D'Youville College Online Nursing Shortage Solutions: Where Do We Go from Here Available from:
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/sponsored/nursing-shortage-solutions-where-do-we-go-from-here