In every organization, whether service, goods, public or private, human resources are required for an effective operation. Broadly health care industry, human resources teams contain physicians, doctors, nurses, and administrative staff; shortage of either of the category affects the efficiency and quality of service offered (Bruce & Fottler, 2005). According to Allen, 2008, the world continues to experience a shortage in nurses despite efforts that the government is making to increase the numbers; the author in the article, “The nursing shortage continues as faculty shortage grows”, published raises an alarm that the situation is getting out of hand and if efforts are not implemented fast, the writer warns of shortage disaster.
According to the author, Allen, 2008, shortage of nurses in the United States can be traced way after the Second World War; a number of factors that can be thought to have created the acute shortage include the boom in population increase; and the rate of nursing student enrollment and the retirement rate is another problem facing the industry (Allen, 2008). The nursing profession is no longer considered a prestigious profession among the youth thus a number of young people are shying off from the profession. The retiring ones lack newcomers to replace them. Allen, 2008 in the article is of the opinion that the nursing deficit should be addressed with the agency.
The article by Fox & Abrahamson, 2009 called “A critical examination of the U.S. nursing shortage: contributing factors, public policy implications” published in nursing forum, suggest that deficit in nursing staffs in the United States of America has made an offering of quality medical services hard; the deficit has existed since the Second World War and expected to prevail into the future if effective measures are not taken. Some causes of the deficit include an increase in population, aging population, retirement from the profession, and low new professions admission. Some measures that the government should take are to increase the ability of nursing training schools and consider nurses from other countries. Fox & Abrahamson, 2009 intends to bring into reality the deficit situation in the world seeks to plead people to take the issue seriously (Fox & Abrahamson, 2009).
Ganley & Sheets, 2009 in their article called,” Educational innovations. A strategy to address the nursing faculty shortage” published in the Journal of Nursing Education, are of the opinion that nursing shortage can be addressed if national and international frameworks are laid with the curative measures in mind. The authors suggest that training more nurses and ensuring that youth like the profession is an effective approach that government should look into. The government can look into the welfare of the profession in the government sector and make the terms better. This will attract both local and international students to study the profession. Another problem for young professionals is that they fly out of the country for better offers; to avoid this, after training the government should introduce a bonding system that will ensure that the economy only trains but never retains professions (Ganley & Sheets, 2009).
Countries should recognize other professions from other parts of the world and offer them a chance to provide the services. Some Caribbean and African countries have the potential of exporting nursing services to the countries with shortages; on the other hand, if the country feels that they are not competent enough, it can have colleges in such countries or offer scholarships to willing and potential students.
References
Allen, L. (2008). The nursing shortage continues as faculty shortage grows. Nursing Economic$, 26(1), 35-40
Bruce, F., & Fottler, M., 2005. Human Resources in Health Care, Managing for Success. Michigan: Health Administration Press.
Fox, R., & Abrahamson, K. (2009). A critical examination of the U.S. nursing shortage: contributing factors, public policy implications. Nursing Forum, 44(4), 235-244.
Ganley, B., & Sheets, I. (2009). Educational innovations. A strategy to address the nursing faculty shortage. Journal of Nursing Education, 48(7), 401-405.