Answer

Nursing Shortage

Nursing school is expensive! While college and university education is overall expensive, medical school comes at even higher costs. On average, nursing degree tuition fees cost between $6,000-$20,000 in public institutions, which increases to over $40,000 for private schools. Relatively, many nursing students graduate with excessive debts of around $20,000, making nursing an unfavorable and unaffordable course. Further, as the baby boomer population grows, the nursing shortage crises is predicted to worsen as many baby boomer nurses retire with limited replacements. Thus, nursing demand is expected to rise, transforming the field into a  profession of high demand, pressure and strain. The available nurses are forced to work for longer hours and deal with many patients to cover the shortage crisis. This result in burnout, stress and job dissatisfaction, driving nurses to leave the field.

One way that the nursing profession is addressing the shortage issue is by hiring nurses from overseas. The federal government is hiring qualified nurses from other countries to help curb the shortage.  In my states, the nursing shortage is addressed through incentive programs to draw more people into the profession. Examples of current incentives are increasing pays and nursing benefits, making it an ideal career for interested candidates. Also, there are state-based scholarships available for nursing students that purpose to address the current nursing shortage.

Therefore, to address the nursing shortage, there is a need for the nursing profession to recruit more students into the job while sourcing more nurses to replace the retiring baby boomer nurses. That way, the nursing profession will manage demands, in turn, retaining its existing nurses. Sewdas et al.’s (2017) study employed, there are very little room for generalizing the study’s findings.