The current shortage of nurses across the New York state is currently endangering our public health care centers. This has made it difficult for the few remaining ones to take care of the increasing number of patients during the day and night duties without having a good rest. The shortage of nurses does not just concern the New York State alone, but it is an issue that concerns the whole country, and requires approximately one million nurses to be solved.
One reason why there is a shortage of nurses is the poor working environment that makes the relationships between the nurses and the doctors to deteriorate, resulting to poor quality of services to the patients (Feldman, 2008). This also results into lots of medical errors due to frustration, patient complaints about the services and infection from one patient to the other, causing even more deaths.
The second reason for the shortage of nurses is the availability of other new career courses that are better paying with better working conditions. This makes may young and energetic people to opt for them, leaving nursing to the old and the poor (Faulkner, 2000). Moreover, these careers are less expensive in terms of time, the amount of concentration and the psychological input required to pursue them. Since most of the practicing nurses are too old and are almost at their retirement age, the issue of shortage of nurses has to be addressed with an immediate effect to avoid further when their time is due. Apart from that, the elderly practitioners may not be swift enough to attend to an emergency and therefore the chances of rescuing an individual in a crisis at a faster rate are very low. Due to their age, some of the nurses tend to work for lesser hours and these increases the problem at hand.
Lastly, the expected academic qualification for one to join a nursing course plus the subject combination of the designate trainee is quit high (White, 2000). These therefore locks out a number of individuals interested in the course and the service (nursing).
This can be eradicated if at all the following can be improved by, first improving the working conditions of the nurses by renovating their houses and giving them enough time to relax before going for either a day shift or night shift. (Alligood & Marriner-Tomey, 2006; Kim & Kollak, 2006). Secondly the nurses should be motivated by either promoting them from one position to another and increasing there salaries so that their living standards can improve. An increase in the number of nurses employed each year is another point that should be considered. Once the nurses are enough, one nurse doesn’t need to overwork and this increases their output. Also, incase of an emergency, a nurse does not have to be recalled from home or rather to stop attending on the other patients to handle the situation. For the educational system, the fees paid should be reduced and the expected grades slightly lowered to attract more students. The government should also allocate more funds to assist in payment salaries and improvement of working conditions and the infrastructure as a whole. Lastly, proper in-service training should be availed to all the departments to ensure proper relation between the doctors and the nurses. This also improves the working conditions (Carpenito-Moyet, 2009).
References
Alligood, M. R. and Marriner- Tomey, A. (2006). Nursing theory: utilization and application. New York: Elsevier Health Science.
Carpenito-Moyet, L. J. (2009). Nursing care plane and documentation. New York: library of congress catalogue.
Faulkner, A, (2000). Nursing: The reflective approach to adult nursing practice. Cheltenham: Stanley Thorne Publisher
Feldman, R.H, (2008). Nursing Learning. New York: Springer Publishers.
Kim, H. S. & Kollak, I. (2006). Nursing theories: conceptual & philosophical foundations, Edition 2. New York: Springer Publishing Company
White, L, (2000). Foundation of Nursing, caring of the whole person. New York: Cengage Learning.