Ten Solutions to the Nursing Shortage

Over 42,000 nurses were turned away from nursing schools last year, and yet there is still a nursing shortage. One of the biggest problems facing the health care industry is the nursing shortage. While doctors may perform the diagnosis and perform surgery, nurses are the professionals who keep everything running smoothly. If we don't solve the nursing crisis in the United States, there will have dire health care consequences.

Here are ten ideas to help solve the nursing crisis before it gets any worse:

Online Nursing Schools
The idea of teaching nursing online seems odd at first, but there are over a dozen fully accredited, and highly regarded nursing schools that now offer their programs online. While the academic portion of the program is taken online, the clinical portions are completed locally.

Opening more online nursing schools will help resolve the nursing crisis at its core. Not only is the capacity for teaching nurses online higher than that of teaching them on-campus, nurse educators can teach more nurses, mange their time better, the programs are less expensive, and most of these newly formed programs have no wait lists

Schools like Indiana State, which was named by Princeton review as one of the best schools in the Mid-West. Jacksonville University for the third year in a row was named by US News and World Report as one of America's best colleges. The National League of Nurses and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) have accredited each of these schools respectively.

Not only is the the capacity for teaching nurses online higher than that of teaching them on-campus, nurse educators can leverage their time better, the programs are less expensive, and most of these programs have no waiting list.

What you can do: Tell your friends and colleagues who aspire to become a nurse about the great online programs available.

Teach More Nurse Educators.
In January of 2007, Tennessee Governor Philip Bredesen launched a $1.4 million campaign to fund a scholarship program to help registered nurses earn degrees needed to teach nursing. A few months earlier, Illinois did the same to ensure that the state could educate, recruit and retain nurses.

The capacity for most nursing programs to expand is limited by the ability of qualified nurse educators. However the number of programs teaching current nurses the skills to teach aspiring nurses is not enough. Through a combinations of pubic and private incentives and partnerships, schools need to increase their capacity to teach more nurse educators.

By raising the effectiveness of the Tennessee and Illinois programs to other states and the Federal government, more nurse educators would have the opportunity to teach.

What you can do: Write your state and congressional representative about the successes of the Tennessee and Illinois programs and get one funded for your state.

Educational Strategies
In a study that appeared in Health Affairs, the study authors found that 97 percent of hospitals were using education strategies to address the shortages of nurses at the hospitals. These strategies included partnering with nursing schools, subsidizing salaries, reimbursing the nurses for advancing their education and providing flexibility to allow staff to attend classes that can further their career. Already the private sector is doing what it does best, squeezing the most productivity out of a situation that needs it. Best practices can be shared among the different organizations.

What you can do: Work with your current hospital to make them aware of the options available to them. Increases in productivity will justify the capital outlays to get the programs started.

Capital Grants to Schools
In an effort to increase the number of students and nursing faculty, many states are beginning to offer capital grants to hire and retain nursing staff, purchase new equipment, enhance audiovisual ability, and recruit students.

What you can do: Write your state and congressional representative about the successes of other state programs for the hiring and retention of nursing and help to get similar programs in place.

Change Nursing Laws
In 2002, the Nurse Reinvestment Act was passed that allowed new and expanded programs that target the nursing shortage in an effort to reduce it. It is important that the government must fund these programs and expand the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, Nurse Scholarship Program and others. Increase the the percentage and number of foreign trained nurses to enter the United States.

The percentage of foreign trained nurses in the US is far less than most of us think it is. The fact is that there are many very well trained nurses who wish to work in the United States. The process for screening well qualified candidates is already in place. The biggest barrier is the limitations on the number of nurses allowed into the United States.

What you can do: Encourage your employers to sponsor more foreign trained nurses. Let your congressional representative that you no longer want unreasonable caps placed on working visas for nurses.

Create Healthy Work Environments
The current working environment for many nurses is a stressful one. A nursing shortage only makes this worse. The mental and emotional state of individuals who have to work in a stressful environment causes a drop in the quality of medial care. Management needs the freedom to create dynamic working environments, and come up with creative solutions so that the current nursing work force can perform in a healthly environment.

What you can do: Stop complaining. Management may seem to always be about the bottom line, but when shown the productivity gains, the slower attrition rate associated with a healthier working environment, change is much more possible.

Develop More Public-Private Partnerships
The public may not know this, but they are deeply vested in solving the nursing shortage. As critical as the shortage is now, if it gets much worse, the quality of medical care will fall. Not only is the shortage a contributing factor in rising health care costs, the public at large will be the ones most severely affected if the shortage gets any worse. A heightened awareness about the rise health care costs along with a potential drop is quality of medical care, the entrepreneur spirit that drives the private sector can be used to help find solutions to this crisis.

Develop Strategic Partnerships
Nursing colleges and universities need to begin developing strategic partnerships to help expand student capacity and bulk up the nursing workforce. In one example, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida gave $600,000 in funding to the University of North Florida to fund their nursing education. Ramping up online degree programs at already accredited institutions would go a long way toward getting the current nursing population better educated.

Improve Nursing Image
There is a negative stereotype that extends to nursing in some areas that may prevent potential applicants from enrolling in nursing programs. One program that is helping to improve the image of nursing through the media is the Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow, which is a coalition of 44 nursing and health care organizations that are attempting to raise interest in middle and high school students.

Co-operation at The Top
It is important that those at the top work together to ensure nurses have a safe environment to provide quality care to consumers. To do this, solutions need to be created that will keep a consistent supply of registered nurses in the pipeline to deliver the health care needs of tomorrow and to lessen the impact of the nursing crisis.

Getting more of the 42,000 nurses who were turned away from nursing school last year into online nursing school is the core of solving the nursing crisis. Nursing schools are not accredited overnight. Nurse educators are in short supply. But given the clear need to resolve the nursing crisis, coordinating public and private resources will go a long way toward resolving the nursing crisis.