America is dealing with a very dangerous nursing shortage. This nursing shortage has both short and long term effects. There are many factors that have attributed to the nursing shortage. We currently have one hundred twenty six thousand full time job openings available for nurses (Retrieved 22 October 2002 from http://80-library.cqpress.com.indianapolis.libproxy./document.php?id=cqresrre200209200). If this shortage is not remedied we look to have a need for over eight hundred thousand nurses by the year 2020 (Retrieved 22 October 2002 from http://80.
library.cqpress.com.indianapolis.libproxy./document.php?id=cqresrre200209200). Nurses are being overworked with large patient assignments and mandatory overtime. They are becoming burnt out on nursing. Nurses are getting very stressed over their jobs and are beginning to look elsewhere for work.
Also, there is a shortage of nursing school faculty which in turn is declining the enrollment of students into nursing schools. There were over five thousand eight hundred denied entries into nursing schools during the 2000 - 2001 school years because there were not enough teachers, classroom space, or clinical sites (Retrieved 22 October 2002 from http://80-library.cqpress.com.indianapolis.libproxy./document.php?id=cqresrre200209200).
Another problem is that the average age of the nurses is forty three, which means they will be looking to retire soon and the nurses under the age of thirty only accounts for ten percent of the nursing population (Retrieved 21 October 2002 from http://www,aacn.nche.edu/Publications/positions/tricshortage.htm). We are looking at a severe crisis if something is not done to help the nurses already in the field and to help the future generation of nurses.
To address the issue of work overload for nurses a structure needs to be put into place. No one should have to work under the stress and conditions that some nurses do. There needs to be a law that would limit nurse-to-patient ratio.