Alarming news has come recently regarding the nursing situation in the US. As the country faces a deep recession with a decreasing number of available jobs, the country's hospitals face a severe nursing shortage. An article from Reuters by Will Dunham, states 116,000 registered nurse positions are unfilled at U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 jobs are vacant in nursing homes.
The shortage will worsen in the next two years as the Baby Boomer generation gets older and needs more nursing attention. President Barack Obama expressed his concern over the shortage saying it is shocking the US might have to import foreign nurses to cover the lack of nursing care at home.
"The nursing shortage is not driven by a lack of interest in nursing careers. The bottleneck is at the schools of nursing because there's not a large enough pool of faculty," Robert Rosseter of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, said to Reuters.
In 2008, approximately 50,000 qualified applicants were turned away from professing nursing programs. One reason for the shortage of faculty is because a nurse with a graduate degree can earn more as a practicing nurse rather than teaching.
(Information Sourced by Reuters)
The shortage will worsen in the next two years as the Baby Boomer generation gets older and needs more nursing attention. President Barack Obama expressed his concern over the shortage saying it is shocking the US might have to import foreign nurses to cover the lack of nursing care at home.
"The nursing shortage is not driven by a lack of interest in nursing careers. The bottleneck is at the schools of nursing because there's not a large enough pool of faculty," Robert Rosseter of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, said to Reuters.
In 2008, approximately 50,000 qualified applicants were turned away from professing nursing programs. One reason for the shortage of faculty is because a nurse with a graduate degree can earn more as a practicing nurse rather than teaching.
(Information Sourced by Reuters)
