Introduction
The new development discussed in this paper is the recently published list of the QS World University Rankings in the field of nursing. The list of the best institutions has been made public in March of 2016. It covers educational programs and universities all around the globe. This year, the field of nursing was added to the list of fields in the rating for the first time.
The issues of the nursing shortage
The nursing shortage has been known as a problem in the field for many decades. The problem does not just concern the shortage of human resources but also includes the issue of the skills shortage. The shortage of skills in nursing is an issue with quite a tricky cause. In need of new human resources and attempting to attract youth into this career field, the healthcare leaders helped develop policies adjusting the education and qualification acquisition processes. The problem is that it takes too long to prepare qualified staff, and the organizations do not have time to wait because of the number of patients in need of high-quality services growth by the year due to the aging of baby Boom generation. Cutting the period it takes for a nursing student to graduate and begin to practice, the policies enable more people to join the staff of various healthcare organizations and minimize the shortage. However, the nurses who graduate from nursing schools have lower levels of education and skills than those who finish universities and gain Bachelor’s degrees.
Quality vs. quantity
That way, the nursing and health care leaders are to choose between the number of employees or their quality. Preferring to hire more people with lower qualifications, the organizations ensure a higher rate of negative patient outcomes, a limited range of provided services, and a greater number of risks and errors in the workplace. As a result, hiring professionals with the education of the highest quality is still a priority at the health care organizations. That is why the University ranking is useful as a way for the students and organizations to identify which institutions prepare the best professionals.
The importance of ranking
Nursing is a profession popular among international students as many small countries tend to prepare nurses to go abroad and work in larger states that are in need of a greater number of employees. The QS World University Rankings have been functioning and collecting data since 2004 (QS Intelligence Unit par. 1). Its purpose is to fulfill the global need of the organizations to compare the educational programs and institutions to one another and see which ones grant the education of the best quality. The rankings also make it easier for the students to decide which universities to choose to enter. Nursing was one of the subjects that were first added to the ranking this year; so the nursing programs and institutions have been evaluated globally and compare to one another for the first time (Top Universities par. 1)
The results of the ranking
According to the University Rankings in terms of nursing programs, the list published this year it shows that the world’s best institutions that prepare nurses are located in the USA (the University of Pennsylvania and John Hopkins University) (“QS world university rankings 2016: nursing” par. 1). The two institutions that took the 3rd and 4th ranks are the Canadian University of Toronto and the University of Alberta (Ford par. 12). Overall, the USA took half of the positions in the top 10 ratings (Ford par. 12). The two European representatives on the list are the United Kingdom (6th and 8th ranks) and Sweden (5th place) (Ford par. 12).
Conclusion
To conclude, the significance of the rating is that the reputation it grants to the institutions rated ensures the competition between the programs and the improvement among the other universities and colleges that attempt to gain higher positions. Besides, it attracts more students to the programs of higher quality, in turn, improving the long-term outcomes the nursing education and staff preparation. That way, carrying out its informative function, the rating secures the competition for quality among the institutions.
Works Cited
Ford, Steve. Rankings reveal best places to study nursing around the world. 2016. Web.
Top Universities. QS World University Rankings by Subject 2016 – Out Now! 2016. Web.
QS Intelligence Unit. QS World University Rankings by Subject. 2016. Web.
QS world university rankings 2016: nursing. 2016. Web.