The Causes Of The Nursing Shortage - 1563 Words

The Causes of the Nursing Shortage On June 14, 2011, Claire Courchane talking about the current situation in the nursing field said that ‘With the nursing shortage looming, America needs shot in the arm’. She couldn’t address such reality in better words. The shortage, which goes evolving, already has dramatic effects on our healthcare system. In 1998, a 61 years old woman experienced the consequences of an understaff hospital due to a nurse shortage. Indeed, Shirley Keck who was interned at Wesley Medical Center, in Wichita, Kansas, died earlier this year as a result of a lack of care while staying in that facilty. With 42 critically ill patients, only three nurses were on duty at the Wesley medical Center the night the incident†¦show more content†¦However the problem shouldn’t be seen as the result of a single factor. It turned out that it is a combination of different factors which today give rise to the lack of health care providers. The nursing shortage is due to a combinatio n of negative reputation, declining enrollment and faculty and increases of the population. Historically, nursing has always been the woman profession par excellence. Indeed, from the time of Florence Nightingale, a famous English nurse, the profession was seen as a place woman could cultivate and expand feminine virtue as well as their mind. When the Feminist Movement arose in the late 1900, it sought to rid the nursing ideal of virtue. The movement advocates that women shouldn’t be restricted to professions such as nursing or secretaries. They could engage in careers that would enhance their quality of life, and bring them worthy compensation. Unfortunately, the side effect of such speech was that women started to regard nursing as an undistinguished profession. Women are entering law school, medical school, and the corporate world in droves instead. The change in the professional ideal of nursing acted like a snowball up to nowadays. Research indicates that 35% fewer women would choose nursing as a career in the 1990s than they would have in the 1970s (AACN). Rei nforced by a negative public opinion and a biased portrait in the media, the current image of the profession is dull.