Jim Abraham & Brigitte Szalony Eastern Michigan University American Nursing Shortage Critical: Forecast indicates over 1 million nurses needed by 2025 Jim Abraham & Brigitte Szalony Eastern Michigan University

Now Hiring: 1,000,000 RN’s Reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections have Registered Nurses (RN) among the top occupation for growth through the year 2024. Increasing demand between 2014 – 2024 will require the RN workforce to grow by nearly 500,000 exceeding 3.2 million positions. In addition, a projection of nearly 650,000 replacement nurses will also be required to fill positions because of retirement and attrition for a combined demand of nearly 1.1 million new nurses by 2024 ("Nursing Shortage," 2017).

Nursing Deficit Critical According to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing statistics indicate that in 2017, 72% of applicants passed the NCLEX –RN examination which is less than 170,000 eligible RN’s considered prepared to fulfill an array of nursing positions available ("2017 NCLEX Pass Rates | NCSBN," 2018). However, that’s not enough……

Dissatisfaction or Ill Prepared? With 170,000 RN’s passing State boards per year, one would think back filling the profession would be effortless. On the contrary, as reports from the American Academy College of Nurses point out that as many as 50% of new graduate nurses turnover within their first year of employment and as many as 2/3 of those never return to nursing! When surveyed various reasons are provided by departing nurses; job dissatisfaction, workload, scheduling demands, fatigue and exhaustion, and poor leadership just to name a few. This bodes the question; is there a problem at the education level setting the new RN’s up for success? Photo: hunter.cuny.edu

Education Dependency Nursing has significantly evolved since the 1800’s in the days of Florence Nightingale. Today, the minimum amount of education to obtain an RN is an associates degree from a community college. One may also choose to attend a university and graduate with a bachelors of science in nursing. From there, one can further their education to the Master’s or Doctorate level should they choose. Here in lies the next issue. As indicated in an article from 2018 by Amy Blitchok on Nurse.org, “Community colleges and undergraduate and graduate programs are all facing the same problems when it comes to adequately staffing their classrooms and having access to enough clinical space to accommodate students” (Blitchok, 2018). Photo: www.brookings.com

Where have the teachers gone? Here’s a short video featuring Brenda L. Cleary PhD, RN, FAAN, from the Center to Champion Nursing in America discussing the issues surrounding the faculty shortage.

What’s the solution? Is there a solution to this problem? Signing bonuses - Accommodating schedules - Higher starting wages with annual bonuses - Professional development and tuition reimbursement – Additional paid time off these are just a few of offerings by employers to try to add and retain nurses within their organization. One thing is for sure - with the certainty of increased demand due to an aging population and chronic diseases, those who have chosen and remain an RN will have job security well into the next decade. Photo: www.hrlegalist.com

References 2017 NCLEX Pass Rates | NCSBN. (2018, January 19). Retrieved from https://www.ncsbn.org/10645.htm Blitchok, A. (2018, May 8). Top 3 Reasons Nursing Schools Are Rejecting Applicants In 2018. Retrieved from https://nurse.org/articles/reasons- nursing-schools-reject-applicants Nursing Shortage. (2017, May). Retrieved from http://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Nursing-Shortage