5 serious challenges the nursing profession is grappling with right now
U.S. nurse shortages are bad and getting worse:
- The combined deficit of RNs and LPNs currently tops 355,000.
- The HHS’s Health Resources & Services Administration projects an 8% shortfall in 2028.
- By 2038, at least nine states will have unfilled nursing job rates in the double digits—California (22%), North Carolina (20%), Georgia (20%), Michigan (18%), Washington (17%), Maryland (16%), Oklahoma (13%), South Carolina (12%) and Louisiana (11%).
But not having enough nurses to adequately care for patients is only the most obvious problem vexing the profession at the national level.
In an April 8 interview with US News & World Report, Jennifer Mensik Kennedy PhD, MBA, RN, president of the American Nurses Association, runs through four more quandaries that keep her up at night.
Among them:
The U.S. Department of Education’s proposed exclusion of nursing from the “professional degree” definition.
“This is going to have an impact in our hospitals,” Mensik Kennedy tells the outlet. “We’re going to have less staffing. We’re going to have fewer nurses throughout the continuum of [the patient] experience in healthcare, and nurses are the backbones of the healthcare system.”
AI in healthcare.
“AI has a lot of potential, and we need to integrate it appropriately,” Mensik Kennedy says. “We know when you don’t include those direct-care nurses in looking at technology, adoption of this type of innovation may not be successful, and it’s not because people don’t want to use it. It’s because it’s another thing on top of all of the workload they’re already doing short-staffed as it is.”
Workplace violence.
“[N]urses are more likely to be assaulted at work than a prison guard or correctional officer. We’ve been trying to ask the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to do what they already have the ability to do, which is to enforce safety standards for healthcare and healthcare employers.”
Nursing strikes.
“Nurses want to provide high quality care and safe patient care, and when they feel that they’re not being heard or listened to or respected or paid enough, they have that right to advocate for themselves. … [W]e know patient care and quality are better when we have better staffing and better outcomes.”
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.